Posted: September 13th, 2017

History of Psychology Paper Rubric

History of Psychology Paper Rubric
The goal of this paper is to connect historical ideas, philosophies, and arguments with modern evidence and theories in psychology. How you connect them will be up to you, there is no right or wrong regarding how you connect them. I will be looking for, and grading on, creativity, critical, and analytical thinking.
You have two options of how you can write your paper:
1) You can analyze a particular argument, theory, idea, or concept in history (i.e., free will). If you choose a particular idea, you will need to cover specific individuals who held that idea and their specific arguments supporting (or denying) that viewpoint.
2) You can analyze a particular individual in history (preferably one covered in your textbook or in class). If you choose a particular individual, you will need to cover their specific arguments and positions on a specific topic that you are addressing.
With either option, you must pick a topic/individual from before 20th century (before 1900).
The ultimate goal of the paper is to evaluate if historical ideas can be applied to modern day psychological theories and evidence. So along with discussing a historical topic you will need to introduce at least 4 peer reviewed journal articles (no earlier than 1990) that support or reject the topic. This is a critical opinion paper, so you can choose to support or attack the historical position.
Regarding the journal articles:
You will need to select specific research articles that address your topic. You can be creative in your choice of articles (they can come from areas outside of psychological literature, (ex. economics, anthropology), but they must address current psychological opinion. My recommendation is that you use Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) as a starting point since that search engine only finds peer reviewed articles. If the article is not available online, you can search the UNF library for your target articles. How you connect those articles to your topic concept will be up to you.
Paper requirements:
Use Template on Bb
Cover Page: Your name, title of paper, University name, title of class
10 pages of written text, 12 point font, Times New Roman, double space, 1 inch margins, pages numbered.
Introduce and discuss the historical topic: Begin with the historical theory, idea, concept, or individual. Explain and elaborate on the position that was held at that time. Your textbook is a nice place to begin but you can use other sources (make sure you cite all sources).
Introduce modern ideas on your topic: This is where your two articles come in. For research articles, you will need to cover who was tested (the sample population), the actual experiment (what was done; the methods), and the overall findings.
Synthesis and conclusions: This is where you will compare the historical concept and modern research findings. Since this is an opinion paper, you will need to provide your argument why the modern findings support or fail to support the idea, or which aspects are supported (if any) and which are not (if any).
References: APA style references (including your textbook if used)
Regarding citations in your paper and direct quotes: When you discuss your articles, make sure you cite. You will need to cover material covered in the articles; explain the findings in your own words but cite when writing about someone else’s work. Citations should include the last name of the researcher(s) and the date published. Any more than 3 authors, use the first author and et al. – ex. (Smith, 1990); (Smith & Smith, 1990); (Smith, Smith, & Smith, 1990); (Smith et al., 1990). If you use more than 5 words in a row that are exactly the same as in the article, use quotes that include the page #. If you use quotes, you will need to explain what the quote means in your own words, so keep them to a minimum.
Grading:
Grammar/APA Style: 10%
Abstract: 10%
Introduction to topic: 20%
Modern research: 30%
Conclusions: 30%