PS 101 – Fall 2016

Course Assignments

 

Each assignment is due on the date indicated on the syllabus. Unless it says so on the assignment description, I expect all assignments to be typed and printed!

 

I will take off for grammatical errors, so please proofread your papers. That means spelling and grammar checks. You should be writing these papers in a formal manner. Please do not write these papers as if you are texting me.

 

Late Policy:  I am giving you the due dates for all of the assignments in this class in advance. This will allow you to schedule your time wisely and get your assignments done on time. If you do hand in a paper late, you will lose 10% of the grade for each school day that it is late. If something very serious happens on the due date, like a car accident or something  completely unpredictable, you will have 48 hours to email me (jlatona@pccc.edu) or leave a voice mail (973-684-3974). You will need to show me evidence of what occurred when you are able to return to school.

• Printers running out of ink or your laptop crashing are not valid excuses.These things happen to everyone and good students are prepared and do their assignments early enough that they can follow through with a backup plan if technological problems occur.
• Also, do not email your assignments to me without getting my permission first. There are printers located all over campus, and if you have any trouble, do not wait until the due date to contact me!
• Assignments are due at the beginning of class or they are considered one day late. Also, I will not accept any papers after 10:10 AM on December 12^th.

 

 

How to earn all points for these assignments

 

• Make sure that you answer every part of the assignment.
• Plagiarism is unacceptable. You are in college now; you need to learn how to summarize information in your own words.
• Avoid grammatical and spelling errors! If you do not know how to use spelling and grammar check on your word processing software, I recommend using the e-tutoring service below.

• Make sure that your paper is double-spaced, typed, and stapled.
• Make sure that your paper has one inch margins and you are using 12 point font.

 

E-TUTORING: If you would like to have a professional go over your first draft of any written assignment (for this class or any of your classes), you can use e-tutoring. This is a service paid for by PCCC. You will need to upload a version of your paper and then the tutor will send you comments via e-mail. The website is:http://etutoring.org/login.cfm?institutionid=165  . It may be easier to get to through our library e-tutoring help page: http://pccc.libguides.com/etutoring

Assignment #1 – Worth 50 Points

Due October 12

Psychology in the News

 

For this assignment you will need to find a news story from a trusted online or print source that discusses a psychological research study. See the list below for a list of acceptable sources. Note that I’m looking for an article that summarizes experimental psychologists’ research. If you have any questions about your source, please email or ask me in class.

 

You need to answer the following questions in a short (less than 1 page) essay format. This means paragraphs, not just one-word answers!

 

In addition, I’m asking you to print the article out and staple it to the back of your paper.

 

In your essay, the following questions should be answered:

1. Who are the researcher(s) discussed in this article?
2. What type of psychologist(s) were they (i.e. cognitive, developmental, etc.)?
3. In what journal or book was this research published?
4. What is the phenomenon (behavior or mental process) they studied?
5. Describe, in your own words, what results they found.

 

 

 

 

Here are my preferred sources:

1. APA’s Newswire (http://www.apa.org/news/psycport/) OR
2. APA In The News (http://www.apa.org/news/apa-news/index.aspx)
3. National Public Radio (NPR.org)
4. BBC
5. Any of the following websites:

Ars Technica, New Scientist, Popular Science, Live Science, io9

6. Newspapers – Use search bar to search for “psychology research”
   1. New York Times
   2. Washington Post
   3. Chicago Tribune
   4. Tampa Bay Times
   5. Los Angeles Times