Hartmann                                                        Spring, 1998
Psychology 326:
Social and Personality Development

Handout on Preparing Term Papers
Introduction
	It is generally agreed that college students should be skillful in 
preparing written products.  Yet it is not unusual for students to prepare 
badly written and uninformative term papers.  The difficulty in preparing an 
adequate paper results from selecting an inappropriate topic (or an 
appropriate topic but at a mistaken level of breadth); from letting the 
assignment go to the last minute; from poor search strategies; from poor 
writing skills; and from faulty proofreading.  Through this handout, I will 
attempt to deal with these problems in a preventative manner.  If I have 
omitted important information that would help you write a good paper, please 
tell me so that I might improve this handout.

Overview (from syllabus)
Research Paper:  Prepare a short paper (11-14 pages: cover + abstract + text + 
references + project evaluation), on some salient aspect of your social 
behavior/personality, relating this aspect to at least one theory of social 
development and some 3-6 experimental results.  Topics that are near and dear to you 
(i.e., something about yourself) are likely to be more motivating and to promote 
reflection -- both admirable characteristics.  I encourage you to work on this 
project with 1-2 other class members.  That is, while you will write about your own 
personality/social behavior, you also will criticize the drafts of one another's 
papers, suggest tie-ins with our readings, correct grammatical mistakes and errors 
in style, punctuation and spelling, etc.

Selecting a Social Behavior
	Select a social behavior that interests you, that you would like to learn 
more about, and which theorists and investigators have addressed.  Some of the 
behaviors that have been written about in the past include aggression, 
impulsive buying, poor self esteem, sexual orientation, weight problems, being 
a cancer patient, shyness, suicide attempts, drug use, and being a twin or the 
product of a divorce.

Selecting Workmates
	The best workmates are those you feel comfortable with some degree of 
self disclosure -- remember, I prefer that you disclose something of yourself; 
who you find tolerable, if not downright likable; with whom you can connect 
(or schedule time); and who have complementary skills to your own.  For 
example, if you are adept with the reference writing part of the APA 
Publication manual, perhaps you should chose partners who are good writers, or 
who have an impressive background in psychology.

Selecting a Theory and a Research Literature
	Chose a theory with which you are familiar, or want to become familiar.  
Good prospects might be psychoanalytic theory or one of its variants (e.g., 
Erickson), cognitive social theory, or perhaps cognitive developmental theory.
	To find some relevant empirical research on your selected social 
behavior, consult Psychlit on the silver platters.  In addition, you may find 
the following texts, periodical monographs, and journals -- all available at 
Marriott -- useful (also see list of ancillary texts).
Texts
	Asher, S. R., & Gottman, J. M. (Eds.).  (1981).  The development of 
children's friendships.  New York: Cambridge University Press.
	Damon, W.  (1977).  The social world of the child.  San Francisco: 
Jossey-Bass.
	Lewis, M. & Rosenblum, L. (Eds.).  (1975).  Friendship and peer 
relations.  New York: John Wiley.
	Maccoby, E. E.  (1980).  Social development: Psychological growth and the 
parent-child relationship.  New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Periodic monographs (and multi-volume texts)
	Alloway, T., Pliner, P., & Krames, L.  (Eds.).  Attachment behavior. New 
York: Plenum.
	Berkowitz, L. (Ed.).  Advances in experimental social psychology.  	New 
York: Academic Press.
	Bowlby, J. Attachment and loss.  New York: Basic Books.
	Caldwell, B. M., & Ricciuti, H. N.  (Eds.).  Review of child 	development 
research.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  [Also edited by Horowitz, F. 
D.]
	Damon, W.  (Ed.-in-Chief).  (1998).  Handbook of child psychology (5th 
ed., vols. 1-4).  New York: Wiley.
	Foss, B. M.  (Ed.).  Determinants of infant behaviour.  London: Methuen.
	Hartshorne, H., & May, M. S.  Studies in the nature of character.  	New 
York: Macmillan.
	Heatherington, E. M., & Parke, R. D.  (Eds.).  Contemporary readings in 
child psychology.  New York: McGraw-Hill.
	Hoffman, M. L., & Hoffman, L. W. (Eds.).  Reviews of child development 
research.  New York: Russell Sage Foundation.  [Some volumes with different 
sets of editors; e.g., Caldwell, B. M., & Ricciuti, H.; Heatherington, E. M.]
	Lahey, B. B., & Kazdin, A. E.  (Eds.)  Advances in clinical child 
psychology.  New York: Plenum Press.
	Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.
	Moore, S. G.  (Ed.).  The young child: Reviews of research.  	Washington, 
D.C.:  National Association for the Education of Young Children.
	Mussen, P. H.  (Ed.).  (1983).  Child psychology.  New York: Wiley.
Pick, A. D. (Ed.).  Minnesota symposium on child psychology.  Minneapolis: 
University of Minnesota Press.  [Sometimes edited by Hill, J. P.]
	Reese, H. W. (Ed.).  Advances in child development and behavior.  New 
York: Academic Press.

Journals
Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Psychology Review, 
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly.

