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Final Paper/Vignette

Table of contents

  1. Overview
  2. Prompt
  3. Grading, Rubrics, & Deadlines
    1. Milestone 1 (Due Sunday 4/4, 5 points)
    2. Milestone 2 (Due Sunday 4/11, 5 points)
    3. Final Paper/Vignette (Due Sunday, 5/2, 30 points)
      1. Criteria
      2. Ratings

Overview

Throughout the semester, we have discussed some of the existing fallacies in research, some prominent responses and proposed solutions, as well as some alternative statistical frameworks to promote reproducibility in the field of psychology. This final assignment would be your chance to synthesize topics and ideas we have discussed during the course, and engage in a vignette to reimagine the way we do psychology research.

Prompt

There are two settings/audiences on which you can choose to base your vignette:

  1. Policy Memo: You are writing a policy memo proposing certain practices to be made standard practice/mandatory in the psychology department at your university;
  2. An Op-Ed-type article directed at the larger research community, published in a prominent research journal in psychology. You would advocate for the universal adoption of a certain practice.

Regardless of who the audience will be, you should select one (or more, if you believe you need them implemented together) practice or alternative framework we have talked about in the course. If you have other ideas that are from outside of the class, you are welcome to pick that, but please check in with me first during office hours.

Your vignette should:

  1. Describe what the practice is and how it is currently being implemented.
  2. Discuss the pros and cons of the practice. Some guiding questions you may want to consider:
    1. What concerns/fallacies does it address?
    2. Why is it important for us to adopt such practice?
    3. Who benefits from such practice (and who’s left out)?
    4. What are some of the weaknesses/concerns and how they can be addressed?

Grading, Rubrics, & Deadlines

Milestone 1 (Due Sunday 4/4, 5 points)

  • Select the practice(s) you want to write about (2 points)
  • List 3 academic articles (reviews or opinions) that you can use for your vignette, either for the background section, or the pros and cons discussion (1 point each)

Milestone 2 (Due Sunday 4/11, 5 points)

  • A outline of the paper: what sections/paragraphs you will have, topics you will discuss in them, and what citations you will use for those sections (3 points)
  • Additional citations you plan to use. These can be either academic or non-academic (2 points)

Final Paper/Vignette (Due Sunday, 5/2, 30 points)

Your vignette should be 2-3 pages in length, double spaced, excluding the references page. You are welcome to use headers as you see fit (don’t have to follow the typical APA headers), or none at all. You should have a standalone references page for all the sources you used, and cite them using APA format.

There will be 3 main criteria for this assignment, and each will be rated among 4 levels.

Criteria

  • Focus & Objective: Does the vignette have a clear focus, and communicates its objective clearly?
  • Evidence & Support: Does vignette have strong support, using academic and/or non-academic sources?
  • Organization: Is the vignette effectively organized, and easy to follow from one topic to the next?
    • Note: “Sophisticated language use” is not the objective of this assignment. Your goal is to communicate your ideas clearly and precisely.

Ratings

  • Excellent: 10 points
  • Good: 9 points
  • Meets Expectation: 8 points
  • Missing/Does not meet expectations 0-7 points