Early in this course, you will be assigned to one of
several research questions with a few others. We want you to exercise the
skills of library research, summary and annotation of sources, and information
presentation. Three specific tasks are required:
a) individual research using a wide range of library and other internet resources to find the
latest research on your topic,
b) a team solution to the problem (arguments to support alternative views) of
how to answer the question posed by your project title, and
c) your 15-20 minute Group Project (presentation) on the
designated date.
The topics are:
Group #1. Can long-forgotten but recently recalled repressed memories be valid?
Group #2. Can intelligence be measured accurately?
Group #3. Does Dissociative Identity Disorder really exist?
Group #4. Is Eye Movement Desensitization and
Reprocessing (EMDR) a valid therapeutic treatment?
Group #5. Is it ever ethical to
deceive research participants in psychology experiments?
Individual Research for Your Annotated
Bibliography. Follow these directions
very carefully. Each student will submit an annotated bibliography, which is due
February 26. Since this is
a psychology course, it is important for you to learn and use the American
Psychological Association's format for presenting research, known as "APA
style." Be sure to consult the APA
Citations and Annotation Format to understand the proper and exact way
to structure the citations and annotations of the bibliography. The term "citation" refers to the exact
and proper listing of the source so another person could go find it. Click
here
to go to a fairly brief overview of this style for students. "Annotation" is the term we use to describe a brief synopsis of the
source along with some critical evaluative information.
a) Create a separate cover page. Include your name, the
topic, date of submission, whether you are participating in the R-option, and
the following sentence: "I hereby affirm that I completed all research
related to this project without the aid of anyone except a librarian."
Then, sign your name underneath this statement. All this information may be in
any form on that cover page.
b) To answer your assigned question, you will need to
define key terms and clarify what you believe the question is asking. Do this in
several paragraphs as the introduction to your annotated bibliography. Be
careful not to go astray and research a question that was not asked. If you have questions, please ask the instructor. At the
end of the bibliography, write several summary paragraphs to review what your
research has revealed.
c) Select eight bibliographic entries from your
research for special "annotation" (these are the best sources you were
able to find). Do not just annotate the first eight you find, however. If a
source is fairly marginal to your topic, or it is old and outdated, it is
probably not a good one to be among the eight, but may be listed in the
secondary list of citations. Old and outdated means anything earlier than about
1980.
Summarize, in about 200 words, the essence of the
article or book and be sure to add a paragraph assessing the source (for
example, Was it helpful? Did it directly address my topic? Was it readable?
etc). You should single space within the annotation, but you should double space
between paragraphs and between each citation and its annotation. Place each
bibliographic citation just before each annotation. Place the eight
entries in alphabetical order by the first (or only) author’s last name. List
all other citations you found at the end, starting alphabetically again. Do not
list again the citations of your eight annotated citations. Repeating, each
citation should be just before its annotation.
d) For each entry, be sure to indicate which side of the research issue
the resource supports. Then add a brief description of your research procedures
used to gain the information. (i.e., explain exactly where you found the
resource’s title. Was it in another article’s bibliography? Was it found in
Psychological Abstracts? Or, in Reader’s Guide? Be specific for each source). This description is not part of
the 200 word summary. The more diverse your sources of material, the better.
Do not get all of your resources from "online at the library." Do
not cite your textbook, dictionaries, encyclopedias, or use popular magazines. Your
librarian will help you learn the difference between a professional journal
article and a magazine article.
e) Photocopy just the first page of articles you annotate
(the copyright page, if a book, or the abstract, if taken from an on-line
search) and attach those 8 pages at the end of your document. You
should not annotate a source unless you have the entire source in hand,
but you need to attach the first page only.
f) At the end of your bibliography but before the photocopied
first pages, and under a separate heading
called "Group Presentation Ideas,"
include a paragraph or two of ideas for how the 15-20 minute presentation might
be structured. See the Group Project
section for criteria of a
good group presentation.
g) Grading criteria: your individual research project is worth 75
points toward the final grade. It will be based on the quality of your
annotations, accuracy of the citations (you must use accurate APA format), absence of
errors (no misspellings or bad grammar), quality of the search process (i.e., a
wide variety of research sources was used), quality of sources obtained, quality
of ideas proposed for the group presentation, and the degree to which you
followed all instructions carefully.
h) The instructor will return your annotated bibliographies (group by
group, in the order of presentations), as soon as possible, with comments and a
grade. Your next job will be to meet as a group to decide how you wish to structure
the 15-20 minute group project. However, this occurs only after you receive your
bibliography back.
Please note that you must turn in the annotated bibliography to qualify to
be a part of your group's presentation later in the semester.