How Psychology Matters for Me

The goal of this paper is to apply psychological concepts to your everyday life. Psychology is about human cognition and behavior. You’re all human…so I want you to write about yourselves! Your job is to highlight how a concept discussed in class either applied to you in the past, is something that you are currently experiencing, or is something that you think you will experience in the future.

Here is the breakdown of the paper (minimum 6 paragraphs).

Part 1: Brief introduction to psychology and why it matters

· One introductory paragraph is needed

Part 2: Define and apply (the big part)

· Choose a minimum of 4 different psychological concepts that we have discussed in class. You must ensure that at least 3 of those concepts come from different chapters. Each concept should have its own paragraph

· For each concept you need to do 2 things:

o 1) define & explain the concept (what is it? How does it work? When does it work? What do we know about it?)

o 2) explain how this particular concept either has been, is currently, or will apply to your life. I expect you to explain things IN DETAIL here (this is the bulk of your paper)

· Use class notes and the textbook to learn about the concepts. When you define the concept, you need to reference the textbook.

o Example: According to Wood, Wood, Boyd, and Desmarais (2015), operant conditioning is when…..

· NO direct quotes allowed. You MUST phrase things in your own words (note: re-arranging the words of a sentence from your text is NOT putting it in your own words…)

Part 3: Summary and conclusion

· One summary paragraph is needed

Psychological concepts are those that are discussed in class. Here are some examples (note: this list is does not include everything)

· A specific part of vision (e.g., accommodation, myopia, hyperopia, colour vision, etc.)

· Positive reinforcement / negative reinforcement / punishment

· Classical conditioning

· Observational learning

· Specific part of memory (E.g., encoding, short term memory, sensory memory, long term memory, retrieval, episodic, semantic)

· Forgetting (e.g., interference, decay, motivated forgetting)

· Brain imaging techniques (e.g., MRI, fMRI)

· Central nervous system (e.g., the amygdala, the hippocampus)

· Endocrine system (e.g., the pituitary gland)

· Psychological disorders (e.g., social anxiety disorder, Bipolar disorder)

· Aggression (frustration, heat, aggressive cues)

In selecting your concept, choose something specific. For example, “memory” is too broad a concept. You would need to narrow it down. Episodic memory is better because it is more specific.

If you’re unsure as to whether a particular concept would be appropriate for this paper, please ask me.

Depending on what you choose, you might need to do a little extra research. For example, if you want to discuss how someone you know suffered a brain injury to a part of the brain that we did not focus on in class, you will need to include detail about the location of the injury (the exact part of the brain) and what functions that particular part is responsible for and other relevant information. To do this, you will likely need to do extra research. You MUST get my approval before choosing a topic not covered in class

Other information

· double spaced

· Times New Roman 12 font

· NO direct quotes from the textbook. You must paraphrase things IN YOUR OWN WORDS