Cultural Psychology

Description:

The purpose of this assignment is for you to gain experience reading primary sources in cultural psychology, and thinking about these sources as the critical consumers of research that we should all be.  These are also to help you draw links between journal articles and course material.  This assignment is to be written in size 12 font, Times New Roman or Arial font style.  Margins should be at least 1 inch on all sides.  The page limit is 3 pages, 1.5-2x spaced.  Anything written beyond 3 pages will be neither read nor graded.

 In writing this assignment, try to address the following questions:

 Summary:

• What claims are the authors making?
• What evidence do they have to support their claims?

 Critique:

• What do YOU think is/are the major strong point(s) associated with a) the argument(s) made in this paper; b) the evidence/rationale provided; or c) both?
• What do YOU think is/are the major flaw(s) associated with a) the argument(s) made in this paper; b) the evidence/rationale provided; or c) both?

Extension:

• How can YOU expand on this? What can you add to the argument(s)? How can you expand on the ideas in this paper in the form of future hypotheses? Make sure to be clear about how this paper contributes to your future hypotheses.

Connection:

• How does this content relate to other concepts that you’ve learned in this course and/or other courses?

The first FunDay journal article is:

1. Croft, A., & Schmader, T. (2012). The feedback withholding bias: Minority students do not receive critical feedback from evaluators concerned about appearing racist. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1139-1144. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.04.010 

Grading/Expectations:

Write the assignment in the same format as a regular written assignment – no point form. It is appropriate to break down the submission into sections based on headings corresponding to each question. On top of how you answer the above questions, the extent to which your submission is written academically and grammatically correctly will contribute to your marks. Please look at the posted samples to see examples of good quality papers. The below is a rough description of exception, average, and unsatisfactory papers. Of course, papers can fall between these categories.

• An exceptional (A+) paper: surpasses expectations by addressing the above questions with a high level of sophistication, drawing links between the assigned paper and concepts not taught in class up to that point in both the critiquing and extending the paper’s ideas – this may include ideas from other courses or from your own research. It is written with a high standard of academic writing, and is clear and logical in its presentation of ideas.
• An average (B-) paper is one that meets expectations by adequately addressing the above questions; that is, it limits its discussion to the class concept directly related to the assigned reading (e.g. WEIRD people phenomenon and external validity). The writing quality is acceptable, with some minor grammatical and typographical errors.
• An unsatisfactory (D or lower) paper is one that does not meet any expectations because it does not adequately address multiple questions listed above, and is poorly written.

These are to be submitted by the the end of the class on each of those due dates. A 10% deduction per day will be applied to all late submissions, beginning from when the assignments have been submitted.