PSYC 2301 Introduction To Psychology Assignment- Houston Community College (HCC)
Option 1: Final Paper Essay
Your essay should include the following format and items to be considered complete. You may choose any topic from the textbook that you would like to learn more about. Your topic should be narrow enough to be able to write the paper without being overwhelmed and broad enough to gather enough information for the paper requirements.
Broad topic: sleep
Subtopic: shift work
Paper Topic: Does shift work create health problems for individuals.
Locate 3-5 academic articles related to your topic. All articles should be a minimum of 3 pages in length. Your articles should be current and no older than 2008. Your articles should come from peer-reviewed journals that you can get from the CTC Library database. Articles from newspapers, popular magazines, book reviews, or websites are not acceptable for this paper. All of your articles should not come from the same publication.
Intro:
• Must contain an attention grabber for the reader or at least make the essay sound interesting, may begin with a quote about the particular topic
• Ensure that the intro moves from the general to the specific in regards to the topic
• Provides the reader with a "road map" of the essay in a logical order
• At the end there should be what is called a thesis statement, arguably the most important component of the intro
• The thesis statement states the aim of the paper and may give insight into the author's examples and evidence
Body:
• Includes the evidence and support of the paper in addition to the author's ideas
• Paragraphs must include a topic sentence which relates the discussion back to the thesis statement
• Logical ordering of ideas: 3 types of order
1. Chronological order---order of time, good for narratives
2. Spatial order-good for descriptions of locations; top to bottom, e.g.
3. Emphatic order-least important to most important; most common for college writing
• Ensure that transition sentences are present to create a good flow to the essay
• Include substantial examples and evidence to support your argument and remember to cite, cite, cite!
• Make sure each example is relevant to your particular topic
Conclusion:
• This section should wrap all of your arguments and points
• Should restate the main arguments in a simplified manner
• Ensure that the reader is left with something to think about, particularly if it is an argumentative essay
Option 2: Movie/ Book Review
For this option, you will review a movie or book about an issue related to psychology and the concepts in the course. You will relate the concepts from the course to the characters of the movie or book. You can watch any movie or read any book of your choosing that has a significant character or characters that relate to one of the concepts of the book. The movie/book review should include an introduction to the topic, a summary of your main observation, and a concluding summary.
Content of the paper:
• You MUST have three scientific citations to support your paper. The citations may come from the textbook or a professional journal but NOT popular press. Better sources include scientific (peer reviewed) journals.
• For this assignment, you are asked to discuss the psychological aspects of a fictional character.
• Students should select at least three areas of psychosocial development that are discussed as part of this course (e.g., cognitive development, culture, parent-child relationships, psychological disorders, motivation, etc.) and discuss the character in the context of what we know about these domains.
1. What are some of the most specific aspects of the character that you can relate to concepts in the textbook?
2. What do you find interesting about this character?
3. What seem to be the pressing issues that this character must resolve?
4. How have the specific factors inherent in the context in which the person lives affected them?
5. To what extent is this character's development typical, in the sense that it appears to correspond (or not correspond) to what we have learned from scientific research and theory about these psychological concepts?
6. What might have been done to change the development of this character in regards to the psychological concepts you have chosen to study? Family, peers, environment, medication, etc...
Option 3: Compare/Contrast
This assignment is intended to have you compare and contrast the writing style and potential uses of a popular press article versus a peer-reviewed primary research article that discusses a psychological phenomenon, written within the last 10 years. The articles need to address the same area of interest (for example, depression and gender, love and crying, teenage norms and ostracism etc.), but do not have to necessarily be about the same exact experiment. For hints on appropriate psychological phenomena reference the textbook. You will have a total of 6 articles in order to write 3 different comparisons. You may choose a different topic for each of the three comparisons.
Your popular press report can come from any popular magazine, newspaper, or website.
Your peer-reviewed primary research article must come from one of the peer-reviewed scientific journals listed below:
• American Journal of Psychology
• Applied Cognitive Psychology
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuropsychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychologist
• Emotion
• Experimental Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Journal of Abnormal Psychology
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Journal of Comparative Psychology
• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• Journal of Counseling Psychology
• Journal of Educational Psychology
• Journal of Mind and Behavior NOTE: Current four years not online!
• Journal of Neuroscience
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• Journal of Personality
• Journal of Social Psychology
• Memory
• Merrill-Palmer Quarterly
• Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology
I would suggest finding an article of interest in the popular press section first, and then searching for a related article in one of the approved peer reviewed primary research journals.
For this paper you must:
1. Summarize the main points and evidence found within each resource (NOTE: USE YOUR OWN WORDS, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE THE ARTICLES).
2. Describe, using examples, at least 3 ways that the theoretical approaches or article writing styles are different (note: mentioning participant pools is too simple, and if you notice that they are addressing completely different topics, your articles aren't related enough).
3. Describe, using examples, at least 2 ways that the articles styles are similar in goals, structure, or something similar to this.
4. Describe a situation where you think that you would benefit using a popular press article, and then describe situations where you would be better off using a peer-reviewed research article.
5. Provide in-text citations and a reference page in APA format (including DOI number for the peer-reviewed article).
6. Provide a full reference list at the end of each section.
7. Write a paper that is coherent, with smooth transitions between topics (no bullet points or lists).
8. Do this THREE times... one for each pair of articles you find.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.