Psychology Reaction Paper Guidelines

Psychology Reaction Paper Guidelines

A reaction paper addresses a published study showing how you feel about a specific issue. While writing a psychology reaction paper, we have to respond to single or many writings that we stumble across. It will require you to read each of the works very carefully and understand what they do offer. If you are working with multiple texts in this reaction paper, try to discover their relation. This research paper might also include discussion, evaluation, and drawing out conclusions from the findings. One of the popular ways among the instructors while writing a reaction paper is to adhere to the APA format guidelines. The text should be concise, clear, and free of any grammatical errors. Also, never submit plagiarized content. Consider choosing a topic that is not very outdated and is still relevant. The purpose behind this is to showcase your skills to comprehend and analyze text to gain useful experience along the way and prepare a high scoring reaction paper.

Introduction To Psychology

One of the branches of behavioral sciences, psychology as a scientific study, teaches us about observable behaviorsfor example, abstract mental processes, sleeping, and dreaming. Psychologists have great insight and knowledge about human behaviors and predict how humankind behaves in different situations and circumstances. Human consciousness is not a simple process; it involves many complexities. Hence researchers use different approaches and methods. Using systematic methods, they develop psychology questions to ask and inquire about various behaviors and draw conclusions. For instance, what is the reason behind females to outperform males when it comes to academics? Psychologists study the effects of teachers, schools, and parents on the children's performance and try to figure out if they, in any way, support the female students to a greater extent.

Significance of Writing In Psychology

For bachelors in science, communicating well is the key to success in academics and the career ahead of you. Chances are, you might be doing well at oral communication, but written communication is not everybody's cup of tea. If you are struggling in that domain, improving your writing will help you in every aspect of your career. Also, it has a way to influence the thinking process. If you get a firm grip on how you state your arguments, it will improve your thinking skills. It is essential to consider that nearly all career paths related to this field require writing in one form or another. No matter if you are thinking of studying further or step into the corporate world, you will need to utilize your writing skills right away.

Writing A Reaction Paper For Psychology

Are you wondering how to write a reaction paper; well, it is no rocket science. If you are studying psychology, you will be required to read an article or a book and write a reaction paper on it at some point in your degree. As the name suggests, it is a piece of script that records your reaction or response to the given content. Your instructor in this report will be expecting two parts included in your report: the summary of your writing and a detailed reaction from your side. Let us unfold below what we do mean by these two:

Summarizing Your Content

In the first part, you have to identify and write down the authors and their titles, publication date, and publisher in the parentheses. If you are studying a magazine, the date of publication is essential. Then, you have to write a summary that is concise yet informative. It would help if you condensed the whole writing by highlighting the author's perspective and the gist behind it. You can include the supporting points but only where necessary. You can also support your stance by directly quoting from the material. Your goal should be to provide the reader with a general sense of the original material's main aspects. Try not to discuss a single point in detail. Also, make sure you are not neglecting anything important either. The summary has to be factual and objective. In the first part of the report, do not include your personal opinion or reaction to the content. Leave this for the second part.

Your Reaction

To develop the second part, you should focus your writing on one or all of the questions mentioned in this paragraph. Also, consider your instructor before finalizing the points to add to the reaction paper. The questions to reflect upon are how, in your opinion, is it related to present-day world problems? How is it assigned in relevance to the ideas and course you have been preparing for during your degree? How is it related to you and your life? Does it arouse any feelings in you? Has this increased your understanding of a particular subject, and what about your perspective on it? You should evaluate the merit of the content the significance of its accuracy, organization, points, and completeness. Besides, this reaction paper also indicates whether you will recommend this to others or not, and if so, then why?

