Humanities Homework Help

Format for Research Paper

This research paper should address an area of Psychology that is of interest to you, either because of personal concerns or because of career interest. The paper should be written in a way that is simple and straightforward. The length of the paper is to be 5 pages, double-spaced (length includes title page, abstract, and references): the title page is one page of the paper, the abstract another, and the references another. This means that the body of the paper is 3 pages in length.

The following are the component parts of the paper:

Part #1: Use American Psychological Association (APA) style in completing paper, including Title Page, Abstract, and References. See APA Formatting and Style Guide in The Owl at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01.

Part #2: The abstract is a short summary, from ½ page to ¾ page, about what has been presented in the paper. The abstract is in essence a short summary of the findings of the paper. See the sample abstract in APA Formatting and Style Guide in The Owl at Purdue.

Part #3: In the body of the paper there needs to be an Introductionwhich discusses the problem or concern you intend to study, including why this area is important to the field of Psychology. Also, you must address your topic from the perspective of one or more of the 8 major approaches that psychologists use to understand mental processes and behavior. An example might be that you want to study how to best change the behavior of children who constantly disobey their parents, and you find in your research that the Behavioral Approach has been found to be very effective in changing negative behavior of children. Some other possible topics are the following: The Psychoanalytic Approach has been shown to be effective in helping persons understand whether dreams tell us something about ourselves? Research shows that the Humanistic Approach defines the best way to raise children to have high self-esteem? Research shows that the Cognitive Approach explains how to change our personality in adulthood?

Part # 4: Also in the body of the paper there needs to be a summary of the status of research, study, or practice in your area of focus. This is called a Literature Review. In this section, you want to include what our textbook says about the topic you are addressing. Then you must choose a citation from the textbook and read the research article or paper and summarize some of the basic research findings that exist and are reported in the article or paper you chose to study.

Part #5: After the review of some of the existing research and practice in your topic area, you want to write a section that gives your understanding and analysis as to what you have learned about your topic area and how you might want to study the topic further (My Understanding and Future Direction of Research).

Part #6: The final part of the paper should summarize (Summary) what you found in researching your paper and what conclusions you have drawn about how the information and knowledge you have gained can be applied to your life or to research and practice in the field of Psychology.