Homework answers / question archive / PSYC 365 Essay Assignment Instructions Overview Students will complete 2 essay assignments in this class

PSYC 365 Essay Assignment Instructions Overview Students will complete 2 essay assignments in this class

Psychology

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PSYC 365 Essay Assignment Instructions

Overview

Students will complete 2 essay assignments in this class.  Learning about a topic is a first step in understanding.  Applying knowledge, you are learning allows you to show your understanding in a real-life situation.  Research suggests when you apply information in a meaningful way, you will remember the topic at a deeper level and for a prolonged period of time.  These essays will give you the opportunity to solidify the knowledge you are learning and will increase your application and communication skills.

 

Instructions

 

1. Compose an essay in current APA format using a title page, in-text citations, and a reference page. 
2. Answer each of the 4 questions with a minimum of 500 words for each question.
3. Answer the questions using the concepts from the course materials and reading assignments. You may use any scholarly books or journal articles. Websites are not acceptable sources.

 

4. Write in a formal college-level essay style.  For this assignment you may use first person.  
5. Do not include questions in your essay.
6. Include at least one in-text citation per each of the 4 essay questions.   Minimum of one scholarly source must be included on the reference page.
7. Do not include direct quotes. Instead, paraphrase information from the scholarly sources (using in-text citations) in order to demonstrate your mastery of each concept.

 

8. For Essay Assignment: Behaviors, each essay must be followed by a chart listing the key term and the behavior.  Below is an example of a chart.

 

Signal (NS)	List the NS here
UCS	List the UCS here
UCR	List the UCR here
CS	List the CS here
CR	List the CR here

 

 

 

Essay Prompts

Essay Assignment: Behaviors

1. Using Classical Conditioning, explain how you would evoke a startle response in an unsuspecting friend using an abnormal signal. Describe your friend’s reflex response and a signal that will produce that reflex response; then choose another signal for the reflex and predict the outcome of using that signal. Clearly label the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), Unconditioned Response (UCR), Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and Conditioned Response (CR). Include a description of the setting and process for this hypothetical situation.  Please write in essay format followed by a chart labeling the key elements.

 

2. Using Operant Conditioning, describe how you would use a program of shaping to get a messy roommate to make their bed neatly. Include and label in bold font the antecedent stimulus, response, and reinforcement of the changing program standards, and a method of self-regulation for the roommate. Please write in essay format followed by a chart labeling the key elements.

 

3. In a hypothetical psychology internship, you have encountered a child with destructive tendencies. She bites herself, her dog, and your bag of supplies. Being afraid for her safety and your own well-being, you institute a plan to change her behavior. Suggest a punishment, with her possible reactions to that punishment. Then, try substituting an alternative behavior by reinforcing an incompatible response. Explain the antecedent stimulus for the biting response, Punishment I or II, escape or avoidance, and the reinforcement for the new named response. What do you consider to be the best theory or method for improving this child’s behavior? Please write in essay format followed by a chart labeling the key elements.

 

4. Give an example of a situation where you can model more effective behavior for someone whom you could positively influence. Describe in detail: yourself (the model), the observer, the behavior, and the reinforcement using at least one of the 5 principles of Social Learning Theory. Please write in essay format followed by a chart labeling the key elements.

 

 

 

 

 

Essay Assignment: Learning

1. Choose one class outside of your major which you have already completed. Using the Gestalt principle, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” describe your preconceived perception of the class, 3 details that you now know are different from that initial perception, and your continuing perception in spite of the details.  Use bold font to label the names of the techniques.

 

2. In church and in other settings, announcements are made that affect you.   Describe 4 techniques covered in the textbook which the speaker could use to keep your attention.  Use bold font to label the names of the techniques.

 

3. You have gone through stages of Piaget’s cognitive development, in your professional and theological beliefs. Name one belief (e.g., God is good, Jesus Christ is my Savior, working hard pays off) and trace the development of that belief through all 4 stages. Give at least 1 specific characteristic for each stage and use terms from Piaget’s theory. Though you may not remember your cognitive development at every stage, trace what might have happened to you in each stage to allow your current functioning. In relation to this belief, explain what stage you are in now. Use bold font to label the name of each stage.

 

4. Choose one class in your major which you have already completed. Explain 3 concepts from Vygotsky’s theory and provide examples of how a professor could help to boost your zone of proximal development (ZPD) for learning in those classes. Use bold font to label the name of each concept.