The paper for this course is explained in full below (this handout was distributed during recitition, the week of Feb. 2-4): Papers and Presentations Psychology 240 Spring, 2000         Given that you are having your first research group meeting this week in recitations, you'd probably like to know what these groups are meant to do.  Because social psychology is built upon research, we believe that your conducting your own study will prove to be an invaluable experience. The basic activity for each research group is to create a brief social psychological experiment.  Furthermore, in some cases the research question might not fit an experimental framework well (e.g., a study about relationship satisfaction).  Sometimes the study might be a replication of some type of study discussed in class or in the book, but with perhaps your own added twist (e.g., a new variable or condition).  The goal with any social psychology study is to advance knowledge, so the goal in your study should also be to go beyond past work in some reasonable way. For example, you might want to extend the applicability of particular theory (e.g., applying a theory developed for romantic relationships to friendships).  You could also examine a new condition that might change the type of effect that has been studied in past work.  For example, one of the research groups from last semester developed a numerical anchoring study, but added to the study different judgment targets that varied in the amount of knowledge people had about the targets.  The idea was that the traditional anchoring effect would be smaller for high- rather than low-knowledge targets.         There are some constraints on the types of materials that can be developed for your study. You’ll find that it will probably be easiest if your materials are brief and suited to photocopying (i.e., we are not set up at present to handle computerized studies for this assignment).  The study can cover any area of social psychology, and part of the assignment is to relate the study to one or more social psychological theories.  To get you started, we provide some general topic areas below.  You might want to split up these or other areas among the people in your group and have people start thinking about possible research questions or theories that could be studied.  Many of the areas won't be covered in class until much later in the semester, but you can split up the areas and have different people check out different parts of the future class material.  Furthermore, feel free to bounce ideas off your TA (and you should feel free to meet with Dr. Carlston if you'd like as well).  Ideally, this project will provide an opportunity to get to know a specific area or theory from social psychology very well, and the project should also get people to think about the process and work that was behind the studies from lecture or the book.

Some possible research topics:

 
Situational vs. Personal Attribution (e.g., Actor-Observer differences)
Priming
Primacy & Recency in Impressions
Helping
Attitude change (e.g., changing people’s attitudes about smoking)
Self-serving bias
Outgroup homogeneity
Bias correction
Anchoring
False Consensus
Balance
Relationships
Friendships
Gender differences in the experience of emotions (e.g., Jealousy)
Courtroom judgment (e.g., inadmissible evidence)
Group behavior

The timetable for developing the research project is laid out in your recitation syllabus.  Furthermore, there will likely  be some times you would want to be in contact with your group members outside of class.  In addition to the exercise of creating the research project, there are two "graded" aspects of the project.  One of these is a major assignment, the other is much more minor.
        Each recitation will be divided into groups of 4-5 people. Each INDIVIDUAL will write a paper (due during recitation the week of April 19th) based on the project.  As noted on the class syllabus, the paper is worth 10% of the grade in the course (the equivalent of a single letter grade).  An important point about the paper is that EACH INDIVIDUAL will write the paper.  The paper will NOT be a paper produced for and by the entire group.  As with any group project, there is always the possibility that not all members of the group have been equally involved in working on the project (of course, the ideal is for all members to be actively, and equally, involved).  As a result, approximately 20% of your paper grade will come from evaluations from your group members (to be collected the day you hand in your assignment). The writing of the paper, of course, will be much easier (and the paper will probably be better) for people who were actively engaged in development of the group project. In other words, don’t take your group work lightly. It WILL affect your grade.
        The papers should be 4-5 double-spaced pages.  The paper should have four basic parts: the introduction, method, results, and discussion.  The beginning of the paper should be a brief introduction to the topic of study, followed by a presentation of the primary questions (materials) used and the results obtained (including a brief discussion of your study participants).  The discussion will depend in part on how the responses to your study relate to what you expected the result to be.  Most of the projects should relate pretty directly to an effect or a theory that was discussed either in the book or in class.  For these projects, the introduction of the paper can be oriented around this theory or effect.  The discussion would then relate to whether or not the results are supportive of the theory or established effect.  If not, discuss why this might be (e.g., materials or testing situation differing from past work, a small or weak effect, a new context that could be thought to limit the theory or effect, etc.).  If the results do support the theory or effect, discuss the implications of this (e.g., how could the effect be used in the "real" world, to what does this theory apply, etc.).  Some reference should be made to the related material discussed in the book or in lecture.
As you see in your recitation syllabus, there will also be BRIEF group presentations of the studies the same day your papers are due. These presentations are not meant to be formal; they are basically meant to give everyone an opportunity to hear more about the studies designed by the other groups in their recitation section.  There should be ample opportunity in recitation to "prepare" for these informal discussions, so there should be very little to worry about when it comes time for them.  I know the term "presentation" makes it sound like a big deal, but it's not, so you can use the term "group discussion" if you prefer.
        As noted above, presentations will be brief (approx. 10 minutes).  The presentation can basically include the same sections as in your papers, so there is no additional work.  You may want to prepare a few overheads to outline your project for the rest of the class. The following questions might organize the discussion. 1) Why were we interested in this topic?  2) What social psychology effects or theories were we investigating?  3) What did the materials look like?  4) What did we find?  5) What is the significance of the theory or results (i.e., how could the theory or results be used?) OR Why did we find what we found?