Introduction to Psychology, Spring 2001

This semester, you are required to write a paper chosen from the five options below.

1. Choose a problem and show how an historical and current psychologist, within the same general school, might study it (e.g., Freud vs. a modern pschoanalyst).

2. Choose a problem and show how it might be studied by two different schools of psychology (e.g., a behaviorist's vs. a cognitive psychologist's approach to motor learning).

3. Choose a problem and show how it might be studied by one school of thought of psychology and one other discipline (biology, literature, education, etc.)

4. Choose a problem and show how it would be studied today, and how it might be studied by a psychologist in the year 2099.

5. Choose a problem and show how it is studied today. Include in your paper at least one interview with a current psychologist. Contrast his or her professional view with the view of another professional.

The papers should each be about 5-10 pages long. The purpose of these exercises is to demonstrate that you understand the concepts, background, and methods that we are covering this semester. Your paper should contain the following sections.

Title

Your report should include the name of the topic, the names of the authors, the date. You may work in groups on these papers.

Questions

What is the purpose of these psychologists? What are examples of some questions they ask? What do they hope to discover or accomplish?

Methods

How are the psychologists approaching their problems? What equipment do they use? What do they use it for? What are they measuring or observing?

Historical Context

What is the background that led them to this question? In what ways has history influenced their topic?

Daily Life

How are the scientists funded? What do they do each day? Write? Talk to people? Examine patients? How much administrative work do they do? How often do they communicate with peers? Is their communication verbal or written? Be specific.

References

Your report should contain a minimum of two references. For every additional student, an additional reference should be included. For example, if two people are working together, the report should contain three references, for three people, four references, for four people, five. References must be approved by me. Papers that do not contain references are not acceptable.