The effects of slavery and the impact it had on Psychology.

Much of your paper will take the form of a literature review, and students are expected to use primary sources to trace the historical development of the chosen important contribution.  As such, you don’t just want to present the contribution itself but also how it has developed over a period of time and the impact it has made on Psychology. Under Term Paper, I’ve also included a description of a general literature review.  Papers that do not conform to those requirements, poorly researched papers, and papers with improper or inadequate citations will not receive a good grade.  In cases of papers with clearly plagiarized passages, and the system will check this using SafeAssign, they will receive 0 points.

Points will be assigned based on how clearly and accurately you present your topic in each of the four sections: introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Not including the title page or references, you should aim for about 10-12 pages double-spaced.

Proposal and Term Paper Grading Rubric:
Title page with your name – this page doesn’t count toward your word/page limit. Your name, the date submitted, and the title, which precisely describe your literature review.

Introduction: provide a brief background on your topic – one or two paragraphs. Explain why this concept or contribution is important to the history of Psychology and the scope of your review. If you have subtopics, explain how your review is organized.

Body: your detailed synthesis of the concept or contribution, with initial and developing arguments over time, and your analysis.  Present your review of the concept or contribution, organized by any subtopics you’ve chosen. Synthesize the findings from multiple primary sources: don’t simply present snippets from books or papers one by one. Group the ideas into specific points and subtopics, and use good transitions between subtopics. Limit direct quotations and keep paraphrasing to a minimum. Evaluate the topic: critique any problems over time, point out strengths and weaknesses, discuss any significant issues with statistics used, and discuss prevailing theories.  Analysis is the scientific appraisal of your sources – not your personal opinions, but your scientific assessment of the research methodology and their conclusions.

Conclusion: Provide a very brief summarization of your synthesis and analysis above – one or two paragraphs. If relevant, clearly note any problems or issues still remaining that you have identified, discuss current ideas and suggestions by other researchers for future directions in theory or research.  Perhaps discuss one or two questions or problems still left unanswered by current research.

References: this page also doesn’t count toward your word/page limit. Provide a full list of all research you have cited, in APA format.

Term Paper Breakdown by Points
•References and Topic sent by deadline: up to 10 points
•Coverage of historical figure: up to 70 points
•Writing, quality of grammar: up to 30 points
•Quality and # of sources: up to 30 points
•Organization: up to 30 points
•APA formatting: up to 30 points
•Total Points: 200