History of Psychology

History of Psychology Paper Guidelines for PSYC 4600

Some of the guidelines for the History of Psychology Papers are the same as those for the Reaction Papers. Those guidelines that both types of papers have in common are: 1) you must first do the reading assignment before writing the paper (in this case, the reading assignment spans everything covered in the previous two weeks); 2) it must cite the reading material under discussion, both in-text and in the references section using proper 6th edition or 7th edition APA style (but in this case, you will be citing every assigned reading over the last two weeks, not just one assigned reading); and 3) it should avoid practices that take up space without adding content (e.g., don’t add extra spaces between paragraphs, don’t use a font size larger than 12-point font for any part of the paper, don’t add page breaks that leave more than 1/4th of the page empty).

That said, here are the requirements that are specific to the History of Psychology Papers.

1) The paper must be at least 4 pages long, not counting the title page (which is optional) and the references section (which is required). That is, the body of the paper must be a full four pages long or more.

2) Each of the readings for the past two weeks must be summarized in one full paragraph or more. A paragraph is at least three sentences long.

3) The paper must have an introduction that is one paragraph long and a conclusion that is one paragraph long. The introduction should summarize the main points of your paper and the conclusion should review the main points of the paper in one or two sentences and then summarize the implications (see below) of the readings for the field of psychology.

4) The paper must discuss the readings in a logical order and make connections between readings. It is not necessary to connect every reading with every other reading. That would be pointlessly laborious. But, what you must do is a) compare articles that share the same topic (e.g., behaviorism), b) discuss all articles that cover similar topics together in a logical order, c) make connections between topics (e.g., how the earliest works in psychology connected to behaviorism, or how behaviorism was a reaction to the earliest works in psychology) when moving from one topic to another, and d) discuss the implications of these articles for the field of psychology (not necessarily every article individually, but what you think are the most important developments in psychology that came out of the research and theory described in the readings). To support your assertion of the importance of those readings, you should either relate it to what you recall learning in past courses or by citing two or more modern sources that comment on or cite some of those readings (these can be sources I have cited in my lecture, include full citation).

5) If you decide to bring in outside readings, they should be clearly relevant and must be cited, both in text and in the references section.

6) Do not include any headings other than the heading for the references section.

7) Do not mention the title of the article in the body of the paper and don’t quote any of the articles unless you have a good point to make about the exact wording that the authors used.

8) Do not include any personal reflections, experiences, or observations. Those are fine for Reaction Papers, but they do not belong in the History of Psychology Papers.