Psychology Exercise 1...

#1. Each exercise is a case study regarding a child with a specific psychopathology. Your job is to assume that you are a clinical psychologist specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of children. A colleague of yours has sent you a summary of his/her evaluation of a patient in hopes that you will provide a second opinion as to the correct diagnosis for the child and provide other relevant information regarding this diagnosis. Your diagnosis can confirm the original diagnosis and/or make a new diagnosis. You are writing your information to be given to the parent of the child. Therefore, you should be careful to fully explain concepts such that someone outside of the area of abnormal child psychology would understand.

#2. VERY IMPORTANT!! READ THIS SECTION!!

Students are expected to obtain information regarding the causes, treatment, prognosis, etc. from another source like your textbook. However, you are also expected to correctly document this information using the appropriate APA formatting for in-text citations and reference listing. Correctly documenting information from other sources includes using an in-text citation for paraphrased information and an in-text citation AND quotation marks for direct quotes; i.e., when you copy information word-for-word from another source.

#3. You must use APA style for citing sources correctly. You may NOT use another style such as MLA for citing sources.

#4. There are penalties for failure to cite sources and/or using APA formatting correctly.

A word about direct quotes: A well-written paper does not include a lot of direct quotes. You should gather information from other sources, but you should re-write this information in your own words. Rewriting the information illustrates your understanding of the material. You should NOT copy information word-for-word from another source; i.e., direct quotes. Papers containing more than three direct quotes (sentences and phrases) will receive a grade of 0. You are not limited on the number of direct quotes taken from the case study. The limitation is on information taken from other sources; i.e., textbook or websites. Additionally, when you use direct quotes (copy three or more words word-for-word from another source) you MUST use quotation marks to indicate that you did not write this information. Information (three or more words) that is copied word-for-word from another source that does not include quotation marks is PLAGIARISM and will be treated as such. This includes not copying papers written by other students and appropriately documenting information taken from another source by appropriately using direct quotes, in-text citations, and a reference listing. Paraphrased information and direct quotes must have an in-text citation and reference listing using APA format. Not citing direct quotes or paraphrased information is plagiarism, and as a result will receive at least a grade of 0 and will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. Additionally, direct quotes MUST have quotation marks indicating that it was not written by you. Depending of the severity of the incident, failing the course and a notation of academic dishonesty on your transcript will be considered. If it is clear that you are not trying to take ownership of the material in the paper, but didn’t document your sources, you will incur a 10 point penalty (i.e., information is in quotation marks but has no citation or information was paraphrased.)

#5. It is very important that you document your sources especially for this class. I grade the accuracy of the information you are providing in your paper based on information from the text. If you present a counter explanation without documenting the source, I grade the information as incorrect. For example, if you say the cause of mental retardation is too much exposure to the sun, and do not document this information, I count the information as incorrect because this is not a cause that is listed in our textbook (and is not true). If you present this information, and document where you found this piece of information, I count the information as correct. The rationale for this is that there are many different theories about the topics we will be discussing. Some of these I have heard before and some I have not. If you provide me with a source that says that this is correct information, I am not going to penalize the information. If there is no source for the information, I do not know if the information is correct or not, so I treat it as if it is wrong information.

#6. Plagiarism checking. All papers submitted via Blackboard are checked for plagiarism through SafeAssign. SafeAssign checks your paper with other papers submitted through SafeAssign and with internet sources. It returns a percentage match with these other sources.

#7. Exercises are to be written in an ESSAY format which includes an introductory and conclusion paragraph. DO NOT answer in a question and answer format. Your introduction should describe the purpose of the paper. The conclusion should summarize your findings or explain what you have learned. Introduction and conclusion paragraphs are not the answer to the first and last question given in the assignment sheet. There is a 20 point penalty for failure to use essay format.

8. Papers should be a minimum of 3 pages in length. There is no set maximum, but papers are rarely longer than 5 pages. Papers that are not 3 pages in length are NOT detailed enough to receive full credit. Double-space the paper in a 12-point Times New Roman font using 1 inch margins on all sides. Avoid using page length "cheats" like large margins, headers with a lot of information or too much spacing, and 2 ½ spacing. There is no penalty for exceeding the page limit. The penalty for failure to meet the minimum is based on the information that is missing from your paper.

9. Each essay is graded based on the completeness of each answer, the clarity with which the information is described, and the grammar and organization of the essay. All questions and parts of questions must be fully answered to receive full credit. Full credit will not be given for answers that are only briefly described.