Self-Analysis Paper

Psych 100: Self-Analysis Paper Guidelines

Self-Analysis Paper Assignment: Write a paper of 5-6 stapled double-spaced pages in which you take a simple behavioral problem from your own life and discuss insights into the problem using concepts from at least 4 separate textbook chapters.
First, very briefly explain the behavioral problem (if it needs more than one sentence to explain, you should pick a simpler problem or simplify it for the purpose of the paper). Then analyze the problem using theories, principles, and/or research findings that you learned about in this course. You may, for example, use the course material to address possible causes of the problem, possible complications, or possible solutions. Be sure that you apply concepts from at least 4 separate chapters of the textbook, and that you apply them in a sufficiently substantial and detailed way to make it clear that you understand them well. That is, actually define and explain the concepts and apply them to your problem in an explicit and detailed fashion, as if you were explaining to someone who didn’t take this class and isn’t familiar with these psychological concepts. The rubric that we will use to evaluate your paper is indicated below.
Important: By “behavioral problem,” we mean a simple dysfunctional behavior such as difficulty waking up on time, difficulty studying, procrastination, shyness, fear of heights, fear of public speaking, a bad habit, and so forth. Additional ideas are listed below.
We do NOT mean any significant emotional problem such as being depressed or suicidal or greatly distressed, having alcohol or substance abuse problems, being a perpetrator or victim of violence, having an identity crisis, expressing seriously deviant or criminal behavior, and so forth. This paper is not the appropriate place to raise serious emotional or debilitating problems. Students who wish to discuss such matters are urged to seek professional mental health counselling available via the Health Services office. Neither the instructor nor any of the teaching assistants for this class is a therapist.
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Hint: the point of this paper is for you to practice using the concepts you learned in this course to gain valuable insights into a real-life issue. What we are looking for in your paper is how well you select multiple relevant course concepts, how well you define them and explain how they work, how appropriately and thoroughly you specify how and why they are relevant to your particular problem. This assignment is merely a vehicle for you to show off, in written form, how well you learned the course material. You should therefore choose a simple, straightforward, non-serious problem that is not too personal and that can be summarized in a single sentence. It is perfectly acceptable, if need be, to just make up a problem for the purpose of the assignment.
Important: You must use only the course material (lecture notes and textbook) as your source material. Do not use outside sources of any kind. The point of this paper is to think about, use, and apply the concepts that you’re learning in this class. Using outside sources such as other books, articles, websites, Wikipedia, and so forth does nothing to demonstrate how well you learned the course material. There is no reason to refer to outside sources—the course material should give you plenty of relevant concepts to use for your paper. Resorting to outside sources suggests to us that you didn’t learn enough from this class. Use only the concepts from the book and your lecture notes. Whereas we already know where these concepts came from, you do not have to provide citations for them nor use a reference page/bibliography. You do have to state every concept in your own words. That is, do not copy entire sentences or phrases from the textbook or any other source (because that is plagiarism), and do not use quotations either (because that doesn’t show us what you understand).
To summarize: the only source material you may use is the course material (lectures and textbook), and you must restate those ideas in your own words. You may not take ideas from non-course-related sources, and you may not use anyone else’s phrasing.
Note: You may use information from chapters of the textbook that were not assigned (Chapters 9 & 14), if you wish.
Example life-problem: Your child throws temper tantrums when frustrated (You may not use this particular problem for your own paper)
Some concepts that could be applied to this problem:
Neuroscience: What regions of the brain are associated with negative emotionality? What regions are associated with behavioral control and reasoned action?
Learning and conditioning: In what ways might you be reinforcing the tantrum behavior? How could you use principles of operant conditioning to reduce the frequency of tantrums and increase the frequency of more desirable responses to frustration? What could you do to extinguish the tantrum response? Might the tantrum behavior have been socially learned? Cognition: What are some problem-solving strategies your child could use in place of getting angry? What might be some impediments to effective problem solving for your child? Motivation and emotion: What approach to motivation best accounts for your child’s behavior? What might be the roots of your child’s angry emotions? Why is frustration so unpleasant? Sexuality and gender: How might gender socialization affect how your child responds to frustration or expresses emotions?
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Development: Could your child’s behavior be an indicator of his or her attachment style? How might it be related to your parenting style? What might be some undesirable outcomes of your efforts to control your child’s behavior?
Stress and coping: In what ways are your child’s tantrum behaviors consistent with a stress response? What coping strategies could your child use? How might your own stress and coping be affected by your child? What if nothing you did could stop your child’s tantrums? Personality: How might Freud’s psychoanalytic theory explain your child’s poor self-control? Psychological disorders: Is your child’s behavior consistent with the symptoms of a childhood psychological disorder?
Treatment of disorders: What are some approaches a psychologist might use to diagnose and treat any emotional problem your child might have that could be underlying this behavior? How might a psychologist help you with your own distress?
Social psychology: Could any principles of social influence be applied to change your child’s behavior? If so, how would they work? Why are temper tantrums a bad way to get what you want?
