Introduction to Psychology

Writing Assignment for   

 

Introduction to Psychology

(75 points)

 

This article review is worth 75 points toward your final grade. The paper should be no longer than three (3) typewritten pages, nor shorter than two (2) typewritten pages.  The paper will be double-spaced. The objectives of this assignment are three-fold:

 

1. Compare the validity of sources of information
2. Demonstrate professional database and internet search skills
3. To express critical thinking in comparison of sources of a similar topic in a clear

and scholarly fashion

 

The paper must follow APA documentation style. It should include a title page (as shown on the last page of this document), the body of the paper and a Reference list. See online links for specific APA style notations.

 

When writing the paper, do not copy word for word from any source as this and close paraphrasing constitutes plagiarismand is not acceptable.  Any passage (however minute) from a source included in your paper must be within quotes indicating that the passage is not your original words. Quotes should be kept to a minimum (two short quotes at most) and should reference the page number where the quote is found from the source. If even one case of plagiarism or close paraphrasing is found within your paper, the minimum penalty is a zero score on the paper without opportunity to redo the paper. All papers will be submitted to Turn-It-In, a web site which compares all papers with journal content and other papers that have been submitted by students across the nation and from purchase papers web sites.

 

STEPS IN COMPLETING THIS ASSIGNMENT:

 

1. Determine a topic of personal interest from the textbook. Once you have chosen a topic or area of interest, you are ready to conduct the topic search.

 

2. First, conduct a search on the databases located on the JCCC library site. These databases will direct you to professional journals in Psychology. These are professional sources which are published in “peer reviewed” journals. Conduct a subject specific search and locate an article which addresses the topic you chose. Next, conduct an internet search using Google or Yahoo. Locate an article or source related to your topic. Keep in mind that the internet search reference may NOT be Wikipedia. If you do not know how to conduct either of these types of searches, ask the reference librarian to help you.

 

3. Once you have both articles you may begin the comparison. Keep in mind that you must engage your critical thinking to determine the validity and strength of each of the articles from the two sources.

 

4. Now begin writing the paper.  Major sections of your paper include:

 

1. why you chose this topic

 

1. a review of the article you located from the databases on the library site

 

1. a review of the article you located from your internet search

           

 

1. develop a critical comparison between the two sources in terms of:
2. the validity of each of the two sources
3. differences between the two sources
4. which source you would trust for accurate information

           

1. personal concluding comments on this assignment and lessons learned

           

1. a reference list which includes the textbook and the two sources

 

5. All papers must be turned in online and in Word format. Hard copy papers will not be accepted. Turn in your completed paper at the ANGEL online drop box for this course. If you need assistance with technical issues, please call the JCCC Help Desk at 913-469-8500 x4357.

 

Evaluation:

 

Assessment of your paper will consider how well the paper meets the assignment requirements, writing style and accuracy of APA style.

 

 

Sample Title Page:

 

 

 

Review of  Title of First Article Author(s) of First Article   Title of Second Article Author(s) of Second Article     Introduction To Psychology Course Day and Time B. Redburn   Date   Written by Your name

 

 

 

By submitting your paper, you agree that you have written this paper entirely by yourself,  each and every word was composed entirely by you and no portion was copied from any other source.

 

 

TWO SAMPLE PAPERS:

 

Review of

 

 

Stress and Health:  Major Findings and Policy Implications

Peggy A. Thoits

 

 

Understanding Stress:  Signs, Symptoms, Causes, and Effects

Contributed to by Melinda Smith, M.A., Ellen Jaffe-Gill, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction To Psychology

Online Course

1. Redburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date Paper is Turned In

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by

 

Your Name

 

 

                        How stress affects a person’s physical health is something that has intrigued me for the past few years. In searching for a topic, I came across the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) (Wood, Wood, and Boyd, 2011, p. 412) and was even more intrigued when my life event of losing my spouse to a brain tumor ranked me an immediate score of 100. I continued assessing the list of life events on the SRRS and my stress score totaled 165. According to the SRRS researchers, a score between 150 and 300 means a person has a 50% chance of becoming ill within two years (Wood et al., 2011). This evaluation encouraged me to find out more about how stress can affect a person’s physical health.

The article, “Stress and Health: Major Findings and Policy Implications” written by Peggy A. Thoits (2011), explains there is a substantial impact on a person’s physical and mental health after experiencing a negative life event. Thoits (2011) also focuses on research when gender, race, ethnicity, age, marital status, and socioeconomic status are considered when assessing health impacted stress.  Research is presented to show how coping strategies can help reduce stress when a person is presented with a stressful experience (Thoits, 2011). The three coping strategies reflecting positive results are:  a sense of control, high self-esteem, and social support (Thoits, 2011).

The article entitled “Understanding Stress: Signs, Symptoms, Causes, and Effects,” contributed to by Melinda Smith, M.A., Ellen Jaffe-Gill, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. (2010)  begins by explaining the “fight-or-flight” reaction and when stress is and is not helpful. Stress can raise a person’s blood pressure; which in turn, increases their chance of a heart attack and stroke, suppresses the immune system and long term stress can cause damage to the brain (Smith, Jaffe-Gille, and Segal, 2010).  The authors point out that it is important to identify the signs and symptoms of stress because it can gradually happen; get out of control and cause health problems before you are aware of it (Smith et al., 2010). This article concludes with ideas how to manage stress in your life; such as, control the way you respond, strengthen your support network, learn how to relax, and invest in your emotional health (Smith et al., 2010).

