Final Presentation and Paper Instructions

Final Presentation and Paper Instructions
Seminar in Forensic Psychology (Psychology of Extremist Groups)
PSY 425.99
Students will present on and write a final paper, which will analyze the psychological aspects of
one extremist group of your choice (see syllabus for a recommended list of extremist groups).
Students must first choose an extremist group on the Final Paper/Presentation Extremist Group
Selection Wiki page on Blackboard. Student may use a group not listed; however, they must first
acquire explicit approval from the professor. An example of both a presentation and a paper are
available on Blackboard for your review.
Presentation Instructions:
The presentation will involve the student preparing a PowerPoint presentation that will be
uploaded for the class. Since a majority of this course involves examining the psychological
mechanisms behind extremist groups, the presentation primarily serves as a kind of historical
briefing on one specific extremist group. The presentation will include two areas: 1) first discuss
the historical aspects of the extremist group (i.e., their history, significant events in their existence,
their members, leaders, ideology, etc.) and, 2) then discuss the psychological aspects of their
extremism. The analysis of psychological factors should comprise a wide variety of psychological
phenomena, including cognitive, social, and clinical psychology. Students will be required to
create and submit a PowerPoint presentation. Remember, the presentation is meant to serve as a
briefing for other studentsyou are teaching them about your selected groupso the PowerPoint
presentation should be easy to follow (audio narration or detailed slide notes are encouraged but
not required, given certain technology constraints). The Presentation is worth 20% of your final
grade.
Presentations are due by Tuesday, July 6, at 11:59pm, and will be uploaded for review during
the final week of the course.
Grading Structure for Presentation:
Background information regarding extremist group: ____ / 40 points
Psychological mechanisms utilized in extremist group: ____ / 40 points
Clarity of PowerPoint and Presentation presented: ____ / 20 points
Total ____ / 100 points
Paper Instructions:
The final paper is required to be at least 10 pages (double-spaced, 1 margins, 12-point Times New
Roman font), not including references. The paper will follow the same format as the presentation,
in that students will be required to write about: 1) the historical accounts of the chosen extremist
group (approximately 4-5 pages) and, 2) the psychological factors which relate to the extremist
group (approximately 5-6 pages).
Students may use open sources (e.g., Wikipedia, YouTube, video sources) and/or expert sources
(e.g., novels) when acquiring information on the historical aspects of the extremist groups.
However, students are required to rely on expert, peer-reviewed sources (e.g., PsycINFO) for the
second portion of the presentation/paper focusing on the relevant psychological factors. Students
are welcome and encouraged to utilize sources assigned throughout the semester. That is, students
are encouraged to apply the material (e.g., social, cognitive, clinical) from the readings/papers in
class and discuss their relation to the specific extremist group in question.
As each of the major topic areas covered in class may not be appropriate for each extremist
groupor alternatively, if students simply wish to focus on two or three more in-depth topics,
rather than covering all of themit is not required to discuss each major topic area covered in
class. Furthermore, even if you do not see that a major topic area is related to your group (e.g.,
clinical), you can make note of this and expand (e.g., discussing how a particular extremist group
did not appear to evidence signs of psychopathology, thus increasing the importance of otherwise
normative cognitive/social factors and supporting theories that overt psychopathology is
insufficient to explain away extremist behavior).
The Final Paper is worth 30% of your final grade.

Last Completed Projects