Research
There are many psychological approaches to addressing social problems (e.g., clinical, developmental, cognitive, phenomenological, neurobiological, behavioral). The social psychological approach is only one among many. Given that this is a social psychology course, the final paper requires evidence of your mastery of the theories and research you’ve studied over these past 11 weeks.
Your task is, therefore, (1) to review the social psychological literature that pertains to a given social problem of your choice; (2) to identify gaps in that literature that need to be studied; and (3) to identify a potential research question that needs to be studied so that you may add to the literature and advance knowledge that can benefit society.
The Assignment
- Select and describe a social problem in your field of interest.
- Explain why you selected the social problem.
- Research at least five journal articles related to the social problem.
- Describe two gaps in the literature related to the social problem you selected in which you could develop further research and justify your selection.
- Through a social psychology lens, develop a research question that a social psychologist might use to conduct research.
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.
Readings
- Course
Text: Fiske, S. T.
(2014). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology. (3rd
ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- Chapter 2, “Scientific Methods for Studying People in Interaction”
- Course
Text: The Handbook of Social
Psychology
- Chapter 1, “History of Social Psychology: Insights, Challenges and Contributions to Theory and Application”
- Course
Text: The Sage Handbook of
Social Psychology
- Chapter 2, “Questions and Comparisons: Methods of Research”
- Article: Sandberg, J., & Alvesson, M. (2011).
Ways of constructing research questions: Gap spotting or problemization? Organization,
18(1), 23–44.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. - Website: American Psychological Association. (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
Optional Resources
- Text: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
- Article: Pansiri, J. (2009). Evolution of a doctoral
thesis research topic and methodology: A personal experience. Tourism
Management, 30(1), 83–89.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. - Book Excerpt: Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2010). How to generate, evaluate and sell your ideas for research and papers. In The psychologist’s companion: A guide to writing scientific papers for students and researchers (pp. 20–40). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Website: NIH Office of Extramural Research. (n.d.). Protecting human research participants.Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php
- Website: Research Methods Knowledge Base. (n.d.). Conceptualizing. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/resprob.php
Website: Social Psychology Network. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.socialpsychology.org/
