Assignment 1: An Invitation to Psychology (12%)
Assignment 1 is worth 12% of your final course mark, and it is graded with a total of 80 marks (20 marks for each of the four parts).
You will submit all parts of Assignment 1 (parts A, B, C, and D) together as one file at the end of Unit 1. Label each part of the assignment so it can be easily identified.
Part A: Psychology in the News
In the first part of Assignment 1 you have an opportunity to see how psychology is reported in the media, and to think what improvements could be made in how reporters explain news stories with psychological content. This activity will help you to identify pseudoscientific thinking.
Your first task is to find a report of psychology in the news on a credible online news site such as CBC, ABC, BBC, etc. You may find it useful to look at stories in categories such as health, technology, culture, etc., rather than in front page news.
Then complete the following. Use the same numbering and answer in complete sentences. Everything must be in your own words (no quotations) with sources cited and referenced in APA style.
- Provide the link to your news article, and then summarize it in your own words.
- Describe the psychological content reported in the article (use and cite the textbook).
- Evaluate the credibility of the psychological claims made in the article. Note that we’re not asking you to research the topic here, but to apply the critical thinking guidelines as a consumer of information. Make suggestions for improving the accuracy, clarity, or thoroughness of the article.
- List five original follow-up questions that arise after reading the news story. The follow-up questions should be based on any of the eight critical thinking guidelines in Chapter 1 of the Wade et al. textbook; i.e., the questions should relate to examining evidence, considering other interpretations, etc.
Sample Answer
Here is an example to guide you:
1. Cossette, M. -A. (2017, May 30). Former juror suffering from PTSD calls for national support standard. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/former-juror-ptsd-national-support-standard-1.4137591.
This story describes the case of Mark Farrant, a juror who participated in a 2014 trial in which a man was convicted of the second-degree murder of his girlfriend. The jury was exposed to gruesome evidence, and Farrant struggled with ongoing stress and anxiety that culminated in a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Farrant sought counselling from the courthouse where the trial took place but none was available. Farrant was advised to seek therapy and was placed on a one-year waiting list for a psychiatrist. He was eventually diagnosed with PTSD. He successfully lobbied the Ontario government to provide up to eight hours of free counselling to anyone who has served on a jury trial. Farrant lobbied further for the service to be provided federally. Farrant has received a great deal of support for his proposal, but there is not yet a national standard on the provision of mental health services to jurors. Bill C-211 proposes to standardize mental health services to first responders, but the bill’s sponsor did not think of including jurors in the bill’s wording.
2. This story concerns post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD typically arises in the aftermath of experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It is diagnosed when the person suffers persistent and bothersome thoughts about the trauma, a loss of interest in things that are normally enjoyed, feelings of detachment, and increased sympathetic nervous system activity as shown by difficulty sleeping, concentrating, and increased irritability (Wade, Tavris, Garry, Saucier, & Elias, 2016).
3. Recovery from PTSD can take a long time. Most people recover from experiencing traumatic events without going on to develop PTSD. It is unknown why some develop PTSD while others don’t, or why some events produce PTSD while others don’t. The news story reports that exposure to gruesome testimony caused Farrant’s PTSD. This would have had to have been confirmed by a mental health professional, although the story does not report whether this was a physician, therapist, etc. The story assumes prior knowledge of PTSD, so the story would have been more complete with a definition of the disorder. A tweet by Farrant included in the story contains the hashtag #endthestigma, which suggests that a diagnosis of PTSD is considered shameful—clarification of this would have fleshed out the story. Farrant discloses that he continues to struggle with PTSD, so the reporter could have included information about effective treatment and timelines for recovery. The news story does not say how long it took for Farrant to get a diagnosis and treatment; this should have been included.
