by Zefyr Lisowski
Applying a specific framework to analyze a text can be one of the trickiest, but most satisfying, aspects of writing an essay. It’s hard to achieve a balance between introducing a scholarly approach you’ll be drawing from and providing enough independent analysis to make an original argument. However, student writer Emma Paisley Schultz walks that line effectively in her essay “Applications of Social Psychology to Real World Issues: Social Distancing and Mask Wearing.”
We’ll be walking through some of what Paisley does especially well in this writing guide, but please consider reading Paisley’s essay in full—and of course try out these skills yourself, as well! We’ll walk through the first few paragraphs in particular to see how she applies the framework of social psychology to build her argument, and then jump forward in the essay to see it applied elsewhere.
Introducing the issue you want to analyze
At the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, people around the world were faced with immense fear, anxiety, and depression as they became increasingly concerned about the current and potential hardships they would face in the following months, which became years. COVID-19 would have the greatest direct impact on people’s social lives, forcing them to retreat inside their homes and socialize in ways they largely never had. Indeed, through each phase of the coronavirus, the greater American society has observed a huge range of behavioral responses to these tremendous lifestyle changes.
Paisley uses her first paragraph to introduce the incident she plans to analyze—the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Note that she provides a specific date (March 2020) and describes the emotions felt by people during this time clearly (“immense fear, anxiety, and depression”). With this first paragraph, we still don’t quite see what her main thesis is—which is fine! Longer and more complex papers, of which this is one, can have a multiple-paragraph thesis—although that’s generally discouraged in shorter pieces. But even within this multi-paragraph thesis, the last sentence (“through each phase of the coronavirus, the greater American society has observed a huge range of behavioral responses to these tremendous lifestyle changes”) hints at some of the concerns this paper will address: namely, behavioral responses to the lifestyle changes brought about by the pandemic.
Introducing the framework of analysis you plan to use
In certain parts of the United States during those initial months, there were people partying on Florida’s beaches during their spring break as though no virus was killing thousands of their family members, friends, and neighbors.14 At this same time, other Americans obsessively washed their hands, wore masks everywhere they went, and became borderline agoraphobic, refusing to leave their homes even for groceries and toilet paper. It is important to understand that people’s concerns about contracting the virus are closely linked with how valuable American society deemed them to be, considering that college-aged Floridian partygoers’ fearlessness stood in stark contrast to the trepidation of people with preexisting health conditions and elderly individuals residing in nursing homes. Through the lens of social psychology, it is interesting to theorize exactly why many of these social behaviors stood in great contrast to one another. By examining people’s behaviors with respect to mask-wearing and social distancing, social psychologists may better understand the impact of important psychological concepts like cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, negativity bias, social comparison, persuasion, and conformity.
The second paragraph expands on the behavioral responses alluded to in the previous paragraph by highlighting several specific responses Americans had: disregarding public safety to party versus retreating into homes to isolate. But that’s not all that the paragraph introduces. In the second half of the paragraph, Paisley lays out the key concepts the paper itself will focus on: “cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, negativity bias, social comparison, persuasion, and conformity.” By introducing these concepts so clearly, Paisley provides a “road map” to her essay, helping us know where the paper is going and how to read it. (For more help structuring an essay, refer to our writing guide on signposting.)
The next part of this paper will run through one of these concepts, seeing how it expands and connects to various responses during the pandemic. Let’s look at one now.
Applying a framework of analysis to a specific example
While intrinsic factors, like the confirmation and negativity biases, influenced people’s behavior, extrinsic forces were at play as well. To explain why some habitually wore masks while others did not, it is pertinent to understand the powers of persuasion at this time. Persuasion is the communication from a communicator to an audience about a particular issue or topic that aims to change the audience’s opinions, attitudes, or behaviors.3 There are three major elements of persuasion: the source of the communication (also known as the communicator), the nature of the communication, and the characteristics and mindset of the audience.6 The communicator of a persuasive message, for instance, has a great impact on how influential the message is on their audience. For New Yorkers, Governor Andrew Cuomo was one of these prominent communicators that had a great impact on them. Governor Cuomo established himself as a credible individual in the first few months of the pandemic, particularly when he began to hold regular televised conferences during which he informed the public about any updates with concern to the virus in New York… At these conferences, he spoke directly to the public, brought in experts to explain the science behind the nature of the virus and clarify any confusion, and offered graphs to demonstrate how social distancing would reduce the rate at which people were becoming infected.5
In this excerpt from a later paragraph, Paisley briefly summarizes the previous two paragraphs, not excerpted here. (“While intrinsic factors, like the confirmation and negativity biases, influenced people’s behavior, extrinsic forces were at play as well.”) This is a great way to transition between paragraphs; by recapping what she said before, she’s then able to pivot, in the second half of the sentence, to describing what was left out of this earlier analysis (“extrinsic forces were at play as well”). Then, using concrete and well-cited language, she explains what the topic of the paragraph is—persuasion—and what its main parts are. Finally, she connects persuasion to a specific example for analysis— Gov. Cuomo’s initial televised COVID press conferences, which generated a popular goodwill for him before waves of scandals took down his administration. The rest of this paragraph goes on to analyze more specifically how Cuomo used persuasion during these conferences, but as a foundation, Paisley sets a great one here.
Let’s look at one more part of Paisley’s paper, her conclusion.
Writing an effective conclusion for your paper
From the partiers in Florida to the elderly in nursing homes to political figures like Andrew Cuomo, there were many social psychological influences to be observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While social distancing and mask-wearing were largely abnormal before the pandemic, both of these social behaviors were pertinent to preventing more deaths, especially during a time where there were limited medical resources to support people. Even though vaccinations are now readily available, the effects of cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, negativity bias, social comparison, persuasion, and conformity are still prevalent in people’s behaviors as a spectrum exists of individuals who are wholly comfortable returning to regular life and others who remain cautious against the virus, especially with the looming threat of stronger strains entering New York. No matter what the future has in store, reflecting upon why people acted irresponsibly and how people were convinced to act differently through social psychology is vitally important to understand how to save as many lives until the pandemic’s bitter end.
In this excerpt, Paisley repeats her thesis (“From the partiers in Florida to the elderly in nursing homes to political figures like Andrew Cuomo, there were many social psychological influences to be observed during the COVID-19 pandemic”), and then pivots to focusing on how these phenomena are still present today. Finally, she jumps forward to think about the future, while also repeating the importance of the work that she’s done in the paper—which is often a great strategy to end an essay on. The conclusion is often called the “so what” paragraph—it’s a place where you can lay out, more explicitly, why what you’re writing about is important, and how it can connect to the future as well.
Now that you’ve finished reading through this guide, practice applying an existing framework of analysis to your own writing!
