Cultural Psychology Paper Instructions

PSYC 3350 Section A

Due date: 11:59 pm on November 15, 2024 Late papers will be penalized 3% per day.  

30% of final grade 

 The purpose of this paper is to give you a chance to think more deeply about a cultural difference in psychology.  You will apply what you have learned about cultural psychology by proposing a study that tests a cultural difference.

 You first need to think about a potential cultural difference that you are curious about.  Then, you need to come up with a research question and hypothesis that will test how this phenomenon varies between cultures, and propose a psychological study to test your hypothesis.   

 You could choose to test a hypothesis that already exists in the literature, but propose a new way to test it that has never been done before; you could propose testing a previous finding in a new context; or you could propose a novel hypothesis of your own.  To generate your ideas, you could think about experiences in your own life or cultural differences that you have witnessed and want to know more about.  Or you could focus on limitations and inconsistencies of prior literature.  For example, you may think about how a previously-studied psychological phenomenon may not apply to certain contexts or populations, try to test a potential mechanism for a cross-cultural difference, or suggest an empirical test of a theoretical claim.  Feel free to use other people’s ideas and methods, as long as you apply them in a new way to answer your research questions.  Remember that cultural differences may exist between two different groups of people, within the same group of people as cultures change over time, or within the lifespan of an individual as they acculturate to a new context.

 

Given the short length of this paper (5 pages), don’t overcomplicate things: Focus on a single cultural difference that might exist between two groups.  Stay focused on your single research question and hypothesis, and describe it in depth, in your paper.

You are NOT actually going to carry out this study, or collect any data.  You are only proposing a study that a psychologist could carry out, to test a question about cultural psychology.

Format

This paper will be a maximum of 5 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font, oneinch margins (cover page and references do not count in the page limit). The paper should use standard English language and the overall writing style should be clear and concise. Proofread for spelling and grammatical errors.

 

The paper should follow proper APA style (7th edition), in both the formatting of the paper and references, and in the structure of the content (it should include an Introduction, Method, and

Discussion section, and reference list, in that order).  No abstract or results section are required.

 

More details about APA-style formatting are available at:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html  

 

Any page over this 5-page limit will not be read – anything you write in them will not be graded.

 

Introduction

 

In this section, you will provide a summary of your research question and previous literature that supports and provides necessary context for your argument.

–        Propose a cultural difference in a psychological phenomenon that would be worth studying.  Explain what this cultural phenomenon looks like.

–        Explain why this phenomenon is theoretically interesting to cultural psychology.

–        Summarize existing literature that would support or provide necessary background for your hypothesis.  This can include an overview of previous research on the topic and theoretical background.  This lets the readers know why this topic is worth studying and how the proposed study fits into the existing literature.  You must reference at least 3 papers published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals (i.e., not the textbook or the readings assigned in class).  You can find these scholarly articles in research databases like Google Scholar or PsycInfo.  Most published literature is accessible through the University’s library (https://www.library.yorku.ca/).  You can also refer to the textbook and other resources (e.g., new articles, other websites) to support your argument, but you must refer to 3 scholarly publications as well.

–        Provide relevant details of the cultural context of your participants.

–        State your specific research question.

–        Provide a brief overview of the study that you are proposing, and state how your proposed study will address the research question and theoretical context that you have identified.

–        State clear and concise hypothesis about this cultural difference: What results do you expect to find in your proposed study, and how would this address broader theoretical claims about cultural psychology?  

 

Remember: You are not required to provide a full summary of all previous literature.  The goal of this project is to think deeply about a research question in cultural psychology and how it could be tested – this is not merely a review of other people’s research, and depth is more important than breadth.

 

Methods

 

Describe exactly what this proposed study would look like and how it would be carried out. 

–        What two cultural groups do you propose studying?  What people from these groups do you plan on studying? State what characteristics determine who qualifies for being part of the groups in your study, how these participants will be recruited and incentivized to participate.

–        What methods will you use to test your hypothesis?  

–        Clearly describe the design of your study (e.g., questionnaire, experiment in the lab, observation of natural situations or archival data, etc.)  You can get creative with the type of data you propose collecting – don’t feel limited to using pre-existing psychological questionnaires.  Experimental studies are great, but not required.  Make sure that this study is something that could be realistically conducted and would be ethical.

–        What are the key variables?  If this is an experiment, state which is the independent variable (which you manipulate) and the dependent variable (which you measure).  If your study is correlational, state which is the predictor variable and which is being predicted.

–        Provide operational definition of these variables.  How exactly will you manipulate or measure the variables of interest?  Refer to pre-existing literature that used these measures, if available, or propose your own novel measure.  If you are using a questionnaire, give some examples of the items on the scale.  Use the level of detail that you have seen in empirical articles that you read in this class.

–        Summarize the procedure, including what activities participants will take part in.

 

Whatever you propose, make sure to describe it in sufficient detail to make it clear what this study would look like.  

 

Discussion

 

–        Briefly summarize what potential results might look like (you won’t actually know what the results are, but describe a plausible outcome related to your hypothesis)

–        Think critically about the implications (theoretical or practical) of potential results.  Describe how to the findings would relate to the previous findings or theories discussed in the introduction.  

–        Discuss one key limitation of this study, such as a limitation to the validity of the methods or generalizability of the findings.

 

 

Submission instructions

 

You will submit your paper through eClass.  This submission will also be automatically sent to Turnitin, an online plagiarism detection program that will assess similarity between your paper and previous work (including websites, journal articles, books, and other assignments concurrently or previously submitted to Turnitin).  Any submissions that have too much content overlap with prior work will not be accepted.  More detailed submission instructions will be provided closer to the deadline.

 

Further details about requirements and grading are available in the attached rubric.  

 

             

Rubric for Cultural Psychology Paper

 

Criteria

Grade

INTRODUCTION

                             /25

Correctly identifies a
phenomenon relevant to cultural psychology

 

Summarizes existing
background literature

 

Provides justification
for participants (or data source) and methodology

 

Explains why the target
phenomena is worth investigating further

 

Includes references to
3 scholarly articles

 

HYPOTHESIS

                             /10

Research question and
hypothesis stated clearly, with reference to independent and dependent (or
predictor and criterion) variables

 

Hypothesis justified in
a logical manner in the introduction

 

METHODS

                             /25

Participants clearly
identified

 

Describes study design,
measures, and procedure in sufficient detail

 

Methods provide a
suitable test of the hypothesis identified in the introduction

 

DISCUSSION

                             /15

Thoughtfully describes
implications of results

 

Describes one key
limitation of the study

 

WRITING QUALITY

                             /10

Writing was clear, concise, easily
understood; word choice was effective; appropriate university-level academic
tone was employed.

 

Well-organized, logical
structure and flow of arguments

 

No errors in
punctuation, grammar, and spelling

 

FORMATTING

                               /5

APA style in text

 

APA style in references

 

Correct margins, font,
etc.

 

GENERAL QUALITY

/10 

Holistic evaluation of paper                 

 

 

Total:            /100