4. Follow up question examples: Is the development of PTSD related to the type of crime and testimony that jurors are exposed to? Is PTSD as common in other courtroom officials, such as lawyers and judges? Are there any effective pre-trial programs that could “inoculate” jurors and others from developing PTSD? Does PTSD tend to run in families? Do people with PTSD have a greater frequency of exposure to trauma in their backgrounds than people who do not develop PTSD from the same event? What is the effectiveness of various treatment options for PTSD? Do some events produce different symptom patterns of PTSD? Does witnessing trauma as a juror affect people’s reasoning about the defendant’s guilt or innocence? |
Rubric (20 marks)
The activity will be marked out of 20 marks, with 5 marks per question, according to the following:
|
Exceeds Expectations |
Meets Expectations |
Nearly Meets Expectations |
Below Expectations |
Description, examples, analysis
Mark out of 4 |
Thorough explanation and detailed, relevant examples
4 |
Thorough explanation and relevant examples with a few details missing
3 |
Explanation and examples have several missing details
2.5 |
Explanation and examples have many missing details
1.9 |
Writing
Mark out of 1 |
Error free
1 |
A few spelling or grammatical errors
.8 |
Several spelling or grammatical errors
.6 |
Many spelling or grammatical errors
.5 |
Part B: Psychologists’ Careers
The second part of Assignment 1 provides you with the opportunity to expand your knowledge of what psychologists do. For this part of the assignment, you will be required to do some research online to discover two psychologists with different jobs in Canada. You will then write a profile for each, and describe what each does in their work life. You may choose from any of the three broad categories of professional activities described in Chapter 1 of the Wade et al. textbook, provided your choices have a PhD, PsyD, or EdD. The two people must engage in different sets of professional activities. For example, if one of your choices does clinical work (e.g., providing behaviour therapy to adolescents who have experienced family violence), your other choice should be an academic psychologist who does not do clinical work.
For psychologists engaged in clinical practice, you may wish to search the website of professional organizations such as the British Columbia Psychological Association.
For psychologists engaged in research and teaching, you may wish to browse the faculty listings at universities.
For psychologists engaged in research or applications in non-educational settings, you will need to be creative and search the websites of organizations that employ psychologists, or search in Google by area: professional sports, forensic psychology, the federal government, or the armed forces.
For each psychologist you choose, provide a link to their website and answer the following questions:
- Describe the activities that the psychologist does in their work life. What perspective in psychology does the psychologist appear to work from (see Chapter 1in the textbook), and how do you know?
- Describe the educational background of the psychologist—what degrees; where were they were educated; how long did it take; the topics of their dissertation; and any other educational experiences. Describe any other professional activities that are relevant to their career.
- Suppose the psychologist were to look for work in another province in Canada; can you find any job listings that they would be qualified for, and how do you know? For this you can search both provincial and federal job banks. Speculate about “portability” of their chosen career.
- What salary range would you expect the psychologist to have? You will not find this on their website! You may have to do some digging for this, but speculate and cite your sources. For clinical psychologists, see the websites of professional organizations such as the British Columbia Psychological Association
Rubric (20 marks)
The activity will be marked out of 20 marks, with 5 marks per question, according to the following:
|
Exceeds Expectations |
Meets Expectations |
Nearly Meets Expectations |
Below Expectations |
Description, examples, analysis
Mark out of 4 |
Thorough explanation and detailed, relevant examples
4 |
Thorough explanation and relevant examples with a few details missing
3 |
Explanation and examples have several missing details
2.5 |
Explanation and examples have many missing details
1.9 |
Writing
Mark out of 1 |
Error free
1 |
A few spelling or grammatical errors
.8 |
Several spelling or grammatical errors
.6 |
Many spelling or grammatical errors
.5 |
Part C: Reading Scholarly Articles
Of fundamental importance in the science of psychology is the ability to communicate and understand scholarly research. You will notice references to research throughout the Wade et al. textbook. The research has been comprehensively reported on in scientific articles published by scholarly journals. This scholarly work requires strict adherence to critical thinking guidelines and the use of the scientific method referred to earlier in the unit. Being able to dissect and understand scholarly work is a tool that allows students of psychology to differentiate between claims based on empirical evidence, and claims based on opinion, folklore, intuition, etc.
In this part of the assignment, we are going to hone the skills needed for understanding psychological research. You will be introduced to scholarly literature and begin to gain practice in finding the key information contained inside. Reading scholarly articles will help you gain insight into how psychologists make decisions when doing research and also help you understand the different types of research methods that are referred to throughout the course. This activity will provide an introductory framework for analyzing and understanding scholarly work. Specifically, this part of the assignment will require you to read a published article, and then demonstrate your understanding of it by responding to series of questions
This activity is adapted from:
- Sego, S. A, & Stuart, A. E. (2016). Learning to read empirical articles in general psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 43(1), 38-42.
The articles chosen for this activity are relatively brief, and have the added advantage of being written by undergraduate students such as yourselves—thereby exposing you to models of excellent student writing, and perhaps nudging you towards a potential future career path!
Please choose ONE of the following articles for this part of the assignment. All are available as free downloads from Psi Chi Journal.
- España, L. Y. (Winter 2016). Effects of password type and memory techniques on user password memory. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 21(4), 269-275. https://doi.org/10.24839/2164-8204.JN21.4.269.