Problems
	Everyone has some difficulties writing papers.  To minimize the problems 
that you might experience, I ask you to visit me by midterm time to discuss 
the topic of your paper with me, and then within three weeks to further inform 
me of the major references you intend to use (with one reference written in 
appropriate APA form) and the particular track you intend to take in preparing 
the paper.  If you are having problems with any of the aforementioned, please 
make an appointment to see me.  I will attempt to respond to your concerns 
with compassion and helpful advise.

General Issues in the Preparation of Papers

	Writing.
	-- Use an abstract and subheadings to help direct the reader.
	-- Avoid sexism in your writing (e.g., referring to professionals as "he" 
and children as "she").
	-- Use standard margin settings and type size.
	-- Be certain that all sentences contain a subject and a verb.
	-- Number your pages (in case the grader should happen to drop your 
paper).
	-- Be sure that "which" and "that" include their referents (not "He went 
to the bathroom.  Which was the cause of the delay." but instead "His going to 
the bathroom was the case of the delay." or "The delay was caused by his going 
to the bathroom.").
	-- Investigate is a far better verb than is research; and conduct is a 
far better verb than is do (as in “...conduct a study...”).
	-- Quotes.  Use a specific page reference for each quote; e.g., ..." 
(Hartmann, 1985, p. 122).  (If I find any sentences in your paper that are not 
surrounded by quotation marks that match sentences from a book, journal, or 
what have you on the same topic, you automatically receive a grade of E for 
your paper.  So if you have a style just like someone else, you had better 
write on a topic different from what that person writes on.) 

	References.
	-- In general, references should be written, and cited, as they are in 
the text (also see the references given above).  If your paper looks a lot 
different from the text, with footnotes scattered hither and yon, and odd 
looking references, you are doing it wrong. If you have questions, consult the 
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.  You will note 
that the APA form does not use authors' first names, only capitalizes the 
first letter of the first word in the title of the work, places the year 
immediately after the name of the authors, etc.  [I have said this a thousand 
times, but most students continue to make these errors.  A slightly variant 
version of the APA's style was used by our textbook author in preparing the 
references for the textbook.  With the exceptions of capitalizing the authors' 
entire last name (rather than just the first letter of each author's last 
name) and of not including the inclusive pages for chapters in edited books, 
those references can be used as models, so check the text if you have a 
problem in writing references.  You might also want to consult the copy of the 
APA style manual available at the book store. The exact reference is
	   Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4th 
edit.).  (1994).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
	-- Each entry in your reference section should be cited in the text, and 
each text or body citation should have a corresponding reference in the 
reference section.
	-- Citations in the body of the paper are written in one of two ways: (1) 
parenthetically, as in “...(Hartmann & Jones, 1992)”; or as a regular part of 
the text, as in “According to Hartmann and Jones (1992),...”

	Style. 
	-- Please do not make a guessing game of where your paper is going.   The 
best way of insuring that the reader knows where you are going is to include a 
200-400 page abstract between the cover page and the first page of text.
	-- Personalize the paper.  Tell us what this behavior means to you; why 
it is important, and the like.
	-- Integrate your personal experiences with theory and research findings!
	-- Summarize the information from the studies you cite.  Tell us a bit 
about the study so that the summary information has a context.  For example:
	"Jones (1985), in an interview study of public college students, found 
that fear of intimacy was the most common problem reported by male college 
students; females were more likely to report feelings of rejection as their 
most serious fear."

	The Package to be handed in.
	-- Include a cover for your paper that contains your name, class, 
instructor's name, date of submission, and whether or not you intend to pick 
up your paper.  [Commenting on student papers take an enormous amount of my 
time, time which I hate to waste by commenting on student papers that will 
never be picked up and read.  So if you will not pick up (and read) my 
comments, please indicate on the cover of your paper, and I will not write 
comments on your paper.  Please note that telling me that you will not pick up 
your paper will not affect your grade.  So do what you like, but do what you 
contract with me to do.

Miscellany
	-- Don't forget to evaluate this project, and indicate how the assignment 
might be improved.
	-- Remember that the more times you have your paper edited, the better it 
will be -- and the more credit your partner(s) will receive for editing it!

Common errors on prior term papers (I may use double penalties if you make any 
of the listed errors!)
	-- The paper contains numerous spelling errors that could have been 
avoided by using a spell-check program and a classmate editor.
	-- The author completely failed to integrate theory, research findings, 
and personal experiences.
	-- The student failed to single space and indent long (5 lines or longer) 
quotes.
	-- Don’t use the, as in “...the social learning theory.”
	-- The writer made numerous errors in writing text and bibliographic 
references, and in text citations to the references.  For example, the first 
name of authors was incorrect written out; all of the words in the title of an 
article or book were incorrectly capitalized.
	-- The author of the paper appeared not to think about the paper.
	--The paper lacked clarity; it was difficult to determine where the paper 
was going -- perhaps in part because of the lack of subheadings and an 
abstract.
	-- The author made frequent use of indefinite pronouns (e.g., "this" 
without a following noun).
	-- The paper was filled with long, complex, run-on sentences.
	-- The paper was excessively long.


