Position Paper

Over the past five weeks you have examined several areas of psychology in relation to the areas/fields of psychology that you are most interested in. As you enter the final week of the course and potentially the end of your bachelor program you may think “what have I learned?”, not just for this course but for the program as a whole. Often, what is created toward the end of an academic program is a portfolio of work that demonstrates your academic achievements and knowledge. This assignment will take a part of that idea but within a position paper. A position paper is your synthesis of ideas and thoughts regarding psychology supported by relevant sources. The basic purpose of the paper is to answer this question:

What have I learned and how am I going to use what I learned?

The paper should adhere to the following guidelines:

• The length of the paper should be 10–12 pages, Time New Roman double-spaced pages (not including the title and reference pages).
• For the main sections it should have a:

• Title page
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Conclusion
• Reference page(s)

• The paper must use proper APA style for citing sources and references.
• Introduction: This should be 1–2 pages in length. The introduction provides a brief overview of what will be covered and the purpose of the paper.
• Literature review: The literature review is outside information that supports your conclusions in the next section. For this assignment you could use the articles that you had found in previous week’s assignments. There should be a minimum of 6–8 journal articles that support your writing.
• Conclusions: The conclusion is the section that pulls it all together. It provides the reader with a better understanding of the information you presented in the earlier section as well as your views regarding the original question/purpose of the paper.

Answer preview

The psychology field is characterized by the systematic and scientific analysis of people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It has been instrumental in uncovering novel information on the human brain’s functioning and utilizing the new information to discern different actions’ reasons. Psychologists apply these discoveries to solve practical issues that people grapple with as individuals, groups, or broader communities.  Researchers in psychology have been seeking information on how the brain affects an individual’s behavior and capacity for performing different functions. If there is anything that this course has revealed, it is that psychology has a considerable bearing on individuals, groups, and organizations. A proper grounding in this field is essential if one desires to explain patterns, behaviors, and attitudes.(3763 words)