OVERVIEW
FIRST DRAFT DUE NOVEMBER 27
SYLLABUS

SYP 5105-01           FALL 2006

  THEORIES OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

CHECK OUT THE PROJECT TOPIC CHOICES
CLICK HERE

 
THE COURSE PROJECT

 
CRITICALLY IMPORTANT NOTES
As I began reading the project updates, I noticed that many people are turning in the beginnings of a paper, rather than an actual update. Generally I feel it is a mistake to begin writing too quickly. 

Have you completed most of your literature review? 

Do you have an outline in GREAT DETAIL, complete with headings and subheadings, of how you want your project to go? 

Did you realize that even if you do a short study you must ALSO do a sufficient literature review to place your work in context (see journal articles in your discipline for examples)?

If you plan to collect data and do not have a detailed study design ready to go, it will be too late to collect and analyze data this semester. It might be too late to collect data if you don't have a specific collection plan and all the logistics in place.

Is your focus too wide or too narrow? Have you placed the focus where you want it to be? Will you have too much material for a one semester project? Will data gathering take so much time that you won't be able to complete your project on schedule (if so, drop back to a very thorough study design instead)?

These are all things to consider before you begin to actually write the paper (although do that first page--what's your topic, why is it important, and what, specifically, will your project do right now! That's your guideline.)


 

 
 
 
TIME 
GUIDELINES
UPDATE INFORMATION
WRITING TIPS
PAST 
EXAMPLES
SEPTEMBER 23

 

  DUE NOVEMBER 27: FIRST DRAFT

All SYP 5105 students may rewrite their course paper for a higher grade IF I receive your paper by November 27 (you WON'T get a lower grade, although--rarely--your grade may not change). ALL rewrites are due BY 3 P.M. Friday, December 8 2006.  Of course, if you didn't turn in your draft before then, all papers are due by December 8 3 P.M., draft or rewrite!
 
 

TWO IMPORTANT GROUND RULES

1. In addition to hard copy of your paper, I must receive a diskette with your paper on it in either MSWord or Word Perfect IBM format by December 8 (ground rule for ALL).
 
 

2. If you rewrite your paper, you must turn in BOTH a copy of the original draft you first turned in with my comments on it, as well as a copy of the rewritten paper. Both are due by December 8.

I will not accept or grade rewrites without a copy of your original draft.

The draft of your project is due by class on November 27. This is to allow you to rewrite it before the final due date, which is Friday, December 8.

Do check out the writing tips immediately below when you write.

Here are some writing tips

First off, don't worry about it when I underline the various stages of your projects in felt tip (yellow, pink, or otherwise). I do this to focus my eyes on the page and to ensure I don't miss anything.

ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE

Have a comprehensive introduction. Your introduction, in a few paragraphs, should tell me (1) what your paper will be about, (2) why the topic is important to study, (3) what your paper will contribute (e.g., a solid review of the literature, a new study on mate selection), and (4) the order of the subtropics that you will examine.

The introduction appropriately goes at the VERY BEGINNING of your paper.
 
 
 
SOMEWHERE IN THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR PAPER, YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT YOUR STUDY IS ABOUT AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO STUDY THIS TOPIC! Also what YOUR paper will contribute. You may wish to duplicate this information later in your paper too. I assure you that I am a total maniac on this one and will notice immediately if you do not do so.

It is helpful to write a couple of sentences or a paragraph that summarize the main topic of your paper. Place this paragraph before you as you write. If your sentences, paragraph, or section do not directly relate to that main topic, eliminate it or them, no matter how fascinating they may be. Remember you will probably be able to include that excised paragraph or section in a different paper later on.

(What I find helpful is to paste this extraneous wonderful section or paragraph that I hate to discard at the end of my paper. When I am pretty much done, I make a decision about whether I can use the section in THIS paper and where it belongs.If so, I merge it in. Otherwise, I save that section in a new file to be used for a different paper sometime.)

Working from outlines will help organize your ideas and the order in which you present them.

Use headings and subheadings to tell me what each major section of your paper is about (again, look at your readings for examples).

Remember that each paragraph should be about one main idea. Beginning and ending sentences make the transitions between paragraphs easier for your reader.

REFERENCE APPROPRIATE LITERATURE

Be sure to use professional journals, such as The Journal of Communication, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Educational Psychology, Social Psychology Quarterly, and other professional journals in your field. In general, AVOID popular magazines or newspapers; their authors typically are journalists, not trained behavioral scientists, and at best, only interview behavioral scientists.

YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Your personal experiences as a counselor or a teacher make terrific illustrations. However, recall that in a professional conference paper or article, personal recollections constitute a VERY small part of what is presented to the reader (maybe 5 percent, certainly no more than 10 percent). Your emphasis for this course paper should be on concepts and the evidence supporting or refuting the concepts. Use a sentence or so of personal experience (if appropriate) as a springboard to introduce a topic, or as an illustration, no more than that.

MAKE YOUR MANUSCRIPT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

If I present my data on science reasoning in a Social Psychology paper session, I emphasize how and why  social factors influence knowledge and reasoning rather than materials that focus more on science education per se. Most topics have several dimensions and depths to them. It is NOT "cheating" to focus most heavily on the perspectives that your audience wants to know about the most. Rather, you are providing a service for your audience of readers.

BE SELECTIVE

The best paper is not usually the one that mentions the largest number of concepts in the fewest number of pages. This is because the paper will not be able to adequately define, describe, and evaluate each concept in a small space. Similarly the best paper is not the one that manages to cram the largest number of citations into the smallest amount of room.  Your paper will be better if it selects a relatively small number of concepts and deals with them in depth. (See below)

ORGANIZE AROUND CONCEPTS, NOT AUTHORS (AND A NOTE ON CITATIONS IN TEXT)

What were the major findings about your topic? Were group processes more important than "personality" in studies of bullying? How does ethnicity and its associated social experiences affect eating disorders? What are the major influences of cartoon violence on children's aggression? Take a look at your readings. They will summarize a finding ("imitation of aggression increased when the model was rewarded") then cite a few studies as examples.

Citations typically follow American Psychological Association (APA) style: in the text, simply put the author's last name and the year the study was published (e.g., Jones, 2001). Give the full citation in a reference section at the back. If the author has more than one study in a specific year, designate them as 2001a, 2001b, etc. If an author has a common last name, add their first initial (e.g., M. Jones, 2001a).

PRIORITIZE

All concepts are not equally important, all theories not equally fruitful, all empirical studies not equally well executed or unambiguously informative. In selecting theories, concepts, and studies for your paper, emphasize those that are the most important and appropriate for your topic.

Examine theories and concepts for internal contradictions, ease of operationalization potential, and the available supporting evidence. Consider whether the studies you select for review could have multiple interpretations of the results or are too limited to be conclusive.

BIGGER IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER

A shorter paper is often better, if it is well-organized, succinct, and avoids redundancy. Repetition is the most common problem that I see in novice papers, and it can be eliminated if you reorganize. Fortunately, word processors make it easy to block and press the delete key, move sections around and make substitutions.

HELP! I'M NOT DONE YET!

Several individuals, especially those who are either gathering or analyzing data, won't have their total paper done by the draft date. That's expected. Turn in what you can, and focus on the writing and conceptual review. Please DON'T turn in a mass of disorganized pages, of course, but showing where the results will go and a tentative description and explanation of the results is fine.

HELP! I'M DOING A LITERATURE REVIEW AND FINDING A MASS OF CONTRADICTIONS

This is actually a pretty typical experience. To help you through the maze, here are some suggestions:

Consider methodology first: Are the populations comparable in the  different articles and papers you examined? Findings derived from college student samples (truncated ages, socio-economic class, academic ability) may not generalize to other groups. This is a question of external validity.
More methodology: are the verbal and other measures used comparable? If not, this may cause discrepant results across studies.
More methodology: were control variables used in the analysis? Were the SAME control variables used in the analysis? Bivariate results may change when other independent variables are controlled.
Check out the age of the publication. Gender differences in math once found in high school students have narrowed dramatically. More recent generations are more sophisticated about science inquiry than earlier generations. The phenomenon you are interested in may have changed over time (that's an interesting finding, so be sure to include if that's what happened).
Got TOO MUCH literature? In view of what we know, your topic may be too broad. Narrow the scope of your review.


EARLIER STUFF

Wide latitude exists for your project. Here are some possibilities:

Take a look at the PRESENTATIONS section under COURSE LIBRARY that will be placed on our Blackboard site. This will give you some idea of the range of topics chosen in the past.

TIME GUIDELINES
COMING BEFORE NOVEMBER 27: TIPS ON WRITING.
 
 
  DUE OCTOBER 23: PROJECT UPDATE

Here's what you need to tell me:

(1) What are you going to do? Literature review? Empirical study? WHAT KIND of empirical study (e.g., observational design, experiment, survey, etc.)?

(2) Exactly what is your topic?  NOW IS THE TIME TO BE SPECIFIC! At this point, you are involved in a subtopic (from below, you need to include it again, and if you have changed it, now is the time to tell me!)

(3) Who are your team members? If you are working with someone else, now is the time to tell me (if you haven't already.) Or to reaffirm these members if you did.