Note how more than 10 chapters could apply! Some very clearly apply in multiple ways, and others are much more of a stretch. Try to find at least three chapters that apply pretty clearly; it’s OK if the fourth one has to be more of a stretch (in which case, just be sure that you’re talking about that fourth concept intelligently, even if its relevance to your problem is dubious). We realize that it’s usually a challenge to find a way to apply a fourth chapter and we do take that into account.
Other ideas (you may use any of these ideas if you wish):
 I’m torn between two academic majors
 I can’t stick to a healthy diet
 I get shy at parties
 I have test anxiety
 I’m afraid of flying
 I have trouble getting up in the morning
for my early class
 My roommate keeps eating all my
snacks
 I like to drive too fast
 I’m afraid of the dark
 I worry about money a lot
 I’m having trouble quitting smoking  I find my job to be boring
 I often lose my keys
 I often feel homesick
 I can’t keep my room clean
 I always procrastinate
 I can’t sleep well away from home
 I have very unusual taste in music (or
food, or clothes, etc.)
Note: If you’re having trouble coming up with a simple behavioral problem that applies to you, feel free to use a behavioral problem that someone else is having, or even to make one up. We have no way of knowing whether the problem you discuss is genuine, nor does it matter. The behavioral problem is really just a vehicle for you to demonstrate to us how well you learned the course material and to practice applying these concepts in real-world contexts. (Though keep in mind that writing about a genuine behavioral problem of yours confers the additional advantage of possibly helping you with it.)
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Rubric for grading Self-Analysis paper
Major Criteria
Grade
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from at least four different chapters of the textbook, and each time does so in sufficient depth and detail to establish that the student understands the concept.
50
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from at least four different chapters of the textbook, but one of the psychological concepts is not discussed in enough depth to establish that student understands the concept well (e.g., uses a psychological term but does not elaborate sufficiently on what it means or in context).
45
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from at least four different chapters of the textbook, but two of the psychological concepts are not discussed in enough depth to establish that student understands the concept well (e.g., uses a psychological term but does not elaborate sufficiently on what it means or in context).
40
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from three different chapters of the textbook, and each time does so in sufficient depth and detail to establish that the student understands the concept.
40
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from three different chapters of the textbook, but one of the psychological concepts is not discussed in enough depth to establish that student understands the concept well (e.g., uses a psychological term but does not elaborate sufficiently on what it means or in context).
35
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from three different chapters of the textbook, but two of the psychological concepts are not discussed in enough depth to establish that student understands the concept well (e.g., uses a psychological term but does not elaborate sufficiently on what it means or how it works in context).
30
Paper discusses distinct psychological concepts from two different chapters of the textbook, and each time does so in sufficient depth and detail to establish that the student understands the concept.
OR
Paper discusses psychological concepts from more than two chapters but only one is discussed in enough depth to establish that student understands the concept well
25
Paper does not meet any of the standards above or raises other questions or concerns (one or more concepts are very trivial ones, concepts badly explained, uses outside sources, uses more than 1/3 page of direct quotations, etc.)
Must be reviewed
Minor criteria
Points to deduct
For each 1⁄2 page that the paper falls short of the minimum required 5 double-spaced pages.
3
For each 1⁄2 page (or equivalent) of what is clearly personal opinion, intuition, or speculation in place of specific relevant concepts from the textbook and/or lecture notes (i.e., stretches the paper with opinion rather than discussing objective psychological concepts in detail)
3
A concept is discussed in adequate depth and detail to show that the student understands it, but it is not applied correctly (definitely does not apply the way the student is trying to apply it). (Except if that concept is in excess of the required three)
3 points each time
Paper length is padded by large font (exceeding the size of Times New Roman in 12 points), large margins (exceeding 1 inch), long block quotations, graphics, or other filler
3 points per padding method
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OTHER ISSUES
Excessive description
The nature of the life problem being analyzed should be described in one or two sentences, which may be embedded within an introductory paragraph of reasonable length. Additional descriptive text beyond that, where such text is not helping to apply a psychological concept to the problem (e.g., additional paragraphs that are merely establishing the scope or history of the problem with no psychological analysis), is irrelevant and does not count toward the grade. If such irrelevant descriptive text should exceed 1⁄2 page, then a penalty of 3 points per half page will be applied.
Idiosyncratic elaboration of concepts
Each concept must be discussed in the paper in a way that is consistent with the textbook definition. A psychological term that is taken from the textbook but defined or discussed in a way that comes from personal intuition or common parlance rather than in a way that is consistent with the given textbook definition doesn’t count. Similarly, a psychological term that is dropped in undefined or superficially defined and with little or no elaboration beyond the student’s personal narrative doesn’t count.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism (one or more sentences substantially copied word-for-word from the textbook or from any other source, except when used in a properly cited direct quotation with quotation marks) is a serious matter.
A 10-point penalty will be deducted for each sentence that is determined to be plagiarized, and a report will be made to the UMass Academic Honesty Board.
Duplicated/shared effort
Any paper that is substantially similar in content to another paper submitted by another student will result in both students receiving grades of zero on their papers, a further reduction of the final letter grade for this class by one full letter grade for each student, and a letter to be sent to both students’ academic deans as well as the UMass Academic Honesty Board documenting the incident.