psych 104

Due Tuesday, October 10 by 11:59 p.m.

It’s not due until the 7th week of class, but it is best to get started early!

Much of the learning process comes from reflection and seeing how new information relates to you own life. This is not a research assignment, but a paper where you apply what you have learned in this course to observations you have made of people’s behaviors—both your own and other individuals.

This is not a diary where you just write down what you experienced during the day. It should include in-depth explanations of how your observations relate to social psychology. For example, perhaps you saw 2 people getting into an argument. You can relate this to the theories on the causes and types of aggression. Maybe a coworker was showing prejudicial attitudes. You can explain this behavior by relating it to the section on prejudice, or the development of attitudes (or both!). Please use boldface type for each concept mentioned.

I recommend that you take some notes every day of your observations. The people you observe can include yourself, family, friends, strangers, even a current event you viewed on TV or social media. The observations can include not only behaviors, but attitudes and beliefs as well. Once it is time to write your paper, you can then go back and select your best examples. These should be recent observations, and not from the past.

Must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. You may need to reset your default margins. DO NOT justify (line up) your right margin. Please use only Times or Times New Roman font, set at 12 points. With correct spacing and font, there will be 23 lines per page. The paper needs to be 6-7 pages in length (papers will be penalized if short on the length requirement or incorrectly formatted.) Please try to avoid going more than 2 pages over the length requirement. A 6 page paper using Times New Roman 12 point font should have a minimum of 2400 words.

Aim for 8-12 observations, each tied into 1 or more concepts (more concepts is better–it involves more in-depth reflection); however, if fewer examples are tied in depth into 3-4 different concepts each, that would also be sufficient. Vary your examples, avoid repeating concepts, and focus on a wide range of chapters. I don’t want you to have five examples of conformity. Each paragraph should be one observation reflected upon in depth, and not one concept with multiple examples. You are analyzing the example. The description of the example itself should be brief. Your main focus should be on relating this example to specific course concepts, not on simply describing the observation. Please reflect in depth on each concept that you include. Do not mention a concept without really analyzing how it helps to explain the example.

All papers submitted will be checked for non-original materials using SimCheck. It checks websites, books, other students’ papers, etc. When you submit your paper to Canvas, it is automatically checked by SimCheck. Please do not copy & paste paragraphs from web pages into your paper or submit another student’s paper or a paper from a term paper website. It will be red-flagged by SimCheck and you will receive 0 on the assignment. This also includes materials from papers you personally have submitted in prior classes. It will even detect a paper that has been “rewritten.” Please submit your paper in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (rtf) only!

Grading is based on the level of reflection and analysis in your paper.

In Writing Your Paper Please Note:

The description of the observations should be very brief, with the main focus on explaining how the example demonstrates the concept(s).

DO NOT put a heading on a separate line for each topic. That is, don’t put “conformity example,” “hindsight bias example,” “agonistic aggression example,” etc. on a separate line. This will not be considered part of the length and you may end up short on the length requirement.

DO NOT use outside sources. This is not a research paper. (Citing the textbook is fine.)

Focus only on concepts that were covered either in the lecture or the text. Feel free to look into chapters from the text that will be covered after the due date.

You will only be allowed to submit your assignment once. Be sure to get it right the first time!