Tuesday 27 September 2011
Society's view on Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) / Attention Deficit Disorder ADD,
PSY327 Abnormal Psychology - Project Guidelines Project (Paper and Presentation): For this course, you will be required to complete a term project. This project consists of two parts: (1) a paper and (2) a presentation of that paper. Review the list of topics below and submit your selection to the instructor via email by the end of module 2. Submission of an APA formatted paper to the Dropbox and to turnitin.com on your selected topic by the end of the module 7 is required. Also, you will complete and post a presentation of your paper to the discussion board by Thursday, 11:59 PM EDT/EST of module 8. Finally, you will post thoughtful commentary about two presentations other than your own by Sunday, 11:59 PM EDT/EST of module 8. Suggested Topics: Historical trends in society's view of mental illness Historical trends in treatment of mental illness Physiological versus therapeutic treatment of (any disorder inserted here) Challenges in identifying and treating personality disorders Causes of Autism Society's view of ADHD/ADD Electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment option for mental illness Other (must be approved by the instructor) Project (Paper Portion): Brief Description: An 8-10 page "position paper" exploring a topic relevant to a content area covered in the course within the study of ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR that manifests itself in “the real world” and has competing views. APA format is required. Conduct a search (online library) to find recent peer-reviewed and scholarly published research studies to critique and provide evidence supporting or refuting competing real world views (e.g., “Does empirical evidence for Dissociative Identify Disorder exist?”). This evidence shall come from "primary source" journal articles in which the details of the experimental procedures are spelled out, so that you can critically evaluate the conclusions reached by the authors. You shall not rely heavily on "secondary source" review-type articles, and you should not put major emphasis on "personal information" already discussed in class or in your text. In other words, you'll need to find several recent articles relevant to your topic on your own. Then summarize, critically evaluate, and synthesize them into your paper, discussing how they support or refute the "view" in question. Your paper shall discuss at least 6 primary source articles in support for your position for or against the "view". These source articles should appear as references in the Bibliography. After your critical evaluation of the issue, the last portion of your paper should be a discussion of a proposal for a new research study (a new experimental design) that will help to provide additional evidence for or against the theory in question and answer any unanswered questions about the prevailing "view" of the Abnormal Behavior you chose to research. It should give the details of the procedures, and you should make clear the purpose of the study and why you think the results of this study will help resolve the issues you found in the definition, diagnosis, and treatment of the disorder you chose. Tips: It is strongly advised that you to begin working on the paper early in the term. Use "PsycInfo" or similarly offered online database on the SLU library web site for finding references. Also, consider using the Writing Center as an aid in helping organize and write your paper. Project (Presentation Portion): Complete and present the scope and content of your paper in a PowerPoint presentation format. By Thursday 11:59 pm EST/EDT of Module 8, you will be required to upload a presentation of your research for all students in the class to review. It is recommended that the presentation be created in Microsoft PowerPoint (commonly used presentation software) and enhanced with visual images or even your voice narration. Go to the module 8 discussion board and upload your presentation as an attachment to a posted message. You must post thoughtful commentary about two presentations other than your own. No matter the format of the presentation, the paper should be the basis for it. It must contain relevant, scholarly resources. The research, organization, and presentation in addition to the quality of the paper and presentation will be the basis for evaluation.
