A key lesson in this class is that science is about always questioning. Nothing should ever be assumed as unquestionable fact, and this far into your Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of this. This paper is your chance to prove that you are a psychologist. To do this, you will produce an original work demonstrating critical thinking skills and thoughtful scholarly examination of some problem in psychology.
The assignment is this: find something in psychology that you think is problematic. This may be a theory or concept, a research finding, a methodology or practice, or any other issue relevant to the current state of affairs in psychology. Write a paper explaining this topic and what the problems are with it. Do not produce a simple opinion piece: Provide citations to back up your reasoning. Support your argument with evidence and clear reasoning. You must use APA Professional (not student) formatting rules as appropriate. Remember, the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition, is the only authoritative reference on APA style.
There is no length requirement – in science we write until we have completed making the point; page limits are arbitrary and meaningless. Tips: start with a statement in your opening paragraph that clearly describes the area of interest and the problem you have identified. Spend some time providing a descriptive background of the area of interest before detailing the problem and evidence. In addition to supporting your criticisms, provide solutions, whether it be a different theory, or a revision to research methodology or statistical analysis, or proposals for new experiments to be done.
Regarding references and APA formatting: write your paper as if you were going to submit it to a journal for peer-review and publication. Journals would require APA Professional styled title pages, abstracts, page and paragraph formatting, citations and references. Be sure your choice of references would pass peer review. You should only be citing sources like the ones you see cited in other peer-reviewed articles, namely primary sources.