(4A)IF YOU ARE DOING AN EMPIRICAL STUDY: I need to know your procedures, see your questionnaire, review your field observation codes, etc. Although you may have some changes shortly, time is fleeting so you should have an overall design.

Not enough time at this point? You can still do a STUDY DESIGN or PLAN.

(4B) IF YOU ARE DOING A LITERATURE REVIEW: I need to know:

Give me a topic outline of the areas that you will review. If you must interpolate from a related literature (e.g., from aggression to "road rage"), describe that area.

Depending on detail, your update should be about 4 double-spaced pages.

REMEMBER WE ONLY HAVE A SEMESTER! Better a smaller topic in depth than many shallow topics.
 
 

ON TEAMWORK

Teams find it easier to plan and execute a small experiment, survey, or observation than individuals, can do more comprehensive literature reviews and more complex presentations. You may choose to work in teams for the Course Paper.  Turn in the names of all team members on the Course Paper by October 23  with the updated project description. I also will alert you to possible teammates (but the choice is yours).

This is your opportunity to have some fun and be creative with Social Psychology.


LENGTH: While there will be individual differences, the typical Course Paper is about 15 pages, including tables, figures, illustrations, and references. Team papers are typically 25-30 pages.
 

 PAST EXAMPLES

LIBRARY RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS:

Others have executed a survey, small experiment or observational design.

EMPIRICAL STUDY TOPIC EXAMPLES:


WHAT YOU NEED TO TELL ME ON SEPTEMBER 25, 2006

Here's what you need to tell me:

EXAMPLES: Sports psychology; counseling; educational psychology; management; instructional systems EXAMPLES: Attribution theory; social exchange; cross-cultural; self-efficacy; emotional intelligence EXAMPLES: Bullying; participation in endurance sports; leadership among managers EXAMPLE: I plan to adapt material from the managerial and leadership literature to study leadership styles in private profit seeking and non-profit organizations.

EXAMPLE:I will examine the effects of two different counseling plans that involve social and nonsocial feedback on self-rated self-esteem in college students.

EXAMPLE: I will do a literature review on causes and consequences of bullying in middle and high schools.

EXAMPLES: a literature review (e.g., on leadership styles); an observational study (road rage in FSU parking lots); an experiment (I will manipulate self-esteem and measure treadmill endurance)

EXPECTED PROPECTUS LENGTH: 1-3 double-spaced typed pages or equivalent.

DON'T: be too specific. I don't need to know your coding categories, any standardized tests or minute experimental manipulations. That information will be on the OCTOBER 23 update.

The biggest problem I find with papers by both students AND professionals is that it takes too long to find out what the paper is about. NONE of us has the leisure to leaf through six or seven pages to discover the issues that the author will address. Your introduction, in a few paragraphs, should tell me what your paper will be about, why the topic is important to study, and the order of the subtropics that you will examine. The introduction appropriately goes at the VERY BEGINNING of your paper. Many précis for meetings such as the American Educational Research Association begin with a short paragraph labeled "purpose".
 
 

 
SOMEWHERE IN THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR PAPER (draft or final copy), YOU WILL TELL ME WHAT YOUR STUDY IS ABOUT AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO STUDY THIS TOPIC.

It is a good idea to practice writing this statement at the beginning of work on your paper too. It is helpful to write a couple of sentences or a paragraph that summarize the main topic of your paper. Place this paragraph before you as you write.

BUT: be sure I receive this information by October 23, which is the project update. Practice this paragraph or two for your paper prospectus in step 1 for September 25.

  TIMING: WHAT'S COMING UP:

 
  NOVEMBER 27: PROJECT DRAFT DUE

The draft of your project is due by class on November 27. This is to allow you to rewrite it before the final due date, which is Friday, December 8.

You may rewrite your draft course paper for a higher grade IF I receive your paper by November 27. ALL rewrites are due December 8, 2006. I will not read any rewrites turned in after that time. Of course, if you didn't turn in your draft before then, all papers are due by December 8, draft or rewrite.
 
 

GUIDE 1: INTRODUCTION
GUIDE 2: ISSUES IN METHODS
GUIDE 3: A SOCIAL COGNITION PRIMER
GUIDE 4: AFFECT AND ATTITUDES
GUIDE 5: PERSONALITY AND THE SELF
GUIDE 6: LEARNING THEORIES AND SOCIALIZATION
GUIDE 7: AN INTRODUCTION TO GROUPS
GUIDE 8: GROUP STRUCTURE & INFLUENCE

 
 
OVERVIEW
SYLLABUS

This page was built with Netscape Composer.
It is best viewed with Netscape Navigator.
Susan Carol Losh Updated October 8 2006