Topics Related To Reaction Paper

Focus on a Topic Within a Particular Branch of Psychology

The key to success when choosing a suitable topic for this paper is to decide on a narrow enough subject for focused research but, at the same time, not so narrow that it becomes entirely impossible to get your hands-on articles and content. One smart approach to tackle this issue is to decide on a subject that falls under this subcategory. You can start by settling on some form of a social issue. After this, you might want to narrow your concentration regarding the persuasion needed to influence behavior. Some ideas you can consider for these topics include social cognition, leadership, prejudice and discrimination, romance, social control, attitudes, personal perceptions, prosocial behavior, and many more. By choosing areas like these, you will get the benefit of extensive research already done in the field, and also it will keep you interested as the focus will be right up your alley.

Consider Writing About A Disorder Or Type Of Therapy

A right area for this can be found by exploring a related psychological disorder. Alternatively, consider writing about a particular treatment modality. By doing so, you will be making your findings relatable for many people. Also, adding value to this area's current study will be very useful and practical for many patients, doctors, and scientists. Another fact is that people find studying mental disorders very intriguing as there are many aspects yet of being discovered. When it comes to the human mind and how it processes different messages and feelings, you are more likely to find interesting and useful topics. A few potential ones include depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, phobias, antisocial personality disorder, borderline therapy disorders, profile a type of therapy, seasonal affective disorder, and more.

A Topic Concerned With Human Cognition

Human language is built on human cognition. It is the ability to engage in and perform different goal-oriented and problematic human behaviors. Cognitive thinking is concerned with the way your internal processes flow and show up as an external stimulus resulting in behavioral responses. In a nutshell, it explains what people think, how their thoughts are shaped, and why do they do it. Some prospect topics to explore in this area include language, thinking, decision-making, and intelligence. Others can be perception, judgment, language attention, speech disorders, dreams, problem-solving, and dreams.

A Topic About Human Development

Who will not be interested in finding more about how a human body and mind develop? There are several stages each individual goes through that shape them to become the person they currently are. You might want to opt on early childhood issues like social learning, language development, and childhood attachment. If we consider adults, issues like Alzheimer's disease or dementia will make a suitable topic. Other possibilities are gender roles, media violence, bullying, language acquisition, prenatal development, child abuse, learning disabilities, aging, and parental styles. These can have a significant and impactful effect on your personality and how you process information and react to it. Writing on this will make a great subject and is likely to keep the reader engaged.

Critique An Academic Journal Or A Book

You can consider using an academic journal article or a published book and write a critique paper on them. It will provide you with a clear understanding of the purpose behind it, the intended audience, the structure and the writing style, and the evidence presentation. Remember to include convincing and reasonable arguments to support your stance. Also, use an impartial tone. There are plenty of exciting works you will find. You can write a critical analysis of "Thinking, Fast and Slow" or maybe "The Art of Choosing." Academic and professional journals are also an exciting place to look for useful material. You can utilize your university's library for this purpose. You will probably find plenty of titles relevant to the subject you are interested in. Keep searching until you find what you are looking for.

Analyze A Well-Known Experiment

Throughout history, there have been several groundbreakings and fascinating experiments in the field of psychology. It has provided people with great articles and material to use. You can choose to write a summary of the investigation, evaluate implications regarding the study, or analyze your paper's ethics. Some experiments to consider are Pavlov's conditioning experiment, The Stanford prison experiment, The Asch conformity experiment, the little Albert experiment, the Milgram obedience experiment, and Harlow's Rhesus monkey experiments.

Write About A Historical Figure

One tremendous yet straightforward way to find an issue is to search for a famous and interesting famous person in psychological history and write a paper on them. You can focus on various elements and aspects of the chosen individual's life, like their professional history, biography, contribution to this field, and theories. Even if this sort of paper is historical, it does not mean it has been bland or dry. If you pick up a historical book, you will find many intriguing figures with stimulating stories. You can consider writing about individuals like B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, Harry Harlow, William James, Carl Rogers, Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, and many others.

A Specific Social Career

Depending on your enrolled course, another potential topic is to write a paper on career paths within psychology. This paper is appropriate if you are looking forward to exploring subtopics or finding your area of interest. You might explore the conventional duties regarding a psychologist, the average earning of people in this field, and the scope of employment in the market.

