PSYCH1A: Introduction to General Psychology

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT:

MINI LITERATURE REVIEW PAPER

Dr. Kimberly King, Psychology – Laney College

Due Thurs., 7/27/23 at 11:59 pm

Mini Literature Review Paper: Students will write a 4-6 page literature review paper on a psychology topic of their choosing. Your paper should attempt to answer 1-2 questions about your topic that can be answered by the scholarly social psychology literature.

To write the paper, students must use a minimum of 3 scholarly peer-reviewed psychology journal articles. At least one of the journal articles must be empirical (e.g., a report of original research), and you should describe the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions from that article in your paper. I recommend you use articles from the following Laney Library Databases: PsycARTICLES, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences databases and Journal of Black Psychology. At least one of the journal articles must be empirical (e.g, a report of original research), and you should describe the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions from that article in your paper. Your 3 core articles must be peer reviewed (not from popular magazines like Psychology Today) and should be published within the last 10 years (or at least 2 of them should)

In addition to the 3 core articles, you may want to use additional sources, such as the CREDO Reference database, textbooks, psychology encyclopedias or dictionaries, credible websites, academic books, newspapers or magazines). These kinds of sources may be very helpful for you to define and better understand your topic CREDO is a great source for psychology encyclopedias, dictionaries and articles written in an accessible way. It is a Laney Library database. All sources you use in your paper should be credible and must be cited in your paper and references.

Your paper should be written in the publication style of the American Psychological Association (APA style) (e.g., the margins, font, spacing, page numbers, title page, in-text citations, and references must be in APA style). No abstract is required for this paper.

A list of general suggested topics will be provided by your professor (with several related articles for each topic). These are general topics, and you will need to focus on some specific aspect or question about the topic. Choose something you are interested in.

To focus your topic, review the related articles for your chosen topic and look in your textbook, CREDO or other credible sources for information to develop your topic. To find more articles, conduct your own article search in the PsycARTICLES and/or Psychology & Behavioral Sciences databases. Read articles and other sources to develop a focused topic.

General Overview of Final Paper

Include an APA style title page. Create a title for your paper.  
Begin the paper with an introduction (see more information below).
Then write a body of the paper that presents the relevant information/evidence on your topic from each of your sources, including at least one empirical study.
Close with a summary of the paper and a good  
As you write, cite references in your paper using APA Style. All ideas or information that did not originate from you or that are not commonly-known facts should have a citation. All your citations must appear in your reference list and all your references must be cited in your paper.  
Include an APA style reference list at the end of your paper. There should be at least 3 sources.

DETAILS: FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO COMPLETE YOUR PAPER:  

Choose a topic: Browse through the general paper topic list provided by your instructor and/or your textbook and develop your topic. Read textbook, CREDO and/or the articles provided by your instructor to explore your topic. You will need to develop a focus for your topic that is more specific than the general topic provided by your instructor. Use articles from PsycArticles and/or Psychology & Behavioral Sciences and other scholarly sources to examine the literature on potential topics. Choose a topic of interest to you with at least 3 scholarly articles (with at least 1empirical article). Try to use articles published within the last 10 years.

Complete the Paper Topic Proposal assignment to let your instructor know your proposed paper topic and at least one scholarly article that you could use.

Select 3 peer-reviewed articles or more on your topic to use in your paper. You may use other credible sources too.

Read each of your articles and other sources carefully and take notes on information related to your topic and the question(s) you want to answer in your paper.

One of your 3 articles must be empirical (more if you like). For one empirical article, you need to describe the purpose, methods, results (in words, not statistics) and conclusions related to your topic. When describing the methods, please include a description of the participants (number, sex/gender, ethnicity, economic status/SES, how recruited, etc.). For the methods, you should also include the experimental manipulations and/or measures or questionnaires used along with the general procedures used to conduct the research. Show that you understand the connection between the methods and the results and how they relate to your research question(s).

Based on what you have read, organize your ideas about your topic. Write an outline if that helps.

Begin writing your paper using your notes and outline. Start the paper with an The “Introduction” to an APA style paper has your paper title centered at the top (see APA style guide).  In your introduction: 1) Clearly introduce your paper topic. This should include relevant definitions, examples and background about the topic (helps to use CREDO; info from articles); 2) Present the purpose of your paper, including a research question or several questions you plan to answer in your paper, or present a thesis or hypothesis, 3) explain why your topic is interesting or important, and 4) provide an overview of the organization and content of your paper. Be sure to properly cite sources for all information that you state as factual and that is not common knowledge.

Follow the introduction with the body of your paper. Use relevant information from your sources to make points about your topic. Answer your research questions or provide evidence for your thesis. Cite your sources using APA style. Remember to describe at least 1 empirical study (see above for info to include) . Be sure to provide information and ideas about your topic from your sources (i.e., what do you know after reading this source?). Make it clear how the information provided relates to your research question(s), thesis and/or the purpose of your paper. The body of your paper is not just a summary of 3 articles strung together. It needs to be a paper that explains your topic and answers a specific question or questions based on what you read.

Get feedback from your instructor. Incorporate feedback in writing your paper. Consider meeting with the instructor about your paper, to clarify your research question(s) and to get assistance understanding the articles or with writing.

End your paper with a summary and conclusion. Think about the purpose of your paper and your research questions. What answers and evidence did you find from the sources you used? The conclusion should briefly summarize the key information you presented in your paper, discuss how the information fits together, supports or contradicts each other, and present clear closing thoughts about the thesis or research question(s) based on your analysis of the information from your sources. Connect it back to your introduction. Did you answer the question(s) you set out to answer? Was your thesis supported? The conclusion should be about 1-page long (and no shorter than 1 paragraph). You may also include praise or criticisms of the sources, practical applications and ideas for future research.

Include an APA style reference list at end of your paper. There should be at least 3 peer-reviewed articles in your sources. Be sure to include all of the sources you use in your References.

Write a first draft, and then revise, revise, revise. Revisions are important for a good paper! Revise to make your ideas clear to your reader. Check that you have cited sources correctly each time you used information from them. Proofread and edit for correct grammar and punctuation, writing clarity, organization, and typos/spelling. Have friends or a tutor read it to help improve. A good paper fulfills the requirements and is clear, well-organized, and interesting. Please consider using the Writing Center and/or my office hours for writing assistance. I will review rough drafts during office hours.

Write a title for your paper that reflects the content and complete your APA style title page (include your class title and meeting days/times under your institutional affiliation)

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Recommended Paper-Writing Resources:

Avoiding Plagiarism:

What is plagiarism? When a writer deliberately uses someone else’s words, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source. (Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2015)  
How to avoid it? Whenever you use information in your paper that comes from another source, be sure to cite the source in the text and in your references. Paraphrase and use your own words as much as possible. Use quotation marks and include page number if you use exact words from another writer.  
All of the following are considered plagiarism: turning in someone else's work as your own, copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit, failing to put a quotation in quotation marks, giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation (http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism)
- Here’s a link to a handout about how students can avoid plagiarism (from the University of North

Carolina). http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/plagiarism/