About this Assignment
In Advanced Social Psychology, you learned about a variety of experiments, theories, and principles that arose from empirical research and observational studies. Researchers in psychology must be able to synthesize and evaluate past research when they are deciding on future research areas. For this assignment, you will write a 2000-word research paper on a specific social psychology topic.
The goal of this assignment is for you to present and critique past and current research in social psychology. You’ll choose and evaluate at least three separate experiments and then propose and justify future areas of study for the field, discussing how this research would contribute to the discipline.
Assignment
In this assignment, you will review previous experiments, analyze current methods, and suggest future research. Select one of the following topics for your research paper:
Obedience and the Milgram experiments
Aggression and the Bobo doll experiments
The Asch experiments and conformity
Your research paper should include the following sections:
Introduction: state your thesis and rationale, which should explain what direction current and future research should take
Review of relevant literature: summarize, evaluate, and connect at least three previous experiments on this topic (including the one named in your prompt of choice)
Current research: explain what, if any, research is currently being done on this topic and analyze its validity and potential implications
Future areas of study: present at least two ideas for further research into the topic and discuss how these studies would contribute to the principles of social psychology
References list in APA format. A majority of your sources should be from the last 20 years.
Formatting & Sources
Please write your research paper in APA format. You may refer to the course material for supporting evidence, but you must also use seven sources and cite them using APA format. Please include at least five primary or secondary sources from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal.
Primary sources include peer-reviewed journal articles describing original research and experimentation. They can also be first-hand accounts such as interviews, speeches, statements, and press releases. Secondary sources include reviews or compilations of studies.
Both types of sources can be found in scholarly journals, such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. You may use sources like JSTOR, Google Scholar, and the American Psychological Association to find articles from these journals. Valid sources may also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)