Syllabus - Courses in Psychology - UCLA

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Psychology 135: Introduction to Social PsychologyWinter, 2012WRITING ASSIGNMENTTopicWe talk a lot in this course about how people gather information and draw conclusionsabout the social world. For this brief writing assignment, I would like you to think about howthe specific cognitive processes, heuristics, and biases that we discuss in the course have affectedyour own thinking. Please identify from your own experience a time when you made asignificant error in a social judgment. This could be drawing a mistaken conclusion aboutsomeone, believing something you later realized was false, behaving in a way that you laterrealized was misguided, or anything else. IMPORTANT: Be sure that the error was the result ofsome facet of social cognition/motivated reasoning/information processing (rather than, forexample, simply having incorrect information). In other words, the error should have been theresult of the natural motivational and cognitive processes we talk about in class. The goal of thispaper is to use your understanding of social cognitive processes to explain why this erroroccurred.OrganizationYour paper must have the following sections, clearly labeled.Section 1: Describe your error in judgment. What happened, and how did you discoveryour error? (5 points)Section 2: Explain three specific cognitive mechanisms that contributed to this error. Beconcrete, use terms from the course, define them, and use specific examples to illustrate howthese processes and biases affected you. For example, if you wanted to talk about the availabilityheuristic, you would need to define it and then show exactly how it was operating in yourexperience and how it contributed to your judgment error. (15 points)Section 3: What does this experience tell you about how the world works? Do you seeexamples of other people making the same error? Discuss how these same mechanisms operatemore generally in the world, and how these errors might be avoided. (5 points)FormatThe last five points are simply for following the format correctly. Papers must be typedand double-spaced and no more than three pages long. Use 12 point Times New Roman font(i.e., this font). No title page, just print your name and the section day and time in the top rightcorner of the first page. (You can title the paper, if you wish). Please allow one-inchmargins at the top, bottom, and sides of each page so the graders can write comments ifnecessary.page 10
About reference lists: we do not need one for this paper. We will assume that you havebeen reading the textbook, and that it informs your thinking for this paper. That is the wholepoint, so don’t worry about citations and bibliographies. Just explain an experience and showhow much you know.Due DateAll papers must be printed out and submitted through TurnItIn by 10:00 AM on Mondayof Week 8 of the course. No late papers will be accepted. Seriously, the web site will not let yousubmit a late paper, so do not even think about it. That web site is cold, man.How to Submit through Turn-It-In:Step 1. Log onto MyUCLA and scroll down to your Study List for the current termStep 2. Click on the “TurnItIn” link for the class. This link will take you directly to yourclass portfolio page on the TurnItIn.com websiteStep 3. Click on the “submit” icon for the assignment you wish to turn in and the“submit” window will open for that specific assignmentStep 4. You can upload your file as a Word document.Step 5. Click Submit. After you click submit, a new window will open displaying yourdigital receipt. Your digital receipt is the confirmation that your submission has beensuccessfully completed.Tips on WritingWriting brief essays is challenging, and you should approach the paper with this in mind.Try to write as efficiently as possible. You want to be clear, but at the same time don't wastespace by using unnecessary words to make a point or by talking about something that isn't reallyrelevant to your argument. Doing so will prevent you from making important arguments ordescribing something more fully in another section of the paper, and thereby hurting your grade.One way to approach these papers is to write a draft and then revise it repeatedly, editing it untilit is concisely and clearly written. If you are uncertain about what you have written, have a friendread your writing first. Then have your friend tell you what your paper is about. If your frienddoes not understand your paper, you have some revising to do.One purpose of the paper assignment is for your TA to see how well you understandmaterial from lecture and readings and how well you can apply that material. Therefore, theinformation from class and from the book represents the "building blocks" that you should use inconstructing your paper. In other words, BUILD YOUR PAPER AROUND COURSEMATERIAL! Use as much information as possible from lectures and readings to support yourideas in the papers. Use the paper to demonstrate that you have understood the lectures, read thetext, and can effectively apply the material to a problem.page 11
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Syllabus - Courses in Psychology - UCLA

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