You’ve now read many of the most famous psychology studies, book chapters, and articles ever written. But this course can only include a tiny amount of the most influential ideas in the field. Your final assignment in the class is to consider what’s missing from this class. What do you think was left out? What would you have chosen as the readings if you were the instructor of this class?
To complete this assignment, first find five book chapters or academic journal articles. (Do not pick online magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc.) You must actually get electronic copies of all five readings, as you will submit them along with your written paper so that the instructor can read them him- or herself. Do not choose an entire book! Realistically think about what could honestly, really be used as a reading in this class. You can find many articles through the BVU library or on the website GoogleScholar.
After you have found your five readings, you will write an essay describing why you think this particular reading is worthy to be included in a class like this. Why is this reading important in terms of the history of psychology? How or why was it influential at the time it was published? Was the author the famous and important part, or did the author only become important because of what he or she wrote in this reading? In short, explain why you chose this reading. You may use first person in this paper (e.g., “I chose this reading because…”). For each of your five readings, your essay should:
Start with an APA-style reference for the reading (listing the author, title, etc.).
Summarize the reading (minimum of 250 words per reading).
Explain the importance, influence, etc. of this particular author and/or reading (minimum of 250 words per reading). Why would this reading be a good choice for this class?
The readings you choose can fall into one of the “theme” weeks that formatted this course (e.g., Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology), or you are welcome to suggest a new “theme” that you think was missing from this course (e.g., Neuropsychology). Your five readings can all be in the same theme, or they can all be in different themes. Note: You are strongly cautioned against simply choosing a bunch of readings that were already selected for you in a previous BVU Psychology class. Instead, choose articles from across the field that are truly famous, monumental, pivotal readings from the history of psychology.
This paper is worth 80 points, which is about 12% of your overall course grade. The point structure for grading will be as follows:
25 points: 5 points for each article’s summary
25 points: 5 points for explanation of why each article is important to the history of psychology
10 points: Appropriate choice of articles (e.g., they are academic in nature, about the right length, and important for the history of psychology). Remember you must submit the articles along with your written paper.
10 points: Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and general quality of writing
10 points: Correct APA-style references for each article (2 points each)