Essay for psychology

Summary of the Essay Assignment for PSYC 1001

Each student will write an essay reviewing one empirical study in psychology. Complete instructions are in the Essay Instructions learning module. The grading rubric explains exactly how these essays will be graded. Please refer to it. The power point presentation gives more details about the assignment and tips to doing it. Please review it. The sample essay is an example of how a perfect essay would appear. Please read over it.

Instructions Summary

For each essay a student will:

1. Locate a research article (see steps for locating an article) in the field of psychology that:

is peer-reviewed,

reports an original empirical study (no meta-analyses or literature reviews),

has a “Methods” or “Procedures” section, and

is located in the UC library.

1. Have the article approved by the instructor:

after finding the article, email me the citation (without an attached pdf) using the library’s citation page for the article.

my email is [email protected].

within 2 days I will email back approving the article or asking you to find a new article.

you may need (or choose) to find a new article if the first one is not a good fit.

2. Complete 2 prewriting assignments that have students locate the information in their article that must be included in the essay.

The first prewriting assignment (EI PW1) is worth 50 points and requires students to identify from the article they found in the UC library:

i. The APA citation copied and pasted from the UC library website;

ii. The authors of the article who conducted the research and wrote the article;

iii. The year that the article was published;

iv. The title of article;

v. The name of the journal that published the article;

vi. The page numbers in the journal that the article appeared on;

vii. The purpose that motivated the research study;

viii. The theory (stated as IV affects DV) tested by the study;

ix. The number, species, and other important characteristics of the subjects who provided the data for the study;

x. A control variable that is the same for all subjects in the study;

xi. A possible confounding variable that could mess up the results of the study if it is not controlled; and

xii. A reason that the research is important or is not important.

The second prewriting assignment (EI PW2) is worth 50 points and requires students to identify from the article they found in the UC library:

xiii. The independent variable (IV) in the theory;

xiv. One way that the IV is operationalized so that it can be measured in the study;

xv. Any control group who got 0 of the IV;

xvi. The dependent variable (DV) in the theory;

xvii. One way the DV is operationalized so that it can be measured in the study;

xviii. The one specific hypothesis tested with the operationalized IV and operationalized DV stated above;

xix. The design (how data was collected) used in the study;

xx. The data that confirm or do not confirm the specific hypothesis stated above;

xxi. The p-value computed by the statistics and if the hypothesis is confirmed or not; and

xxii. How ethically the subjects were treated by the researchers.

3. After satifactorily completing both prewriting assignments, students will write a 500-600 word essay (see rubric for grading criteria) that includes:

the full citation with author(s), year published, title, journal name, and page numbers;

the purpose or theory motivating the research study;

one (and only one) of the specific hypotheses tested in the study;

the subjects for the study giving the number and species as a minimum;

the research methods (design) used including how the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV) in the chosen specific hypothesis were measured;

the variables that apply to the one chosen specific hypothesis including:

i. the one independent variable and how it is operationalized,

ii. the one dependent variable and how it is operationalized, and

iii. a control or confounding variable;

numerical results from the data reported in the article that apply to the one chosen specific hypothesis (looking in a table is often necessary);

the conclusion of the researchers to confirm or not confirm the hypothesis;

the student’s own opinion of the ethics for the study including reasons; and

the student’s own evaluation of the importance of the research including reasons.

4. Essays must:

be typed double spaced, using12-point font and 1 inch margins;

use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation;

include student’s name, assignment due date, and page number on every page; and

be submitted on Canvas in the correct dropbox under “Assignments”.

5. Essays will be graded within 3 weeks of the due date and then students will have at least 1 week in which they may revise their essay if they choose.

Essays and revisions will be graded using the rubic on the next page.

Revisions are optional, but cannot be submitted late.

The final grade will be average of initial essay grade and the revision grade if students do a revision. Otherwise the initial grade stands.

Essays and prewriting assignments are turned in electronically on Canvas:

First prewriting EI PW1 is due February 24 at 4pm and the second EI PW2 is due February 26 at 4pm.

Students may have to redo the prewriting assignments if they do not complete it successfully (score at least 40 out of 50) the first time.

Essay is due on March 11 at 4pm, revision due April 29 at 4pm.

Late first submission for prewriting or essays will be penalized 10 percent. If the first submission for an essay is more than 5 days late, it may not be graded in time to revise. Late revisions are not accepted.

Essays must be submitted in the correct drop box under “Assignments” on Canvas using MSWord “.docx” format.

Complete detailed instructions for the essays, including the grading rubric, are in the “EI (Essay Instructions): Research on the Mind” learning module.

Essay Grading Rubric for Introduction to Psychology

	Excellent (10 pts)	Good (8-9 pts)	Adequate (6-7 pts)	Attempted Fair (4-5 pts)	Attempted Poor (2-3 pts)	Not apparent (0-1 pts)
Clarity of writing	No errors in sentence structure, quotes, spelling, or grammar	A few errors but meaning is clear	Several errors; some that interfere with meaning	Several errors that interfere with meaning	Many errors that interfere with meaning	Essay is difficult to understand because of errors
Citation	All 5 elements correct (authors, title, date, journal, & page numbers)	At least 4 elements correct including authors, date, and title	Authors, date, and title correct	Little citation information given, but article can be identified	Inadequate citation to locate article	No citation given
Theory / purpose	Purpose of study and theory tested clearly stated	Purpose or theory stated although may be vague	Purpose or theory alluded to, but not clearly stated	Some mention of the purpose of the study	Purpose and theory incorrect	No purpose or theory stated
Hypothesis	1 specific hypothesis clearly stated with operationalized IV and DV	Hypothesis stated but not tied to theory or variables	Hypothesis vague or unclear	Incorrect hypothesis	Hypothesis fails to relate to topic	No hypothesis
Design	Research design clearly described including how IV & DV measured	Research design described but how IV or DV measured not clear	Some aspects of research design described but vague and unclear	Little research design described	Incorrect research design described	No research design described
Subjects	Number, species & some descriptive information for subjects given	Number & species of subjects stated clearly but no other information	Either species or number of subjects not stated	Some discussion of subjects, but no number or species stated	Little discussion of subjects	No discussion of subjects
Variables	IV, DV, and a confound or control clearly identified	IV and DV accurately identified	IV or DV accurately identified	IV & DV incorrect, but some understanding of variables shown	Variables incorrectly identified	No identification of variables
Results	Results w/ statistics and if hypothesis confirmed clearly stated	Results stated w/o statistics but clearly indicate if hypothesis confirmed	Results given but not tied to IV, DV, hypothesis, or theory	Results not correctly stated or incorrectly tied to theory	Only vague statement about results	No results given
Ethics	Student’s opinion of the ethics and reasoning clearly stated	Student’s opinion of the ethics clearly stated but no reason given	Ethics discussed generally but student’s opinion not expressed	Ethics discussed generally but not specific to the study	Ethical issue incorrectly specified	Ethics not addressed
Evaluation	Student’s appraisal of the importance of research & reason clearly stated	Student’s appraisal of the importance of research stated wi/o reason	Statement about importance of the research copied from authors	Discussion of the application of the research but no appraisal provided	Appraisal unclear and no reason given	No appraisal of importance of the research