PSYC 102

Dr. Morales Picard

Writing Assignment 2: Connecting Current Events to Psychology

(Due Dec. 6)

For this assignment, you are being asked to connect a news article of your choosing to psychological
concepts and perspectives, and to a research article. There are two parts to this assignment. Please make
sure that you complete both parts, thoroughly addressing each question with specific and clear
responses, and that you follow assignment instructions carefully. This assignment is worth 40 points.
The following must be submitted into the Blackboard dropbox on Dec. 6: (i) your responses to all
questions in Part 1 and Part 2 (ii) References for the articles you selected for Part 1 and Part 2 (iii) a link
to the news article you selected for Part 1 (iv) an electronic copy of the research article you selected for
Part 2.

PART 1

Instructions: Find a news article that you think is interesting, and that focuses on a topic that can be
related to psychology. The article you select must report on a recent event or on a current issue in
society; for example, you can select an article that reports news about politics, crime/criminal justice,
business, civil rights, foreign policy, pop culture, sports, etc. Do NOT select a news article that reports a
psychological or scientific study – it must be about a current event. The article must come from the
website of a reputable news agency or published newspaper (domestic or international). The following
are examples of major news agencies and newspapers that are acceptable sources: Associated Press;
Reuters; The Washington Post; The Wall Street Journal; The New York Times; Chicago Sun-Times; Los
Angeles Times; Miami Herald; The Boston Globe.

* Tip: If you find yourself struggling to find an article that you think is relevant to psychology, just
remember that psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Therefore, any current events
story that involves (or affects) behavior, attitudes, or beliefs, can be related to psychology in some way.

Questions:
1. What is the news article about? Briefly summarize it.

2. What major specialty area (or subfield) in psychology do you think is most applicable or relevant to
the topic(s) discussed in the article? Identify a specialty area in psychology and explain what the
research focus of the field is and how it is related to the article (for e.g, how may a researcher in that
subfield be able to provide some insight into the nature of the behaviour?). *Tip: chapters in your text
book focus on specialty areas (e.g., biological psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental
psychology, behavioural psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology, health psychology. A list of
some specialty areas can also be found in Chapter 1 (page 5), under “Contemporary Psychology.”)
3. What psychological concepts, theories or research can be applied to the current events story?
Specifically identify at least three concepts (the key terms in bold), theories, or studies that are found in
your textbook, that are relevant to the article. Describe/define the concepts, theories, or studies, and
clearly explain how they relate to information in the article.

PART 2

Instructions: Find a research article from a peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal that is related to one or
more topics discussed in the news article you chose for Part 1. The article MUST be from a scholarly
journal accessed through MC’s library database or through Google Scholar. To find an article using
databases through the library, go to https://libguides.montgomerycollege.edu/psyc102 and click on
“Find peer-reviewed articles,” then scroll down and click on either of the “Psychology specific
databases.” Once you access the database, type in the topic you want to research in the search bar.
Suggestion: start narrow (be specific in the words you type into the search bar; ex., ‘causes of
schizophrenia’ vs. ‘mental illness’). Once you find an appropriate article, save an electronic copy of it
(you will need to submit it into Blackboard). Alternately, you can use https://scholar.google.com;
however, keep in mind that you may not have access to the full article via google scholar (if you find an
article through Google Scholar, but you can’t access the full article, you can use the databases through
the library to get access to the full article). Links will be provided in Blackboard to databases and sites
with helpful resources. Once you find an appropriate article, save an electronic copy of it (you will need
to submit it into Blackboard) and address the following questions.

Questions:
1. What is the research article about? Briefly summarize the main points of the article.

2. How does the research article relate to the news story? Explain how the research findings it reports,
or the arguments made in the article, connect to the current events news article you selected for Part 1.