Both authors agree stress does affect a person’s physical and mental health; as well as, explaining coping strategies to help reduce the impact of a stressful situation, but the validity of the two sources is quite different. The first article, written by Thoits, actually has an author with a small bio included in her reference page giving her credibility; furthermore, the article was published in a journal supported by the American Sociological Association.  The article includes numerous facts and the research conducted to support the facts.  Additionally, Thoits’s article cites throughout the text where the information was derived, and includes pages of references to back the information.

In contrast, the second article does not have any validity.  It does not confirm an author, only mentioning it was “contributed to” by Smith, Jaffe-Gill, and Segal.   Moreover, it was not a published article, but located on a website without any credentials.  Lastly, this article did not include any facts or research to support the material; consequently, giving the impression of it expressing more of an opinion than an article based on facts. In conclusion, after reviewing both articles, I would only trust the information in the first article written by Thoits because it is a factual article with referenced research to give it credibility, unlike the second article which is completely opinionated with subjective information.

This was an interesting assignment.  Previously, I had been told by a professor that I could only use college databases for research papers because of credibility, but I had never actually done a comparison like this between the two. To begin with, since there is so much garbage on the internet, I found it very time consuming to sift through the websites to even find an article that would work for this assignment. All of the articles I searched through on the internet were without an author and all were opinionated without any mention of research. In regards to my personal interest in how stress affects my physical health, I only want facts and the research conducted to support the facts to be included for my evaluation instead of an opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Smith, M., Jaffe-Gill, E., & Segal, J. (2010). Understanding Stress: Signs, Symptoms, Causes,

and effects. Helpguide.org. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/

stress_signs.htm

Thoits, P.A. (2010). Stress and Health: Major Findings and Policy Implications. Journal of

Health and Social Behavior, 51 (S) S41-S53. DOI: 10.1177/0022146510383499

Wood, S.E., Wood, E.G., & Boyd, D. (2011). The world of psychology, Boston,  Allyn& Bacon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Review of

Hitting is Contagious: Experience and Action Induction

Rob Gray and Sian L. Beilock

 

Wild About Things: Baseball Supersitions

1. Dugan

 

 

Introduction to Psychology
MWF -10-10:50

1. Redburn

 

Date Paper is Turned In

 

Written By

Your Name

 

 

 

Having played baseball my whole life, I wanted to learn more about baseball. More specifically I wanted to learn about the superstitions in baseball. Players in my sport are often considered the most mental all athletes and with good reason, because in a game where failing 7 out of 10 times is excellent, you need every advantage you can get. I wore a sock inside out the entire season a couple years ago, because I felt it helped and other guys do different things with the same idea behind them.  You don’t mess with success. There are team things too, like kicking over the bats when you aren’t doing well and shaving or dyeing hair. For such a mental game I was surprised that there were very few articles actually on baseball superstitions. The one I did find though was very interesting.

Gray and Beilock (2007) found that hitting is contagious and is linked to seeing someone else hit successfully. Their study also found that you will hit where the other person hit, that you are more likely to hit after seeing a ball fly. They called this action induction. They used four different experiments, both on fields and in their labs. They used both experienced and non experienced hitters as groups in their study and their results were very significant and true to their predictions. The study has all their bases covered, so to speak.They eliminated possible sources of error by using the different skill levels and still came up with their conclusion. They did not cite opinions and constantly through-out the paper explained what happened in baseball as a sport and how it differed in their lab and then suggested how players should change their behavior.

This was in direct contrast to the internet article. The article was all opinions and was examples of different superstitionsthey employ. It included common ones like not discussing a no hitter and avoiding the foul line, but also gave specific examples of players superstitions and the affect they had on the players. One guy switched his number and increased his batting average. Another ate the same thing at Long John Silver’s for 13 days in a row. While this is a good and funny article about baseball superstitions, it doesn’t prove they work. It shows that this worked for this guy, but nothing beyond that. So although it has some validity, it is not a strong article by any means.

The Hitting is Contagious article is backed up by data, and not only that, it was a well structured and organized experimental design. It uses no opinions but instead relies on what the numbers say consistently. That’s the key word because the other article has numbers too, like the increase in batting average of the guy who changed his number. But that could be a coincidence, or be caused by outside forces like easier opponents or even practice effects, we can’t be for sure. The experiment though only shows statistically significant results, which means it happened to many times to be a coincidence. That is definitely the better article in terms of what I would, and will, listen to when I try to improve my game. The study is definitely more valid and stronger than the internet article.

 

 

 

 

References

 

Dugan, C. (2009, Aug 7). Wild about things: baseball superstitions. Retrieved from http://wildthingsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/baseball-superstitions.html

 

 

Gary, R., &Beilock, S. (2011). Hitting is contagious: experience and action induction. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 17(1), Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.jccc.edu/psycarticles/docview/859284103/abstract/12EBC22C60534DC47B6/1?accountid=2200 doi: 10.1037/a0022846

 

Wood, S. E., Wood, E. G., & Boyd, D. (2011). The world of     psychology. Boston: Pearson.