PSCH 320 Community Psychology

This worksheet aims to help you organize your thoughts and prepare for the first major paper assignment this semester, Paper 1. You may earn a maximum of 10 points on this assignment; please see the syllabus for late assignment policies. 

For Paper 1, you are asked to select a social problem you believe deserves more attention and explain what the current literature says about the problem. You can take inspiration for your topic anywhere. Most, if not all of us, have observed some type of injustice or adversity that you believe can be prevented, reduced, or better managed. I encourage all students to select a problem that is personally meaningful to them but not so emotionally charged for them that their work will be undermined by their feelings. Many of the issues students are likely to select are complex, meaning that there are multiple contributing factors and no obvious, easy solutions. Your goal is to better understand the problem using scientific, academic literature.

Keep in mind, that the more information and writing you include in this worksheet, the more feedback you can get ahead of time, which may help you out as you prepare for your Paper 1. 

Finally, you might consider thinking through whether you want to look at “causes” or “effects” of your social problem. As previously indicated, the literature on many of these topics is complex, so finding a way to narrow your topic might help. 

Note: Each response below is worth 2 points. 

1. Which social problem will you write about? Be sure you are specific. I recommend using APA PsycInfo for a bit to refine your topic. It’s really important that your topic is not too broad nor too narrow or finding scientific studies and connecting them will be difficult.  

2. Please list the full references, in APA Style 7, for the three (3) peer-reviewed journal articles about your social problem. Use Purdue OWL and/or APA Style guide to help you format the references correctly.

3. For each of your three articles, tell us what was the methodology? Did the researchers use surveys, observational data, experimental methods, etc.? Who were the participants? You should write at least one paragraph about the methodology used in each article you selected. 

a. Article 1: 

b. Article 2: 

c. Article 3:

4. For each of your three articles, tell us what was the main finding, or major takeaway for the article? You should write at least a paragraph about each article you selected. 

a. Article 1: 

b. Article 2: 

c. Article 3: