Instructions
There are 3 options for your Final Paper:
- Option 1: Essay on a topic of your choice that pertains to Psychology. Instructions can be found here.
- Option 2: A movie/book analysis. Instructions can be found here.
- Option 3: A compare/contrast paper regarding popular press articles and peer-reviewed articles. Instructions can be found here.
You will submit your completed paper at the “Final Paper” link below.
Note:You may not all be Psychology majors but you will be dealing with people regardless of your major and chosen profession. Choose a psychological concept that relates to your chosen field. Nursing: placebo effect or pain, Marketing: persuasion or compulsion, Education: peer pressure or bullying.
Format
The Final Paper should consist of a minimum of three to five typed pages. Each paper option has a format that should be followed in order to ensure you have met all of the requirements.
Be sure that the paper submission adheres to the following formatting requirements:
Your essay should include the following format anditems to be considered complete. You may choose any topic from thetextbook that you would like to learn more about. Your topic should benarrow enough to be able to write the paper without being overwhelmed and broadenough to gather enough information for the paper requirements. Broad topic: sleep Subtopic: shiftwork Paper Topic: Doesshift work create health problems for individuals.Locate 3-5 academic articles related to yourtopic. All articles should be a minimum of 3 pages in length. Yourarticles should be current and no older than 2008. Your articles shouldcome from peer-reviewed journals that you can get from the CTC Library database.Articles from newspapers, popular magazines, book reviews, or websites are notacceptable for this paper. All of your articles should not come from thesame publication. Intro: ·Must contain anattention grabber for the reader or at least make the essay sound interesting,may begin with a quote about the particular topic· Ensure that the intromoves from the general to the specific in regards to the topic· Provides the readerwith a “road map” of the essay in a logical order· At the end there shouldbe what is called a thesis statement, arguably the mostimportant component of the intro· The thesis statementstates the aim of the paper and may give insight into the author’s examples andevidenceBody:· Includes the evidenceand support of the paper in addition to the author’s ideas· Paragraphs mustinclude a topic sentence which relates the discussion back to the thesisstatement· Logical ordering ofideas: 3 types of order1.Chronologicalorder—order of time, good for narratives 2.Spatial order-good fordescriptions of locations; top to bottom, e.g. 3.Emphatic order-leastimportant to most important; most common for college writing· Ensure that transitionsentences are present to create a good flow to the essay· Include substantialexamples and evidence to support your argument and remember to cite, cite,cite!· Make sure each exampleis relevant to your particular topic Conclusion:· This section shouldwrap all of your arguments and points· Should restate themain arguments in a simplified manner· Ensure that the readeris left with something to think about, particularly if it is an argumentativeessay.
For this option, you will review a movie orbook about an issue related to psychology and the concepts in the course. You will relate the concepts from the courseto the characters of the movie or book. You can watch any movie or read anybook of your choosing that has a significant character or characters thatrelate to one of the concepts of the book.The movie/book review should include an introduction to the topic, asummary of your main observation, and a concluding summary. Content of the paper: · You MUSThave three scientific citations to support your paper. The citations may comefrom the textbook or a professional journal but NOT popular press. Bettersources include scientific (peer-reviewed) journals.· For thisassignment, you are asked to discuss the psychological aspects of a fictionalcharacter.· Studentsshould select at least three areas of psychosocial development that arediscussed as part of this course (e.g., cognitive development, culture,parent-child relationships, psychological disorders, motivation, etc.) anddiscuss the character in the context of what we know about these domains. 1. What are some of the most specific aspects ofthe character that you can relate to concepts in the textbook? 2. What do you find interesting about thischaracter? 3. What seem to be the pressing issues that thischaracter must resolve? 4. How have the specific factors inherent in thecontext in which the person lives affected them? 5. To what extent is this character’sdevelopment typical, in the sense that it appears to correspond (or notcorrespond) to what we have learned from scientific research and theory about thesepsychological concepts? 