One of the course objectives is to help you analyze key movements and figures in the field of psychology. To that end, you are asked to write a biography of a famous psychologist of your choice. This paper is worth up to 40 points and is due by Sunday night (at midnight) of Week 3. Your paper should be in 12-point, Times New Roman font, double-spaced and with 1-inch margins on all sides of the paper. The minimum length is 1000 words.
Choose any of the psychologists who wrote one of the readings in this class (for example, you could choose Wundt, Skinner, Freud, Milgram, Festinger, Piaget, etc.). Write a biography paper detailing that person’s life and influence in the field of psychology. Your paper should include at least six sources. These sources can be reputable websites (e.g., sponsored by psychology organizations, universities, etc.) but should not be from questionable sources (e.g., someone’s personal Facebook page who didn’t even know the person). Wikipedia can be one of your six sources.
Be careful to avoid plagiarism. If you use more than three words in a row from a given source, you must put those words in quotation marks. It is always better to paraphrase what you know, in your own words, but to still cite where you got the information. For this paper, list all of your sources at the end of your paper in a “References” section with numbers in front of them (for websites, you can simply put the URL of the site—you don’t need to format the citation in APA style). If you use books or articles, cite them using correct APA style at the end, but still use numbers within the paper itself. Within the paper, after every fact you state about the person you’ve chosen, cite the source using superscripts. Here’s an example:
Freud lived in Vienna, Austria for most of his life.1, 2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud
This paper’s focus should be on how the person you chose influenced the field of psychology. Thus, you will probably spend more time on adulthood achievements and less time on childhood, marriage, etc.—unless you think those life events influenced your person’s theories or outlook.
Points will be awarded for:
Correct use of citations, as described above
Grammar, spelling, flow, and quality of writing in general
Thoroughness of biography, as relevant to later contributions to psychology
Explanation of how and why this person was influential to the field
Plagiarism of any kind will result in a zero for the paper. You may also be reported to officials at BVU and the instructor withholds the right to fail you for the entire class if your case is extreme or it is not your first infraction. Late papers will also be penalized, according to the syllabus.
