Psychology 2301 - Bunch, Jeanette - Psychology Research

(A 70% on this assignment indicates accomplishment of the SLO #5: Students will identify accepted approaches and standards in psychological assessment and evaluation.)

Purpose

Students should be able to use identify accepted approaches and standards in psychological assessment and evaluation.

Skills: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in this course and in professional life beyond school:

• • Search college databases and locate scholarly research articles.
  • Articulate psychological vocabulary specific to the field of psychology.
  • Synthesize information gained to compare and contrast information from scholarly research articles with information from mainstream media sources.
  • Create a professional and creative presentation.
  • Orally report findings.

Knowledge: This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content knowledge in this discipline:

• • Psychological disorders (symptoms, criteria, prognoses).
  • Pseudo-psychology
  • Treatment Options
  • Awareness of the personal and social impact of views regarding psychological disorders.

Marketable Skills:  Critical Thinking, Communication, and Empirical and Quantitative Skills.

Task: 

• There are many misconceptions in psychology circulated through the popular press and believed to be true.  The purpose of this assignment is to identify those misconceptions, use scientific evidence to refute the misconception, and create a poster presentation to teach other students about the misconception.
• All students will be required to complete a refutation-based method of misconception poster.  
• Posters will be a visual representation of your myth.  Your poster should present the psychological misconception, provide scientific evidence that refutes the claim, and educate your audience on the truth.  The posters should be professional and visually effective in communicating the information.  Your poster will be viewed gallery-style by others in the class, and you will have two minutes to defend your poster to an audience. 
•  All students will be required to complete a refutation-based method of the misconception research paper.  The paper will be in APA format and include at least FIVE (5) peer-reviewed scholarly articles and at least one piece of popular press article that introduces the misconception.
• The project grade will be based on a 200-point scale and be worth 20% of your overall grade.  No late posters or papers will be accepted.

Assignment Outline:

Step 1- Identify misconceptions.  Ideas of where to find the misconception:  social media, clickbait, 50 Myths handbook located in the misconception module, or Psyc Files podcast. If the myth is outside of Fifty Myths Handbook, you must let me know what you plan to do before you begin.

Step 2- Research Paper (100 points)- Compare and Contrast peer-reviewed and popular press articles.  All students will be required to complete a refutation-based method of the misconception research paper.  The paper will be in APA format and include at least FIVE (5) peer-reviewed scholarly articles and at least one piece of popular press article that introduces the misconception. Students will write an APA style, 3-4 page, double-spaced, 12-point font paper with APA style citations.  The articles will be listed at the end of the paper in an APA style and formatted reference list. Submit your paper as an attachment to this assignment. Your paper should contain the following sections:

• Abstract (3-4 sentences)
• Introduction, which includes:
  • Summary of the popular press article(s) that introduces the misconception
  • Hypotheses (your predictions BEFORE your research)
• Literature Review:
  • Synthesis  of at least two peer-reviewed journal articles on your topic 
• The conclusion includes:
  • A summary of your findings 
  • An answer to your hypothesis: was it refuted or confirmed
• Reference Page (@least 2 PRJAs and popular press article of misconception)

If possible, identify where the misconception originated, thoughts on why the misconception was perpetuated, and identify peer-reviewed articles that give scientific information on the misconception and any other information about the misconception you see fit to include.  For the peer-reviewed articles, you will need to use the databases provided within the SAC Library or Google Scholar.  A minimum of TWO (2) peer-reviewed journal articles will be required to support or refute your argument. 

Step 3- Poster (100 points)- Create a poster that represents your research and discovery in a visual format. Tri-fold posters are preferred, but a regular posterboard may be used.  Be creative. Submit three photos of your project to this assignment.  Ensure you have good lighting when you take the picture. Your poster should:

• Demonstrate the misconception and how it is present in our society
• Accurately demonstrates how the misconception has been proved/disproved through scholarly research
• Be neat and creative

Step 4- Poster Presentation-be prepared to present your poster in 2 minutes or less to your audience.