PSYC 386: Cultural Psychology Written Assignment #2 – Guidelines for Essays

You are required to complete this writing assignment, which is worth 30% of your final grade. The assignment is due in .PDF form on CourseSpaces by Sunday, August 23rd by 10:00 PM. Late submissions will be penalized by a deduction of 10% per 12 hours late. Assignments will not be accepted after 4 days past the deadline. Please note that if you do not submit this assignment, you will receive an “N” in the course. The purpose of this assignment is to research and write about a topic within cultural psychology that you are interested in. You are asked to choose a topic from one of the chapters in the textbook, and design a research paper based on your topic of interest. Be sure to design a topic that is narrow enough to be discussed within an approximately 8-page double-spaced assignment. Please note that you may not discuss the same topics that you explored with your group for Group Assignment #2, unless you are using vastly different sources/examples. Examples of topics may include (you may not write about these topics for your assignments): Ch. 1 – Compare and contrast three different definitions of culture Ch. 11 – Recent research on the Propinquity Effect in Latin American cultures Ch. 14 – Cross-cultural differences in psychotherapy

You may choose to write about ONE of the following broad topics: 1) Ch. 5 – Culture and development; 2) Ch. 7 – Living in a multicultural world; 3) Ch. 8 – Motivation; 4) Ch. 9 – Cognition and Perception; 5) Ch. 12 – Morality and Religion

Please submit a brief outline (via the Assignment function on CourseSpaces) of your specific topic by Sunday, August 9th at 11:00am. The purpose of submitting a brief outline is to ensure that your paper is on the right track. As the assignment is fairly open-ended, it can be challenging to narrow down an appropriate topic. This outline needs to include a one-paragraph description of your essay topic including your main topic/question, a brief outline of the objectives of your paper, and references for a minimum of one scholarly source. Please submit your outline in .PDF format.

GUIDELINES FOR ESSAYS Your essay should be between 1800-2100 words in length (not counting references). You must include information from a minimum of three scholarly sources (i.e., from scholarly journals), with at least one of these references being research papers (e.g., a study with data). You may use the textbook and non- scholarly sources to assist with definitions of terms, but not for your main discussion. Assignments will only be accepted in .PDF format through the Assignments function on CourseSpaces. Essays will be graded out of 30 points based on the following:

Brief outline (worth 10% of paper grade – 3 points) This brief outline must be submitted on CourseSpaces by Sunday, August 9th at 11:00am (preferably sooner). Feedback will be provided on your outline to guide you on your topic, if needed, by Monday, August 10th at 9:00am.

Introduction (worth 10% of paper grade – 3 points) The purpose of this section is to present the topic and objective(s) of your paper. Clearly state the goal(s) of your paper. State the topic you will focus on and its relevance.

Body of text (worth 40% of paper grade – 12 points)

In the body of the text, you deal with the main issues (specific to the topic you select; e.g., a summary of the literature, comparison of literature, etc.). Your ability to integrate scholarly information to support your main points will heavily affect your final grade for this assignment. Make sure that your summary/arguments are clear and well organized. Use paragraph breaks and headings to structure your paper.

Discussion and conclusion (worth 20% of paper grade – 6 points) The purpose of this section is to summarize/synthesize the points you have made in this paper. Restate the goal(s) of your paper. Raise open questions, suggest topics for future research, and discuss implications of your analysis. Express own reasoned opinion.

Technical aspects (worth 10% of paper grade – 3 points) This includes your general writing style such as grammar, sentence structure, and spelling mistakes. There are to be no direct quotations, paraphrase instead (-0.5 points for each instance).

References (worth 10% of paper grade – 3 points) All books, chapters, and articles cited in your paper must appear in the references list. The reference list should be labelled “References” and not “Bibliography” or “Works Cited”. A reference list is different from a bibliography in that the latter includes everything you have read,

whether you cite it or not, whereas the reference list only includes articles you have discussed in your

paper. The individual citations should not be numbered, and should appear in alphabetical order

according to the first author’s last name. The reference list must follow APA 7th edition standards

(https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_c

hanges_7th_edition.html)