Felipe Peres

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

5/6/2018

WP2 Rough Draft

In the field of Psychology, many clinicians, professors, and researchers require and

utilize many theoretical concepts and research conventions to create agreement and consensus Commented [MOU1]: These words have similar meanings.
Choose one word.
within the academic community. Due to the necessity of the field requiring scientific and

replicable theories and concepts, pPsychologists have resorted to utilizing APA style research

conventions and their own designed theoretical boundaries to create research and evidence that Commented [MOU2]: You can’t create evidence.

can be critiqued and revised based on an objective and scientific basis. As a result, many of the

concepts and nuances regarding research are unique to Psychology and are not found in many

other scientific areas, and so in university settings a course design expounding on these ideas

must be utilized. At the University of California Santa Barbara, the class Psychology 10A is a Commented [MOU3]: Break this sentence into two.

course that is specifically designed to not only address and explain these concepts but to also

apply them. By utilizing a 10-week course module centered around a research proposal, a

research theory-based textbook, thorough and nuanced lectures/labs, and article reviews, the

course successfully teaches and illustrates many of the theoretical concepts and research

conventions the field of Psychology utilizes to help students with what? By studying this

course’s writing conventions, what can we learn/gain? In other words, why is this course

structure in this way?.

 Prior to discussing the intricacies of the course, an exposition of the background of

pPsychology must take place to understand why such a course is designed the way it is. Unlike Commented [MOU4]: Don’t capitalize “psychology” or
“psycologists.”
many “hard” sciences, such as chemistry or physics, Psychology cannot rely solely on material

and mathematical observations. As a “soft” science, Psychology deals with many emotions,

personality traits, and attributions that current technology cannot qualify or replicate. While

chemists can directly manipulate a molecule and quantify such manipulations, Psychologists

cannot directly influence a variable such as emotion and quantify it. Instead, Psychologists have

based their research on attempting to operationalize these “soft” variables, such as emotions,

through manipulation of things that they can directly influence. This research is then done and

based under two major domains, research theory and APA research conventions. As a class in

the Psychology and Brain Sciences B.S., Psychology 10A teaches this concept under a binary

class module teaching theory and convention.

The attempt to achieve the exposition of theory and convention in the course Psychology

10A is seen through its course module and syllabus. The course is formatted in a 10-week period

that is centered around the research proposal. Every week, the assignments due all lead up to

research and required entries in proposals to allow students to create their research proposal in a

timely and thorough manner. On a weekly basis, the class meets twice a week for a lecture and a

final time for a lab that reviews and applies many concepts learned in lecture. Ultimately, the end

goal of the course module, which is reflected in the structure of the syllabus, is to have students

create a research proposal that would be accepted at a graduate level. The syllabus can be best

analyzed in two 5-week time frames. The first 5-weeks are based on theoretical teaching and

evidence of said theories within articles. The second 5-weeks are more so based on the

application of theoretical concepts onto a student’s original research proposal. The research
proposal itself is designed to culminate all the courses material, as to successfully pass the

research proposal a student must present a valid design structure and solid theoretical knowledge

of their choice in material.

To achieve the goal of the first 5-weeks of class, the course uses a textbook that heavily

explains much of the theoretical concepts used in research. The textbook Conducting Research in

Psychology by Brett Pelham and Hart Blanton is used in Psychology 10A as the backbone for the

explanation of theoretical concepts. While many of the topics covered in the textbook are more

pertinent to the class and not to the research of the conventions used within the class, it is

important to map them since all psychological research is based on these concepts. The actual

theoretical concepts themselves are outlined within the chapters of the book. For example, in the

contents section (i-xiii) we see how concepts such as validity, experimental research design, and

statistics are all covered. (i-xiii) The reason all of these concepts are covered is because the

actual research itself borrows heavily from them, as, for example, matters such as validity

influence the actual legitimacy of experimental outcomes. As the weeks progress, student’s

knowledge of the conventions of research itself are is expanded and then exemplified through

article summaries.

