Some people are left-brained and others are right-brained

Introductory Psychology Writing Assignment Guidelines:
Assignment Overview
All Introductory Psychology students are required to complete an Introductory Psychology Writing Assignment. There
are many beliefs about psychology that are commonly held by the general public, despite the fact that they are not
generally supported by scientific research. Often, people evaluate how likely these claims are to be true based upon
their personal experience, anecdotes or stories, and how well the claims match their intuitions about human behavior,
thoughts, and feelings. Scientists test the accuracy of these claims by systematically collecting and analyzing these
observations (i.e., data) to make determinations about what is true.
In this assignment, you are going to be a psychological detective. You will pick one of the following largely debunked
claims about psychological concepts listed below. Your job is to find two empirical research articles that scientifically
test some aspect of your chosen claim, and to use that evidence to evaluate the claim’s (lack of) support.
Commonly held psychological beliefs:
1. Some people are left-brained and others are right-brained.
2. Subliminal messages can persuade people to purchase products.
3. Playing Mozart’s music to infants boosts their intelligence.
4. Old age is typically associated with decreased happiness.
5. When people get older, they typically become senile.

Assignment Details
Writing Guidelines
• Try to avoid sharing personal experiences and/or personal opinions.
• Paraphrase. DO NOT use quotes.
• Please be careful not to plagiarize. To receive credit for this paper, you must review the articles in your own
words.
o Make sure that you clearly cite your sources.
Formatting Guidelines
• The paper should be 2-3 pages in length and should be typed.
• The entire paper should be double-spaced with 12-point font size.
• All margins should be one inch.
• Place your name, class, and date in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of your paper.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get Your Custom Essay on
Some people are left-brained and others are right-brained
Just from $13/Page
Order Essay

Paper Outline

I. Introduce the topic and explain the purpose of the study
• Identify which claim you are investigating.
• Introduce the major questions being asked in this study.
• Explain why the topic is important and interesting.

II. Summarize the two empirical research articles that you read.
• Briefly (no more than a few sentences) describe how you located your sources.
o Selecting your articles: BE SURE THAT YOU BASE YOU SELECT EMPIRICAL STUDY ARTICLES FROM
SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. Empirical articles present research conducted by the authors (i.e. not literature
reviews or editorials). To ensure that you’re selecting empirical study articles, check the abstract for
references to participants, procedure, and results. Your instructor will explain how to find empirical
articles in scholarly journals.
o Include copies of the first page from each article when you submit your paper.
• Evaluate the sources—do these sources appear credible/trustworthy (i.e. How was the research funded; What
was the review process for publication) Why or why not
• Describe what the researchers did in their study.
o State who was in the study (participants).
 Include the number of men, women, ages, ethnicities, etc.
 State how the participants were asked to be in the study (recruited)
o State what the participants were asked to do.
 In addition to naming the questionnaires or tasks, also explain what the questionnaires are
measuring and what the tasks are. Describe them well enough so that the reader has an idea of
what kinds of questions the participants answered or what kinds of tasks they completed.
• In what ways were the results consistent with the hypotheses/predictions Any surprising findings Do not
worry about trying to understand the statistics; the author will explain the statistics in the “Discussion” section
of the article.
• What did you perceive as being the strengths of these studies What were their limitations

III. Addressing the Claim
• Draw a conclusion about your claim. Does the claim seem accurate or inaccurate
o Be sure to support your answer.
• When were your articles published Would you expect the findings to still hold true Why
• Consider whether the findings seem like they would apply to all people, or whether the findings might differ in a
different population (e.g., a different culture or generation). How do you think the results would differ in
another population Support your answer.
IV. Reference Page
• You need a complete reference for the article that you reviewed. Be sure that your references are in the
most current APA style.(Your instructor will cover this style, or you can go to
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
and visit the “Research and Citation” section.)

CITATIONS:
• Representing someone else’s research and/or words as your own is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is a
serious offense, and can result in failing the course. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit to the
author(s) whose work you are citing. APA (American Psychological Association) format is used for citations made
within the text. Below are examples of sentences and how they should be cited.
• Citations include the author’s last name and the year of publication.
• One author: Cite the author’s last name and the year the article was published. Example: In a recent study of
reaction times (Rogers, 2012)…or Rogers (2012) compared reaction times…
• Multiple authors: When a work has two authors, always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the
text. Example: (Smith & Smith, 2009). When a work has three or more authors, cite all authors the first time the
reference occurs (Wasserstein, Smith, & Jones, 2012). In subsequent citations include only the surname of the
first author followed by et al. Example: (Wasserstein et al., 2012).
• Citation of a work discussed in another source: If a work is cited in your article, and you did not read the
original work cited, you should use the following citation format: (Siedenberg, 2011 as cited in Coltheart, 2013)…
• Important: Any portion of your paper that contains information from the article needs to be cited. Since you will
reference the article you read for this assignment multiple times, you will end up citing that article in your paper
multiple times. If you are in doubt about whether you should cite it then cite it! Better to be safe than sorry.

REFERENCES: You will probably have only two references on your reference page. List them in alphabetical order. The
reference page should be on a separate page. The following APA format should be used for your reference page:

References

Geenen, N. Y. R., Hohelüchter, M., Langholf, V., & Walther, E. (2014). The beneficial effects of prosocial

spending on happiness: Work hard, make money, and spend it on others The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 9(3), 204-208. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2014.891154