My final project will be about the application of operant conditioning principles to enhance personal productivity. As an individual striving to manage multiple responsibilities effectively, I often encounter challenges in maintaining consistent productivty
Description. A four to seven page (double-spaced) paper in which you apply one or more ideas from the course to something in your own experience is due during final exam week (see course calendar for the exact time). The goal is for you to use what you have learned in the class in a way that is meaningful to you, and to evaluate the strength of the empirical evidence for the ideas you are applying. You could use what you have learned about psychology to make sense of an experience you have had, to explain some behavior you have observed in yourself or other people, or to help create a plan to achieve some goal in the future, just to name a few examples. A paper which merely cites general ideas from the textbook or lectures (“Similar contexts at encoding and retrieval make it easier to remember something”) is likely to be decidedly mediocre. One that cites specific empirical evidence in a way that supports your interpretations and arguments (“Morris, Bransford, and Franks (1977) found that words were better remembered if the way they were tested matched the way people thought about them when they studied them. I could use this ‘encoding specificity principle’ to help me …”) is likely to be a much better paper. Also be sure to critically evaluate how strong the evidence is for the “facts” from psychology that you are applying.
Instructions. Use the following section headings:
Issue. Begin by describing the personal goal, problem, experience, or phenomenon that you will be addressing. Explain briefly why it is interesting or important to you. (One paragraph)
Course Topics. Identify the topics from the course that you will be applying, including the relevant facts or theories you will make use of. (One paragraph)
Application. Apply information from the course to analyze your experience, create a plan for achieving your goal, find a solution to your problem, etc. Be sure to cite the specific sources for the ideas you are applying. You can also refer to general principles from the course readings and lectures. (2 to 3 pages)
Empirical Evaluation. Evaluate the strength of the evidence for the “facts” you are applying from topics in the course. If, for example, you applied the idea of “retrieval practice” to help you study more effectively, you might say something like, “The idea that retrieval practice leads to better memory is something we can be highly confident is true, because it has been repeatedly supported by well-controlled experimental evidence.” Or if you applied the idea of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to identify things that were interfering with your academic achievement you might say, “Although intuitively appealing, the ideas described in Maslow’s Hierarchy are things we can have very little confidence are true, because they are mostly based on only intuition and observational research, not repeated and well-controlled experiments.” Try to cite specific empirical evidence to support your conclusions whenever possible. This can include primary sources such as journal articles. (The library has a Guide for Research that is very helpful.) (2 to 3 pages)
Conclusion. Sum up what you have done, and briefly discuss which information from the course you found most applicable to your issue. Also briefly talk about what questions you still have or what further information you think you might need. (1 to 2 paragraphs).
References. Provide an APA-style reference list for any source you used in your paper, whether it is a journal article, textbook chapter, course lecture, website, content-generating tool such as an AI system, or anything else that is not common knowledge or your own words and ideas. Each entry in the References list should also correspond to an APA-style in-text citation in the text of your paper. Each entry in the References list must include a DOI, or if no DOI is available it must include a URL that links to the source (except for course materials). Your paper must include at least 2 primary source references (such as journal articles). If any of your references (except for course materials) do not have a working DOI or URL that links to the correct article, that can result in a zero for the assignment.
AI Tools List. After the references, you must have this heading and a statement saying “I used the following AI Tools for this assignment: [list them, including ChatGPT, Grammarly, and any others that can generate or modify text; or say “None” if you used none.] Failing to include this statement will result in a zero for the assignment. For full credit, you should also briefly describe how you used any text-generating tool, including the prompts you used.
