Final Paper Assignment Instructions
Due date:
Friday, May 4, 5:00 pm. 1 point deducted for every 1/2 hour paper is late.
Description of Assignment:
For the final paper in this course, you will need to write a 4-5 page paper in APA Style answering the following question: Are emotions HELPFUL or HARMFUL to judgment and decision-making in everyday life?
While the answer to this question is likely "both," for the purposes of the paper you to pick one position (-either- that emotions help or that they harm judgment) and defend it by citing relevant research on the topic from empirical studies published in psychological journals, as well as with evidence from your own life experience.
Here are the specific details about the requirements (apologies for the length, but over the years of answering follow-up questions I've learned to err on the side of specificity):
Length:
The paper must be 4-5 double-spaced pages (not including the reference page and the title page. And please--normal, 12 pt. font, and no funky margins). Just so you know, going over the page limit is just as bad as going under, and you will be docked points for either.
Format:
The paper must be written in APA style. The only exception is that you are NOT required to write an abstract. But the rest is important--title page, headers, in-text citations, reference page, etc. You can find many online guides for formatting a paper in APA Style--one of the best can be found here:
Please look over this information carefully before you email us with specific questions about APA Style. Chances are the answer is either on the website above, or otherwise easily google-able.
Everyday Example:
As mentioned above, please include one example from "real life" in support of your argument. By "real life," I mean your own experience, that of a friend, family member, someone you kinda know--whatever. I'd prefer that you stick to true stories, as the point is to provide some anecdotal evidence to support your argument, not to make up an anecdote to suit your argument!
References (pt.1):
Cite at least THREE empirical journal articles: You are required to research at least 3 papers from empirical journals and describe the studies reported, and how they support your main point. It is okay if these studies were mentioned in class or in the textbook, but the requirement is that you find and read the original article and reference it. Therefore, please do not cite the textbook or the lectures (if you do, they will not be included as part of the 5 overall refs).
The best place to do this research is on the Cornell library website--specifically in the PsychInfo database (which is the primary database for psychological research). Google scholar (scholar.google.com) is also a great resource. Please direct questions about the process of finding articles and conducting the research to the library help desk. There are employees on staff who are experts on this sort of thing, and who are there to help you!
References (pt.2):
Cite at least TWO other publications in support of your argument (for a total of at least 5 references): In addition to the 3 empirical articles you will need at least two more references. These can be empirical articles as well, or they can be articles that review the research of others, books or articles that discuss emotion from other fields (e.g., philosophy, sociology, etc.), popular press articles (newspapers or magazines). In short, you can use any of these that support your point but that aren't necessarily empirical, peer-reviewed psychology papers. No blogposts or wikipedia articles, please (although those are often great places to start).
Submitting your paper:
The paper is due by Friday, May 6 at 5:00 pm. This is a hard deadline, and we will deduct 1 point for every 1/2 hour it is late. We will have you turn the paper in via the course website (using dropbox). We will send out instructions for those who have not used this system.
Grade:
The paper will be graded out of 50 pts., but the part that really matters is that it will be weighted to be the equivalent of an exam. (Exam 1,2,3,final paper, are each 25% each).
Additional Info:
In case you still have questions, here's some extra stuff put together from responses to student emails in years past.
- Make sure that your essay focuses on judgment and decision-making specifically. The question isn’t about whether emotions are generally adaptive or not and while it’s fine to discuss changes in behavior, cognition, etc., your discussion should ultimately support your position on the role of emotion on judgment.
- When making your argument, you can feel free to focus on one emotion (e.g., fear), on a whole class of emotions (e.g., "negative emotions" or "self-conscious" emotions), or on "emotions" in general. This is up to you, and part of what makes the assignment more interesting to us (and hopefully to you) is the flexibility that is built-in to the question. UPDATE: In addition, you can focus on any of the "affective" phenomena discussed in the class--moods, basic emotions, social emotions, or visceral states of arousal.
- In order to make a good argument for whether emotions help or harm decision-making, you need to think carefully about what "help" or "harm" means.It’s not enough to say that people who experience a particular emotion make different decisions than people who don’t. You need to take a firm stance on whether the changes you discuss help or harm (and discuss why!)
- Ensuring that your paper is in APA Style is low-hanging fruit! It's the easiest way to get points, and the easiest way we have of docking points when wrong. This is not just because we like being sticklers, but because I consider it a fundamental goal that students in my upper-level psych course leave with knowledge of how to write an APA style paper.