Psychology Essay
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As a university or a college student you may have been instructed to write a psychology essay by your lecturer or course instructor. Psychology essays are among the most common essays written in colleges. Learning how to write a good psychology essay is therefore an important skill that each student needs to learn. Learning these skills will not only guarantee you good grades at the end of the term but also make your life as a student enjoyable. In this paper we look at some important things to consider when writing a psychology term paper or essay. It also describe the necessary sections and what needs to be included in each section. These sections are the title page, the abstract and the main body. An important factor to consider when writing a psychology essay is to have a research question. You should also have and defend a thesis statement by presenting facts and well reasoned arguments.
In writing of a psychology essay you should always consider the given precise instructions for the essay or term paper though these instructions may vary among the various departments and courses. It is therefore important that you know what you are expected to write before you start the writing process. In psychology the main objective of writing an essay is to discuss in depth a given issue. In particular the presented argument should be in the defense of the thesis statement or should provide answers to the research questions.
After you have read the given instruction the next step is to select a topic. Some times the course instructor may select a topic which you are to write on or you may be required to come up with a topic. To some students especially those who are new in the psychology class this may not be an essay task considering that you need to choose one topic from a list of many topics that seems appropriate. Here are some suggestions on how you should proceed.
- By search books or journals found in your school library you may come up with a problem that is of interest in psychology. You can then read down through the material and then narrow it down to come up with the topic to write on.
- Going through the lecture notes and course textbook can also be of great help in trying to come up with a topic. In the notes, you may find a statement of interest.
- Everyday life experience can also provide one with a topic from which to write on. These may be questions resulting from personal experiences or observations. You can then do a research of these question and come up with a refined topic.
Before selecting a topic it is always wise to do some reading and also consider recent works. You can read from various sources but the easiest way to go about it is to first read introductory textbooks and find out the view of other authors. These books which are secondary sources can also direct you to a useful primary sources, which contains the original research. Another easy way that is most recommended is the use of a computer through PsycINfo. This resource allows one to get available psychology literature from any topic. It contains materials from as early as 1887. After choosing a topic then you need to search for the materials that you will use to write the essay. It is always wise to choose a topic that you can find materials for easily. These materials can be found from the library either in print or in electronic format.
In psychology, essays are written in APA format and according to the American psychological Manual 2001 edition an essay in psychology should have; Title page, Main body and the Reference section.
Title page; in this page you include the title of your essay, name of the authors or author and the institution of affiliation. You should make sure that the title selected match with your research question or thesis statement. Abstract: the next page should be the abstract and should be about 150 words. It should give the research question and a summary of the writers arguments and should be written last. The main body of the text will contain: the introduction, the writers argument and the conclusion. Finally, the reference section is the last page and contains details about the sources used in writing the text.