6. What might have been done to change thedevelopment of this character in regards to the psychological concepts you havechosen to study? Family, peers, environment,medication, etc… Be sure to introduce briefly the characterand the story so that the reader of your paper is familiar enough to understandthe references to the book or movie. You may use direct quotes (with propercitation) from the scientific articles or movies for the purposes ofillustration. You should not rely on this as an alternative to providing yourown interpretation or opinion. You are required to tie in references andinformation from the scientific literature.Movie List1.LeavingLas Vegas2.AClockwork Orange3.What’sEating Gilbert Grape4.BoysDon’t Cry5.Bennyand Joon6.GirlInterrupted7.Seven8.Mad Love9.Rain Man10.Shine11.ABeautiful Mind12.Madnessof King George13.FightClub14.TheFisher King15.One Flewover the Cuckoo’s Nest16.TwelveMonkeys17.Sybil18.TheThree Faces of Eve19.Eating20.TheSilence of the Lambs21.Pollock22.OrdinaryPeople23.AnalyzeThis/Analyze That24.FinalAnalysis25.Identity26.PrimalFear27.WhatAbout Bob28.Good WillHunting29.SilverLinings Playbook30.Split31.As GoodAs It Gets32.Awakenings33.Rainman34.GrumpyOld Men35.Nell36.I am Sam37.ShutterIsland38.You maychoose another movie that is not listed here.Option 3:Compare/Contrast PSYC 2301This assignment isintended to have you compare and contrast the writing style and potential usesof a popular press article versus a peer-reviewed primaryresearch article that discusses a psychological phenomenon, writtenwithin the last 10 years. The articles need to address the samearea of interest (for example, depression and gender, love and crying, teenagenorms and ostracism etc.), but do not have to necessarily be about the sameexact experiment. For hints on appropriatepsychological phenomena reference the textbook.You will have a total of 6 articles in order to write 3 differentcomparisons. You may choose a differenttopic for each of the three comparisons. Your popular pressreport can come from any popular magazine, newspaper, or website. Your peer-reviewedprimary research article must come from one of the peer-reviewedscientific journals listed below:·American Journalof Psychology·Applied Cognitive Psychology·Behavioral Neuroscience·CognitiveNeuropsychology·Cognitive Psychology·Developmental Psychology·EducationalPsychologist·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 ofNeuroscience·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology·Journal of Personality·Journal ofSocial Psychology·Memory·Merrill-PalmerQuarterly·Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology I would suggestfinding an article of interest in the popular press section first, and thensearching for a related article in one of the approved peer-reviewed primaryresearch journals.For this paper youmust: 1.Summarizethe main points and evidence found within each resource (NOTE: USE YOUR OWNWORDS, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE THE ARTICLES).2.Describe,using examples, at least 3 ways that the theoretical approaches or articlewriting styles are different (note: mentioning participant pools is too simple,and if you notice that they are addressing completely different topics, yourarticles 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 asituation where you think that you would benefit using a popular press article,and then describe situations where you would be better off using apeer-reviewed research article. 5.Providein-text citations and a reference page in APA format (including DOI numberfor the peer-reviewed article).6.Provide afull reference list at the end of each section. 7.Write apaper that is coherent, with smooth transitions between topics (no bulletpoints or lists).8.Do thisTHREE times… one for each pair of articles you find. Notes for both articles: Articles MUST be full articles (avoid summarypapers, blurbs, or blogs)Notes for the popularpress articles:Again, make surethat your article is NOT a blogArticles MUSTbe less than 10 years oldArticles MUSTbe at least 3 pages long in order to ensure that you’re reading a fullarticle from one of these sourcesNotes for thepeer-reviewed articles: a.Be awarethat many un-approved journals have similar names. Misreading names will not bean acceptable reason for not using articles from the approved journal listlocated above.b.Articles MUSTbe less than 10 years old c.Articles MUSTbe at least 5 pages long. This will ensure that you’re reading a full researcharticle instead of a summary essay. The one exception to this rule is forneuroscience topics. Several well-written neuro articles are less than 5pages long. The total papershould be 3-6 pages in length, allowing for 1-2 pages for each comparison. Youshould have a conclusion paragraph at the end of the 3 comparisons, discussingwhat you learned from the assignment and how the information will assist you inyour future studies. Make sure that yourpaper is written as an expository essay. It needs to be coherent, with smoothtransitions between topics, and it must be in an essay format. You should nothave different sections in your paper. There should also be no bullet points orother forms of separation in the paper.