Writing a Reaction Paper in APA Format

APA or American Psychological Association is commonly practiced in academics, including all science classes. You might be asked to write a reaction paper in this style. Here are some basics you should keep in mind while compiling a reaction paper or writing in APA in general.

Title Page: At the very top of the reaction paper, include a running head. The words' Running head' should be included on the very first page preceded by the title. On the rest of the pages, the title should have the running head.

Abstract: Right after the first page in the reaction paper, you should include a small summary or abstract about what the paperwork will be about. It should give the reader a decent idea of what they should be expecting from the text yet to come in the paper.

The Main Body: This part of the paper includes the actual essay. If you are not entirely sure about how to write an essay, we will recommend you to look for assistance. Turn towards your trusted instructor or search through the internet for reaction paper samples. However, if it is a lab report, it will contain an introduction, methods, discussions, and results.

References: Do not forget to include all the sources used on the resource page of the paper. There is no need to bold or center the word "reference" on the page. Make sure you follow the alphabetical order and flush each reference's first sentence to the left.

Widely Asked Psychology Assignments

Reaction Papers

Here you will be expected to write feedback to a scholarly journal article. With the help of reaction papers, instructors try to teach their students the skill of critically evaluating text and synthesizing work at hand with the studying material. Reaction papers usually include a summary, prior study, methods, hypotheses, findings, and a conclusion. The next step involves writing down your critical judgment. You can either critique a study, talk about unresolved issues, predict and suggest any future based exploration, or write about the implications of a specific study. Instructors might demand you to link the course material with the author's theories, findings, and methodologies under observation. Remember, it is not merely about coming up with a summary of a study. Instead, it requires careful reading, highlighting main points, and finding answers to questions like the researchers' assumptions. Also, does the chosen article add value to your reaction paper and the field? Do you consider the findings to be generalizable? Do not forget to pay attention to tables and graphs to evaluate and assess the findings.

Research Papers

If you are working on this assignment, you will be required to use published research to provide an overview of a selected topic. You are mistaken if you think including only a summary of the article will suffice. You have to be careful while synthesizing information to support your topic or argument. Try to include only those parts that add value to what you have already done and are highly relevant. Using headings and subheadings can be a source of guidance for the end-readers to understand the structure's flow and make sense of the coherence. Select a topic that you are sure to find adequate material on and of appropriate length. For instance, "self-confidence" is too broad a topic and quite vague. Still, on the contrary, you might face great difficulty in finding articles for a narrow topic like "role of schools, in enhancing self-confidence among female African American students." However, choosing a general topic like "factors affecting one's self-confidence" will be suitable, and you might get enough content and material on it.

How to Design Your Own Study/Research Proposal?

As a student, you might get the opportunity to design and even conduct your research or write regarding a proposal's design. A practical approach would be to utilize the knowledge, articles, and content studied in class. Following is the general overview of what headings to include in your proposal or study:

Introduction: When deciding how to start a paper, make sure to include a clear and concise message to help the reader understand what you have done and why. You have to present the issue, mention its importance, and make sure to shed light on your selected strategy. Also include the theories that will guide the process, support the previous study, and how your study aims to build on the literature. Set the hypotheses along with the objectives of the study.

Methods: This section includes the description of the procedures you have used for answering the research questions. Besides, provide a summary of the analysis that you have conducted. Also, refrain from using passive voice. For instance, instead of using, "Patients were allotted different groups," it would be more appropriate to say, "We randomly allotted patients, different groups." It is preferable to use "I" and "we" rather than using the third person point of view.

Results: Here, you have to present the findings of your questions. Make sure to include every important detail, even if it does not support your initial hypotheses. In case of having statistical results, try following APA style. Research proposals do not have to include results, but you should hypothesize the expected outcomes.

Discussion: Utilize this section to address your study's limitations and your results' theoretical and practical implications. By comparing your outcomes with others, you need to support and contextualize the drawn conclusions. Discuss the questions that emerged during this study and require future research. Note that a proposal does not require a discussion section. You can include a concise section that will mention the contribution to this specific topic's existing literature.