While the theoretical background of the article summaries are is taught during the first 5- Commented [MOU5]: The verb is connected to
“background” rather than “summaries”
weeks of the course, it is the second 5-weeks part that expands upon the conventions of APA

formatting. The course syllabus places almost all of its emphasis on addressing the structure and

presentation of APA formatted research. These conventions are explained through article

analysis and in class examples, with the rules and conventions outlined by the Purdue Owl APA

Style website. According to the website, APA is a convention system used to “cite sources
Commented [MOU6]: See the section “citing non-print…”
within the social sciences.”(citation). APA formatted essays and research are based on what type https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/ +
don’t forget to include
of research is being conducted. For example, literature reviews, which are characterized as

critical summaries of topics and research done on those topics, consist mostly of Title page,

Introduction, and references. Experimental reports on the other hand, which are mostly full on

research experiments, present their findings through sections such as abstracts, methods,

discussion, and references. Much of the final 5-weeks of the course involves creating these

sections for the experimental design of the research proposal, and is done so through the

juxtaposition of the students material and current articles found in Psychology.

An example of an article summary of Psychological research can be seen in Ivanov and

Bobis Beyond Simple Inoculation: Examining the Persuasive Value of Inoculation for Audiences

with Initially Neutral or Opposing Attitudes. Connecting the previously discussed theoretical Commented [MOU7]: If it is an article then it should not be
italicized and it should be in quotation marks.
concepts to hard research, this article discusses a theory known as Inoculation Theory and its Commented [MOU8]: Don’t need to capitalize

applications beyond what the original theory proposes. Things such as validity are tested through

its pertinence to the original Inoculation theory, while external validity connects to the

experimental research design that is based on the study of attitudes in a college setting. All of

this research is done in this study is based on the concepts discussed within the textbook and is

presented in a format known as APA. The APA format of this essay is seen in its use of sections

such as abstracts and methods, which outline the theoretical background of the research and its

pertinence to the research question. The methods section then expands upon how the experiment

was conducted, with further sections expanding upon the data found in the research. Ultimately,

articles like these are meant to be summarized as assignments so that students see first hand how

research is presented and designed.

Regarding the class structure itself, lectures and laboratory sections serve to function as

checkpoints for the progression of the course. All lectures and labs within the course are
conducted in the same manner. The professor uses PowerPoints, videos, and journal entries to

explain her points and interconnect all the information being presented in the class. In lab,

students are then expected to take the concepts discussed in class and engage with the TA and

peers in discussions. The vernacular used within the lectures are based on the theoretical

concepts discussed in the textbook, which are then mapped onto primary research articles

presented in class that are formatted based off APA style. As all of this connects, students are

expected to fully grasp all the intricacies and concepts used in research and then take it upon

themselves to work on the final research proposal.

As the course is presented and taught in a very fast paced and at times daunting manner,

the efficacy of the course regarding its effectiveness in teaching the material is upheld through

student reports. In a personal interview, student Gabriela Straub stated “Very, as I said before it Commented [MOU9]: Choose only a part of the quote to
make your point more clear.
is super important for research. Without that foundation, you are lost and don’t understand a

major part of psychology and how theories/studies are conducted and why they are conducted the

way they are” when asked if the conventions laid out by the course made sense in the greater

context of the major. With research in Psychology being a major factor in how the field develops

at large, ensuring that students have a strong foundation in research methods seems not only a

focal point by universities but also a factor sought after by students.

Conclusion.
Work Cited

1. Ivanov, Bobi, et al. “Beyond Simple Inoculation: Examining the Persuasive Value of

Inoculation for Audiences with Initially Neutral or Opposing Attitudes.” Western Journal

of Communication, vol. 81, no. 1, 2016, pp. 105–126.,

doi:10.1080/10570314.2016.1224917.

2. Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

(OWL), owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.

3. Pelham, Brett W., and Hart Blanton. Conducting Research in Psychology: Measuring the Weight

of Smoke. Sage, 2019.

4. Straub, Gabriella. Personal Interview. 5 May. 2018