Abnormal Psychology Essay Instructions
A single, 1500 word essay (submitted as a Word document, no PDFs please) must be submitted through the Turnitin portal on the Moodle site for the course, Abnormal Psychology, by 11:59pm [local Sydney time] on Sunday 12th April 2020. The essay is worth 40% of the overall course grade and will be marked out of 40.
Your essay question is: How does the Biopsychosocial Model account for the development, maintenance (i.e. continuation) and successful treatment of a disorder of your choice?
• Ensure that you explicitly define the disorder using either DSM-5 or ICD-11, introduce the model and define all key concepts. This need not be a lengthy explanation. A paragraph should be sufficient.
• You need to clearly explain how the model accounts for the causes, maintenance and successful treatment of the disorder. Do not simply state facts; ensure that you are explicitly linking the results of experimental research to each aspect of the model and to the cause, maintenance and treatment of the disorder’s symptoms.
• The marking rubric will be provided to students. You will be assessed on your ability to find, describe and evaluate/critique research. You need to present your argument in a clear and logical manner. Essays will be judged on the clarity of the information provided and the integration of empirical evidence into a coherent argument.
• It is very important that you: o Define the key terms/concepts that are relevant to your argument o Summarise results and/or conclusions of relevant experiments (you are encouraged to provide a brief summary of the experimental methods when they are directly relevant to your argument)
o Clearly explain the relationship between sources (i.e. the relationship between the causes/diagnostic criteria/model/treatment and the experimental results discussed in the literature) o Avoid including superfluous detail and information.
• You need to select appropriate literature to cite in your essay (websites, blogs etc. are not appropriate sources. Peer-reviewed, published scientific literature is appropriate). The textbook is also not an appropriate source to cite in your essay as it is not peerreviewed. Instead, you can look at the references used in the textbook and then read those primary sources. N.B. It is not the number of references you use that is important. A high-quality essay can achieve a strong argument by selecting a few research papers or review articles and discussing/critiquing them in sufficient detail.
• The flow of your essay is also important. You may choose to label each section with a subheading (e.g. causes/maintenance/treatment) to help the markers follow the flow of the essay but subheadings are not mandatory. However you choose to structure your essay, ensure that your sections relate to each other and flow on logically from one another. It should not read as a series of unrelated mini essays.
• When writing in science, the key is to clearly explain complex ideas. With this in mind, the audience you are writing for is an intelligent person who is ignorant of the disorder you are addressing. o If possible, you should ask The Learning Centre/family and/or friend to read over your essay and see if they understand what you have written. If they understand and are convinced by what you are trying to say, and understand how the experiments that you have discussed were conducted and what these experiments found, then you have done a good job. If the person is struggling to understand a section or does not know how some of the research was conducted or what it found, then it is likely that you should re-write the section to fix this. When your reader misunderstands what you have written it is usually the fault of the writing and not the reader. o Note that your proof-reader may only highlight sections that may need further attention. o Under no circumstances will the course coordinator proofread essay drafts
PROOF-READERS ARE NOT PERMITTED TO REWRITE ANY PART OF YOUR ESSAY. THIS IS COLLUSION. SIGNIFICANT REWRITING/EDITING IS CONTRACT CHEATING EVEN IF THE PERSON IS NOT PAID.
For fairness to everyone, all questions about the essay must be posted onto the Moodle forum so that all students receive the same amount/quality of information. Please, do not feel uncomfortable about asking questions! As a course co-ordinator, I recognise that students in my courses will all have very different levels of psych/science knowledge and different academic goals for this course – this is ok! I will field all questions without judgement but please ensure that your question has not already been answered in any of the course information or freely available UNSW documents. If fellow students can assist by answering others’ questions in a helpful and non-judgemental way please do so too DO NOT email questions that are suitable for posting onto Moodle directly to the course coordinator. I do not have the capacity to field the same question from hundreds of students! Issues of a personal nature are, of course, welcome to be sent via email (however, please note the paragraph on special consideration and disability adjustments below).
Questions posted onto the forums/emailed to the course coordinator that seek excessive guidance will not receive a response. Examples of inappropriate/excessive questions include (but are not limited to): - Would _____ be considered a maintenance factor? - Can I discuss ______ as a causal factor? - Can you recommend any good articles? - How does this paragraph sound? The 1500 word limit is very strict - the “10% over/under rule” does not apply here. This limit has been increased from previous years and is ample to answer the question and achieve good marks. There will be a 5 mark penalty for every 50 words in excess (inclusive – i.e. 1501-1550 will receive the same penalty). Thus, an essay of 2500 words would automatically receive a mark of 0. If you are struggling to stay under this limit you must critically assess the relevance of each point you make and endeavour to articulate your argument more concisely. You will not be penalised for going under the word count, however, if you are significantly under then you should ensure that you are addressing all parts of the question and providing sufficient detail. In-text citations and any subheadings are included in the word count. The reference list does not form part of the word count, nor does the title, or other peripherals such as your name and student ID number. You must include a title and title page with this information (in accordance with APA Formatting). Appendices are not permitted, nor necessary. Do not include an abstract. Only include figures/tables if absolutely necessary. If you choose to include figures or tables within your essay, make sure that the figure caption contains sufficient information to understand its content. In addition to this, you should not present new information or
arguments in your figure captions that is not sufficiently explained within the main body of your essay (figure captions/headings do not contribute to the word count, nor does the content of a table). Formatting (i.e. document setup parameters such as margins, line spacing, font size and type, paragraph indents, etc.) and referencing (both in-text citations and the reference list) are to be done using APA style (as per the APA manual’s 7th edition). See: http://www.apastyle.org/manual/. Information on APA Referencing can also be found in the UNSW library. If unsure where to find a copy of the manual or a suitable style guide then please ask library staff. Being a scientific essay, it is expected that submissions adhere to the standard format (i.e. introduction, body, conclusion). Note that scientific essays differ from essays in other disciplines. One notable difference is that direct quotes are strongly discouraged. For more information, please see the recommended guides to writing a psychological essay listed on Moodle. It is assumed that students have polished academic essay writing skills and poor academic writing skills will negatively impact the mark achieved in this piece of assessment. Late submissions will incur a penalty in accordance with School of Psychology policy (see School of Psychology Student Guide). So, make sure you submit well ahead of the deadline to avoid last minute complications. Please do not email the course coordinator a copy of your essay “just in case”. You will receive an auto-generated email from Turnitin on successful submission. If you do not receive this email your submission has not worked and you will need to try again. This is why you must be organised and not leave submission until the last minute. The Turnitin link will be made available on Moodle one week prior to the due date. Originality reports will not be available to students. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that their work is original and free of plagiarism prior to submission. If you are uncertain as to whether any content in your essay may constitute plagiarism then rewrite it! If there are issues regarding plagiarism in your essay, you will be contacted by the School Student Ethic Officer. Ensure that you keep all drafts of your work and any other notes that you have made until after your marks have been released. You will need these if you are called into an interview.
Essay marks with detailed feedback will be provided to students on Monday 27th April, 2020. Please note: The course coordinator does not mark the essays. The marking is completed
