Psychology

Psychology

Departmental Learning Goals Addressed: Knowledge and Scientific Methods

The purpose of this writing assignment is to assess your scientific thinking skills, in particular, your use of scientific skepticism.

General Instructions
In total, this assignment should be 2 – 4 pages in length using double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font with 1inch margins. Type your paper using “Word” or a compatible word processing program. Be sure to save your paper in a couple of locations for future reference or if the file is not properly uploaded for submission etc. Each General Psychology instructor determines their own specific grading policies, consult with your instructor if you have grading questions. Papers shorter than 2 pages or longer than 4 may result in loss of points. This paper is not a full research report, so you do not need an abstract, cover-page, Materials and Methods section, results or discussion sections.

Specific instructions
1) Name and describe (in your own words) the Six Principles of Scientific Thinking (Lilienfeld, Chapter 1), and state why you believe it is important to use them when thinking about behavior.

2) Find two examples of claims made in newspapers, magazines, television, or the Internet relevant to Psychology that you think should be evaluated using one of the 6 principles of scientific thinking. Briefly describe both of the claims, and state the media source where you found each claim. (Note: you must suggest a different principle of scientific thinking that would be useful to evaluate each of the two claims.) Each of these 2 sources must be cited both in the text of your paper and in the reference section (bibliography) using APA format.

3) For both of these claims, state and describe the principle that you think should be applied, and discuss how the principle is used (or not used) in the claim.

4) Examples of issues relevant to Psychology that have been discussed in various media lately include; standardized testing in education, law enforcement policies (training programs for officers, technology used to modify people’s behavior such as automated speed monitors etc), gun control issues, the use of social media by extremist groups to recruit people to their causes. These are examples that you may use, or you may choose an issue of interest to you.

Additional Helpful Tips for your papers!
Review the grading rubric so you know the grading critera for this assignment.
Your finished paper must be uploaded into the canvas course shell before the deadline. Writing assignments must not be emailed through Canvas, but uploaded under the “Assignment” tab in your course site within Canvas.
Here is a link to a guide for APA style when citing references from various types of sources:
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/Centers/writing/resources/Documents/Resources/APA%20Citation.pdf

UCD’s online Academic Dishonesty Course listed below defines plagiarism if you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism.
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/AcademicHonesty/Documents/student/introduction/index.htm

The two topics (claims) you write about in this assignment will also be the topics you will be asked to address in the next writing assignment due later this semester. You can and should use the feedback you receive on this paper to help in writing the next.

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