Personal and Real-Life Applications of a Psychological Topic

Choose a Relevant Psychological Topic

Topic

Choose one specific topic from the textbook that is personally relevant or interesting to you. Provide a brief description of the topic from the information provided in the textbook. You must include information from the textbook, and include an in-text citation for the textbook in APA style. You may also wish to include information about the topic from another reliable source, if the textbook does not have very much information about it, or if there is specific information you want to include that is not in the textbook.

Personal and Real Life Applications (1-2 pages)

Discuss the topic from a personal and/or real life perspective. You can write about anything you want, as long as it shows evidence of creativity and/or critical thinking, and it demonstrates that you understand the topic you are writing about from a psychological perspective. For example, you can write about how the topic applies in your own life or the life of someone you know, how the topic is applicable to some social issue or problem, how the topic might apply to your future career, how the topic applies to another field of study, whether you agree or disagree with the author’s interpretation or explanation (and why), how your own personal or cultural experience compares to what is presented in the textbook, and/or how the topic is approached/presented in a movie, TV show, song, book, poem, news story, or social media. You could also analyze yourself, or someone you know, using one of the models or theories described in the textbook. This section should include 2 distinct personal or real-life applications of the topic. Organize the section in to 2 separate paragraphs, each of which focuses on one particular idea. Important: This section should NOT simply present factual information about the topic from the textbook or another source. You can briefly refer to factual information, if it would help you to explain your ideas, but this section should mainly or completely consist of your own thoughts, interpretations, analyses, and/ or experiences. Factual information should mostly be limited to the topic section. References are not required in this section, unless you choose to include information taken from another source (e.g., a book or news story), in which case you should provide references in APA style.

Research Question

Come up with one research question that is directly related to the main topic described in the first section. The question should include one independent variable, one dependent variable, and one population. The research question must be in the following format (see examples below). Using this formula, insert your chosen IV, DV, and population to form your own question: What is the effect of [independent variable] on [dependent variable] among [population]? Your research question should be one that can be answered using an experimental or quasi-experimental research design, in which two or more groups are compared. Remember, the independent variable is the one that is manipulated (the researcher divides the participants in to two or more groups that represent different values/levels of the IV), and the dependent variable is the one that is measured. Research Page 1 of 2questions often ask about the effect of some life experience on a particular outcome. So, it may be useful to think about the research question like this: What is the effect of [a life experience or therapy] on [outcome] among [population]?

Examples of research questions:

• What are the effects of school-based interventions on mental health stigma among adolescents?

• What is the effect of physical activity on the risk of injury among adults over 65 years of age?

• What is the effect of body weight on the risk of bullying among children?

Research Results

Identify an academic journal article that describes the results of a study that answers your research question. The article must describe a primary research study in which the authors recruited their ownsample of participants and made their own measurements or observations (NOT a review or metaanalysis). It is recommended that you use the PsycINFO database to search for relevant research. Use your IV and DV as search terms.

The research results section should include the following information from the journal article:

- the purpose of the study

- a description of the participants

- sample size (number of participants)

- age (range, mean or median, standard deviation)

- gender distribution (percentage of participants who were different genders)

- other important participant characteristics that are relevant to the research question

- a description of the results that specifically answer your research question

This section should consist of a single paragraph. It should be brief, approximately 3-5 sentences. You donot need to summarize the entire article. You only have to include the information specified above