PAPER ASSIGNMENT ( I have a pdf of one of the readings required in class if you need it)
Describe an anecdote from your personal life illustrating an error you have made or a bias you have shown
in your own judgment and decision making. Then use your knowledge of social psychological theory and
research (i.e., course material) to explain why your error/bias may have occurred and how it might be corrected
or avoided in the future.
Make sure the error or bias you choose is the result of some facet of social cognition/information processing
(rather than something else, like just having incorrect information). The key to the assignment is to pick an
example from your life that allows you to analyze your own thoughts and behavior through the lens of the
material we have discussed in class. Use the class material to explain the specific cognitive processes underlying
the error/bias you choose and, based on this analysis, present any thoughts you have about how your judgment
might be improved in the future.
Some Tips on Style
Write Clearly and Concisely: Papers should be written in a “short essay” format. These papers are not
exercises in creative writing, but in clearly and concisely communicating ideas and arguments. Writing brief
essays is challenging, and good papers usually require several drafts. The papers shouldn’t be a rehash of
everything you heard during lecture, but a precise, organized, and specific explanation of how your error/bias can
be traced to particular cognitive processes covered in the class. Your ideas should be presented in a clear enough
manner for a typical college student to understand them. This means that you must define your terms and
carefully describe the theories/research you use in your papers, because the average college student won’t be
familiar with the material presented in this class.
Build your Paper Around Course Material: The key purpose of the paper assignment is for us to see how well
you understand material from lecture and readings and how well you can apply that material to your own
experiences. The information from class and readings represents the “building blocks” that you should use in
constructing your paper. In other words, build your paper around course material. Outside reading is fine if you
think your paper requires it, but is not essential as the paper is intended to be a “thought piece” not a literature
review. The point is to show your understanding of the course material by applying it to explain real life behavior.
Write in your Own Words: Don’t copy material from books, even relatively small amounts of material. This is
plagiarism and you will get in loads of trouble (see above). You need to cite ideas that are not your own using
APA style (see the Kim book for examples). In the rare instance where you want to quote a source, put the
material in quotation marks and cite the source. However, try to avoid direct quotes. I want to see what YOU
know–I already know that book authors know their stuff.
Grading: Papers should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins, using a Times New Roman 12-pt or Arial 11-pt font.
Papers must be a minimum of 3 (full) pages long and a maximum of 5 (longer papers will definitely not earn you extra
credit). References should be cited and listed at the end of the paper in APA style. References and title page info
(your ID#, class name, professor’s name, etc.) don’t count towards the length requirement.
The major criteria used for grading will be:
How clearly you communicate your ideas.
How well you demonstrate an accurate understanding of theories, concepts, research used
The plausibility and insightfulness of your analysis: “plausible” in the sense of being both consistent with the
theories/research it is derived from and consistent with the facts of the anecdote you describe, “insightful” in the
sense that you pick an anecdote to analyze that has interesting aspects to it and your analysis really adds something
to our understanding of your judgment.
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