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So, you're about to have an anxiety attack because you need an idea for a term paper (or several term papers) on a psychological topic? Well, you've come to the right place! I won't write your paper for you or even tell you what you should write about, but I will give you some general ideas about social, personality and cognitive psychology that you can use as you decide what to write about. Remember that plagiarism is a serious offense that can get you kicked out of school, so don't try downloading someone else's paper and calling it your own. Just write your own paper using one of these ideas:
- Choose a famous psychologist whose work you really admire (e.g., Skinner, Freud, Neisser, Piaget, or Lewin) and write either a short biography or a description of how his/her ideas have shaped contemporary psychology. There is lots of information online about each of these psychologists.
- Explain how the "power of the situation" explains the behavior of both the prisoners and the guards in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here are some references:
- http://www.prisonexp.org This is a fantastic website that thoroughly describes the Stanford Prison Experiment.
- Zimbardo, Philip G. On the ethics of intervention in human psychological research: With special reference to the
Stanford prison experiment. [Journal Article] Cognition. Vol 2(2), 1973, 243-256.
- Banuazizi, Ali; Movahedi, Siamak. Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison: A methodological analysis. [Journal
Article] American Psychologist. Vol 30(2), Feb 1975, 152-160.
- DeJong, William. Another look at Banuazizi and Movahedi's analysis of the Stanford Prison Experiment. [Journal
Article] American Psychologist. Vol 30(10), Oct 1975, 1013-1015.
- Haney, Craig; Zimbardo, Philip. The past and future of U.S. prison policy: Twenty-five years after the Stanford Prison
Experiment. [Journal Article] American Psychologist. Vol 53(7), Jul 1998, 709-727.
- Haney, Craig. Ideology and crime control. [Journal Article] American Psychologist. Vol 54(9), Sep 1999, 786-788.
- Explain how the "power of the situation" explains the behavior of people who participated in Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments. Here are some references:
- Stanley Milgram. Behavioral study of obedience. [Journal Article] Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 67, 1963, pp. 371-378.
- Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper/Collins, 1983.
- http://www.stanleymilgram.com/ This website has a little information on Stanley Milgram and his contribution to social psychology.
- Explore the problem of memory loss and aging. Here is a student's project on the subject that reviews much of the relevant literature:
- Write a paper about a psychology career you are interested in. Write about what kind of education you need, what kind of work people in that career do, etc.
- Although this may not be appropriate for all classes, consider writing a paper on a career in psychology that you think you might be interested in. You can research and write about, for instance, what it takes to become a clinical psychologist.
- Explain what implications research on the "weopons effect" has for the current debate over gun control. Here are some references:
- Berkowitz, Leonard. Impulse, aggression and the gun. [Journal Article] Psychology Today. Vol. 2(4), Sep 1968, 19-22.
- Berkowitz, Leonard; Frodi, Ann. Stimulus characteristics that can enhance or decrease aggression: Associations with
prior positive or negative reinforcements for aggression. [Journal Article] Aggressive Behavior. Vol 3(1), 1977, 1-15.
- Explain how research on cognitive dissonance might shed light on ways to get people to recycle more (or perform any environmentally responsible behavior more often). Here are some references:
- Explore the psychology of cyberspace--discuss relationships over the internet, notions of "personal space" or something else you're interested in. Perhaps you could even enter a chatroom and conduct a brief interview with a few people, and then report the results of your interview. Here's an excellent reference on cyberpsychology:
- Explain what research on how people categorize objects can tell us about the way people think about race, gender, religion or other social groups. Check your textbook for good references on categorization.
- Explain how city life changes the way people think (compared to living in rural areas). Here are some references:
- Milgram, Stanley. The experience of living in cities. [Journal Article] Science. Vol. 167(3924), Mar 1970,
1461-1468.
- Milgram, Stanley; Bickman, Leonard; Berkowitz, Lawrence. Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size.
[Journal Article] Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 13(2), 1969, 79-82.
- Write a brief study skills pamphlet for other undergraduates. Explain mnemonic techniques that might help students memorize things for tests, or explain the famous PQRST method for reading textbooks. Here are some references:
- If you're allowed to do a study of your own, you could conduct a small study of bidding behavior on eBay. You can use data such as time of bid, closing bid amount, and ending date of bid to draw conclusions about the psychology of online auctions.
- You can always check an online psychology journal for some idea that might intrigue you. If you find an article that interests you, look up some of the authors' references to learn more about the research problem. Here are links to some online psychology journals:
Good luck, and have fun writing your papers for your psychology classes!
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