Basic
Psychology
Study
and Essay Writing in Psychology: Transferable Skills
The following is a basic guide to researching and writing about ANY topic in psychology. Classical conditioning is used only as an example. This general approach can also apply to other academic subjects and to background research and report writing for a variety of other purposes. It is therefore a set of 'transferable skills': if you follow something like this approach you should be able to write good essays in the Basic Psychology degree exam but it is also likely to be useful throughout your university career whatever subject you pursue, and beyond in many professions. Students with an interest in languages and literature may have a head-start in that their writing skills are often well-developed before they come to university, but all students should be capable of developing the writing skills they will need. Like any skills good study habits and essay writing develop through practice and feedback.
1) A good review of what professional researchers have already written about your subject is the basis of most exam answers, essays, and practical reports. When planning such a literature review gather general information about your subject. Lecture notes and core textbooks can be a useful beginning for in-depth work. They will seldom be sufficient in themselves for producing high-standard work. They are not intended to be. Lectures are intended only to highlight the essentials of a topic, and the core textbook gives only a general background to the lecture material. Library work, involving researching a subject for yourself in journal articles and specialised texts, is essential to academic success.
By all means work in collaboration with other students at this stage. Remember though that any piece of submitted work must be your own, unless you have the explicit agreement of a member of staff that you can submit a joint report. Students who submit identical or even similar essays may be caught - they are a lot easier to spot than some might think - and students plagiarising or copying the work of other students or passages from textbooks are liable to be penalised and may even be suspended or expelled from the University.
2) Once you have identified the basics of your subject, work to a structure. Decide where you're starting from, where you'll go, and where you'll end up. Do this before you begin to read up in-depth on a subject or write about it. Sonata form is often an appropriate structure to work to, i.e. exposition, development, recapitulation. Putting this another way, say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you've said. Begin by outlining your purposes and defining your main terms. Broadly, what is your subject about, to what broad theoretical orientation does it belong, and to what is it applicable?
E.g. Classical conditioning is a form of associative
learning first researched systematically by Pavlov. It operates primarily on
involuntary, reflexive responses and occurs when a stimulus of primary
importance to an organism's survival, such as food, sex, or a danger signal,
(an 'unconditioned stimulus' or UCS), which produces a natural 'unconditioned
response' (UCR) comes to be predicted, usually as a result of repeated
associations or 'trails', by a previously neutral stimulus. This neutral
stimulus (a 'conditioned stimulus' or CS) acquires through association some of
the response- eliciting properties of the UCS such that it elicits a
'conditioned response' (CR). The CR is similar to the UCR although it may be
weaker...
3) Go on to describe your subject in detail, identifying and explaining as many of the key phenomena as are necessary to support your case, proceeding from the simplest terms to the more complex. How do these phenomena depend on or affect each other? What are their implications in terms of theory and, if appropriate, 'real world' practical applications?
E.g. Define, explain, and where necessary illustrate with concrete examples terms such as: acquisition, extinction, temporal contiguity, discrimination and generalisation, higherorder conditioning, reconditioning, spontaneous recovery, conditioned inhibition, overshadowing, blocking, one-trial learning, conditioned taste aversion, biological constraints on conditioning, preparedness, systematic desensitisation, flooding. Show if and how these phenomena relate to each other and comment on whether they amount to a coherent account of this form of learning. Relate them, if your remit requires it, to implications for the acquisition and modification of adaptive and maladaptive behaviour.
4) Conclude by relating the material you have presented back to your essay title and/or your main purposes. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence you have presented? How much ground does your subject cover? How much human behaviour can classical conditioning explain, for example? Assess how what you have discussed impinges on other areas of study and identify lines for further research if possible.
E.g. The study of classical conditioning in humans has
been dominated in the past forty years by its possible relevance to clinical
problems. Classical conditioning principles may not always explain the
acquisition of maladaptive behaviours in humans. However, their application in
treatment programmes based on the extinction of undesired responses using
systematic desensitisation or flooding, programmes which may include behaviour
modification using operant principles and also cognitive therapy, may greatly
relieve a variety of problems such as anxiety disorders. In terms of its
contribution to a general understanding of human behaviour, the study of
classical conditioning...
This might sound like a lot to ask of a first year exam answer and you can pass, if that's all you want, with a lot less. But remember the point about transferable skills and remember that just aiming for a bare pass wastes an opportunity to practice and develop these. Know too that organised, knowledgeable students can write four such answers in the time available and get first class marks. It's up to you whether or not you want to be one of them.
Jim Baxter 02/10/98
http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/Psychology/ugcourses/BasicClass/transski.pdf