Evaluation
	Your graded term paper will contain an evaluation slip that will look 
similar to one given below:

NAME:			DATE TURNED IN:
___CONTENT (Max. = 40)	Comments:
	___introduction: sensible selection of social behavior (5)
	___theory (5)
	___evidence cited (5)
	___logic or analysis (10)
	___integration of personal experiences, theory, and research 
	findings (10)
	___conclusion (5)

____STRUCTURE (45)	Comments:
	___cover sheet (5)
	___abstract (5)
	___proofreading (5)
	___spelling-grammar (10)
	___body citations (5)
	___organization (10)
	___evaluation (5)

____REFERENCES (15)  	Comments:
	___number & relevance (5)
	___form (10)

____OTHER (10) (e.g. clever, funny, early, uses illustrations)
				Comments:

---Grand total		Comments:




	SAMPLE PAPERS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE MARRIOTT RESERVE DESK.











	I. M. Fearful

	Excessive Helpfulness in a 23 Year-old College Student

	Paper submitted for Psychology 326
	(Personality and Social Development)


	Instructor: Donald P. Hartmann

	5-27-91





	Partners: J. P. Weird & Florence Bile

	(I will pick up my paper by June 24, 1991, and read your comments)


	"To help a little is OK; to help a lot is dumb."
                                	Heine's letter to the Druids (1623, chapter 
4, verse 243).

	Excessive Solicitiveness in a 23 Year-old College Student
	I chose to write about my excessive solicitiveness.  By excessive solicitiveness I 
mean doing favors for people, loaning my notes and text books to classmates, volunteering 
to care for homeless individuals, raking neighbors' lawns or washing their cars, and all 
without them asking.  As you might suspect, my solicitiveness sometimes has been a serious 
problem for me, particularly in my interactions with women.  (I once gave a woman an 
engagement ring on our first date.)  It also has been a source of discussion in my weekly 
therapy sessions since I was a 14 year-old preadolescent over-achiever and general wimp. 
Analysis
	I have selected to examine my behavior using both Freud's psychoanalytic theory 
(Freud, 1939) and Bandura's version of social learning theory (Bandura, 1968).  These 
theories both deal with the issue of over-solicitiveness in some detail (e.g., Bandura, 
1962, 1973, 1989; Freud, 1923a, 1923b, 1942, 1947).  According to Freud (1947), this form 
of social behavior may develop to a pernicious degree following the loss of a parent, 
particularly if the loss occurs during early puberty.  Indeed, it was just such a loss 
that I experienced, as my parents divorced when I was 13 year old, and my mother left our 
family to live with an astrologist in eastern Philedelphia.  Presumably, according to 
Freud (1923b), the loss of a parent produces uncertainty about one's lovableness, and this 
uncertainty in turn promotes continuing attempts to secure a loved one, particularly of 
the same gender as the lost parent.  The attempts at winning a predictably loving and 
nurturant parent or companion will sometimes take extrme form, as in the over-solicitive 
behaviors I decribed.  This may not seem so bad, but Freud (1923a) also states that "the 
cathected individual is never adequate, as that person may also leave, and so additional 
`loved ones' must be secured" (p. 23).
	Bandura's approach to this problem is somewhat different -- as one might suspect.  He 
focuses on the cognitive functions of the behavior, the importance of imitative processes, 
and critical role served by positive and negative reinforcement (Bandura, 1973).  In his 
now classic paper, "Make my bed and I will love you" (Bandura, 1982), describes how a 
young child 





NAME:			DATE TURNED IN:
   CONTENT (Max. = 40)
	   introduction: sensible selection of social behavior (5)
	   theory (10)
	   evidence cited (10)	Comments:
	   logic or analysis (10)
	   conclusion (5)
   STRUCTURE (30)
	   proofreading (5)
	   spelling-grammar (10)
	   body citations (5)
	   organization (10)
   REFERENCES (15)
	   number & relevance (5)
	   form (10)
   OTHER (10) (e.g. clever, funny, early, uses illustrations)

   Grand total


NAME:			DATE TURNED IN:
   CONTENT (Max. = 40)
	   introduction: sensible selection of social behavior (5)
	   theory (10)
	   evidence cited (10)	Comments:
	   logic or analysis (10)
	   conclusion (5)
   STRUCTURE (30)
	   proofreading (5)
	   spelling-grammar (10)
	   body citations (5)
	   organization (10)
   REFERENCES (15)
	   number & relevance (5)
	   form (10)
   OTHER (10) (e.g. clever, funny, early, uses illustrations)

   Grand total


NAME:			DATE TURNED IN:
   CONTENT (Max. = 40)
	   introduction: sensible selection of social behavior (5)
	   theory (10)
	   evidence cited (10)	Comments:
	   logic or analysis (10)
	   conclusion (5)
   STRUCTURE (30)
	   proofreading (5)
	   spelling-grammar (10)
	   body citations (5)
	   organization (10)
   REFERENCES (15)
	   number & relevance (5)
	   form (10)
   OTHER (10) (e.g. clever, funny, early, uses illustrations)

   Grand total

 



 

 

Psych. 326-Sp98 (Hartmann),
Term Paper Handout, p. 4 of 5


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