health psychology

Health Infographic Project

Step 2: Identify the Target Population

Anytime that you write you need to have a specific audience/target population in mind. For this part of the assignment, you are going to identify your audience. You are going to identify the specific portion of the population that you want to read your infographic and change their health behavior. You need to think logically about how this audience is connected to the specific health problem identified in Step 1.

There are a couple of different ways to select a population:

· Who is most likely to have the problem?

· Who is most likely to change their behavior?

· Who has the worst complications from the health problem?

· Who is easiest to reach with your message?

· Who is most likely to benefit from your infographic?

* I would research the answer to all of these, but your paper will focus on only one of these ways.

Start this process by thinking about the answers to the above questions. You will have to do some research to find out these answers. Be sure to use reputable websites (no Wikipedia), your textbook, or other reputable sources on your identified health problem. (You will need at least two sources.) In your paper you are going to describe your target population/audience and then provide the documentation that supports your decision. From the example given in the project summary, the health problem is infant mortality. I decided I wanted to target those most at risk for having an infant death. With this information, I would then write a paper describing young African-American females living in a certain zip code (most at-risk of an infant death). Then I would provide the evidence that supports that these individuals are the ones that are more likely to have an infant death. Finally, I would provide a description that explains why these individuals are more likely to have an infant death. In summary I provided this information: 1) describe the population, 2) provide evidence that supports my selection of this specific target population; i.e., young African-American females, and 3) why they are most likely to have an infant death.

Also, keep in mind that your target audience needs to be very specific and very narrow. You most likely would not have the resources to target “women” for example. Your target audience has to be much more specific. (See the example in the project described above.)

**Your overall focus is to select a certain population based on the “ways to select a population” described in the above bullet list and then write a paper supporting this decision.

Instructions for completing the paper:

Once you have decided on your population and have information to support this decision, write an ESSAY (including an introduction and conclusion) that describes your target population and provides evidence to support this particular population. You should answer the following questions:

1) Restate your health problem and provide a very brief description of the problem. (This is a nice piece of information to include in your introduction.)

2) Provide a thorough description of the specific population you will target with your infographic. If relevant, include information on gender, age, race, location, and relevant psychological characteristics. (Make sure your population is very narrow.)

3) Explain what characteristic you used to select your population (most at-risk, most likely to change their behavior, easiest to reach, etc. – from the bullet list above)

4) Explain how your target population is related to the health problem identified in Step 1. For example, my project is based on those most at-risk for an infant death, so I need to explain why young African-American women (Step 2) are most likely to have an infant death (Step 1).

5) Provide evidence that supports the selection of this population. Evidence should be thoroughly explained. It would be appropriate to describe the research project that provides support for your selection of this population. Your description should include identification of the IV and DV and results of the study.

Helpful Tips:

· Make sure that your target population is logically connected to the health problem you identified in Step 1. These must be connected!

· This assignment should only include information about your target population. Do not include information on the other parts of the project (health problem, health behavior, infographic.)

· Be sure to provide at least two references. Do not forget to include in-text citations and a reference list to document your citations. Both of these should be written using APA formatting.

· Remember you may have no more than ONE sentence that is a direct quote. Papers with two or more direct quotes/sentences will receive a grade of 0.  This means that your ENTIRE paper/assignment may have no more than one sentence that is copied from a source. A direct quote is generally three or more words copied from another source.