Skip to Main Content
Term Paper: You have a choice for this assignment. (Additional information on Moodle.)
Choice 1: Standard Research Paper: select any topic in Abnormal Psychology (that is not covered in the book/class) and write a research paper using peer-reviewed, academic sources. Ideas: a specific diagnosis, a newer treatment, legal issues, treatment in other countries that differ from the United States, etc. Please check with your professor before starting your paper to ensure that your topic is appropriate.
Choice 2: Book Review and Critique, including research evidence critique: Read a book, preferably a biography or autobiography, on a psychological disorder discussed in the text. The paper should include a summary of the book, material from the class/text, additional research studies that support/refute some aspects of the book, the book’s strengths and weaknesses, and your own opinion of the book. Essentially, this assignment is a combination of a book review and a research paper. Please check with your professor to ensure the book is appropriate.
CREDO is a good way to get started...While it may be okay to occasionally cite from academic encyclopedias and dictionaries, you should be using these sources to A) get a background understanding to a subject and B) find other academic / scholarly sources, which you can use in your paper.
CHOOSE THE DATABASES THAT WORK FOR YOU!!
--Academic Search Premier
--Communication & Mass Media Complete (for some topics)
--ERIC (for some topics)
--PsycARTICLES (for all of your topics and your best bet)
--PsycINFO (for all of your topics and your best bet)
--Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (for all of your topics and your best bet)
--Social Sciences Full Text - H.W.Wilson (for all of your topics)
--SocINDEX with Full Text (for all of your topics)
Search for an item at Good Library:
You may find the Google Scholar can be useful for finding additional resources quickly. But remember this is a LIST of articles only. If you click on the link, you might not be able to get access to these articles. But do not despair!! You will more than likely get the article via ILL.
-- Use the "cited by" link a lot!! This is a list of articles that have cited the article you are interested in.
-- You can "save" the articles you find as well. Do it!