- Partika, A. C. (Spring 2017). Donate, everybody’s doing it: Social influences on charitable giving. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 22(1), 39-45. https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN22.1.39.
- Stover, J., Dismuke, T., Nelson, C., & Grahe, J. E. (Summer 2006). Can you raed this srcmabeld msesgae? Testing a mass e-mail assertion. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 11(2), 77-83. Retrieved from https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.psichi.org/resource/resmgr/journal_2006/Summer06JNStover.pdf.
After you have thoroughly read your chosen article, respond to the following questions. Use complete sentences and be sure to proofread for grammar and spelling mistakes.
- What is the title of the article? (5 mark)
- What are the three or four main things you learned from the introduction? (5 marks)
- What is the hypothesis? (5 mark)
- How many participants were in the study? (5 mark)
- Who were the participants (e.g., college students, infants, etc.)? (5 mark)
- What was/were the independent variable(s)? (1 mark)
- What was the dependent variable? (1 mark)
- Summarize what the participants did. (2 marks)
- How was the data analyzed (i.e., what statistical analysis was used)? Report the means and standard deviations for each group. (2 marks)
- What did you learn from the results section? (5 marks)
- Was the hypothesis supported? (5 mark)
- What can you conclude from the study? (2 marks)
- What, if any, suggestions did the author(s) make for future investigation? (2 marks)
- How many references were cited in the article? (5 marks)
- Do results generalize to real life? What real life conditions were not replicated well in the study? (3 marks)
Grading (20 marks)
Complete and accurate answers receive full marks as indicated above. Part marks may be awarded.
Part D: Conducting a Correlational Study
The final part of Assignment 1 will give you the opportunity to build on your understanding of research methods by conducting a small study.
Choose ONE of the following predictions to test:
- There is a positive correlation between height and weight.
- There is a negative correlation between rainfall amount and hours of sunlight.
For each option, you will need some data. For option 1 you could ask 10 people you know to report their height and weight, or you could use archival data that were collected for another purpose and reported on a website, from which you can extract height and weight data. Examples here are any major sports league website, whose statistics include height and weight. You can see an example of archival data at:
For option 2 you will find historical rainfall and sunlight data archived at weather sites such as the Government of Canada’s Historical Climate Data. You could choose ten days in a particular month to look at, or the same day over ten years. Make sure that in the time period you choose there is some variability in rainfall and sunlight amounts.
For either option, you will need at least ten cases. If you imagine a table with two columns of data, one column for each variable, each row is a case. If you choose option 1 then you would have ten rows with two columns; each row is one person, and the two columns are height and weight.
Next, you will need to calculate the correlation. This is a measure of the strength of the relationship between the two variables. See the discussion in Unit 1 and in Chapter 2 of the Wade et al. textbook. You can calculate the correlation using a calculator, or there are many online calculators you can use. For example, try:
Now you are ready to write-up your results. For either option, report the following:
- State your prediction. (1 mark)
- Provide a brief rationale for the logic of the prediction. (3 marks)
- Provide a table displaying your raw data (see the description above). (3 marks)
- Create a scatterplot displaying your data. (3 marks). See Chapter 2 in the Wade et al. textbook. Make sure you label the axes of the scatterplot. More information on scatterplots is available here:
Khan Academy. (n.d.). Making good scatter plots. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/math/probability/scatterplots-a1/creating-interpreting-scatterplots/e/making-good-scatter-plots.
- Calculate the Pearson r correlation coefficient. Report it as “r = .xx”. (2 marks)
- Report the effect size of your correlation. (2 marks)
Bliwise, N. G., & Terranova, S. (n.d.). Effect size. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/bliwise/Tutorials/SCATTER/scatterplots/effect.htm.
- Was your prediction confirmed and how do you know? (2 marks)
- How is your study a poor test of the prediction; i.e., what are the limitations in your study that prevent you from asserting confidently to the world that your results represent the ways things are in real life? (4 marks)
Solution
Part A: psychology in the news
- CNN, S. L. (n.d.). World Suicide Prevention Day: Here’s how to help in 2021. CNN. Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/10/health/world-suicide-prevention-day-2021-wellness/index.html
The article was written on world suicide prevention day. it states, according to WHO that there are over seven hundred thousand deaths by suicide in the world. Over the years there have been increasing rates of suicide in many parts of the world. In the US for example, there has been a 35% increase between 1999 and 2018. With Covid-19, the experts are concerned that there may be an escalation in suicidal thoughts due to mental stress and economic challenges. For young people between 10 and 34, suicide is the second leading cause of death……..Purchase the link to access full answer @$9.99