Psychology News/Current Event Assignment
What many find fascinating about psychology is that it is applicable to many areas of life. This assignment will allow you to further explore psychology in the real world.
Task: The goal of this assignment is to find current events, research, and other media that relate to the concepts of psychology and to get practice applying the concepts.
How:
Step 1: Using the resources identified below or other reputable resources, find journal, newspaper, or magazine articles, news stories (on TV), or songs that demonstrate concepts in psychology. Be sure all sources are school appropriate! Here are some resources that you can use to find articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/section/health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/index.shtml
You can use other sources, but be sure they are reliable sources. Do not use blog entries or sources that reflect personal philosophies rather than scientific ideas.
Step 2: The Writing
*Print Out and Annotate the Article, then staple to the back of your assignment.
(Note: if you do not have a printer at home, please plan accordingly and print during office hours or before class. If you are printing the morning that the assignment is due, it will make Mrs. Mascolo cranky.)
1. Summarize the article
a. Who
b. What
c. Where
d. When
2. Explain the Why
a. Relevance- to the topic we are covering now, we have covered, or will have covered in this class
b. Impact-what type of impact will this have on the psychological community
c. Prominence-how does this reference to one of the key people in psychology (i.e. Freud, Maslow, Skinner, etc.)
d. Conflict-is there any controversy to these findings or research/publication
3. Your reaction to the article
a. What does it make you think?
b. How do you feel?
c. Do you agree with the conclusion the author comes to
**Please copy the outline format above when completing current events, for example: copy down the word “prominence” then answer beside this. While Question 1 may be answered in one word responses, Question 2 & 3 should be thoughtful/well written explanations using evidence from the article.**