The Assignment
    Your task is to prepare a scholarly term paper that represents your findings and thoughts after researching a topic related to environmental psychology. We have several objectives in mind: 1) to provide you with an opportunity to explore a psychological topic or issue in greater detail than your textbook provides, 2) to stimulate your intellectual curiosity about this topic, 3) to develop more effective library research skills, 4) to improve through practice your writing and reporting skills, and 5) to become familiar with the widely-popular APA format for scholarly writing.
     There are three questions that I hear frequently whenever I assign a term paper. Here are the answers. There is no maximum length for term papers in my classes but for this assignment your paper should contain at least 5-6 pages of written text (not including title page, abstract, and references). One page equals 300 words. Regarding the number of references, a good paper will be based on at least eight serious sources that you have actually acquired and examined closely. A serious source would be a research report in a psychology journal or a book (not a class textbook) reporting on the author's research. Textbooks are secondary sources and are considered somewhat serious. Popular press sources (e.g., Time magazine) and many websites would not be considered serious sources and should be used sparingly in a paper. As for the third question, the answer is "no" you cannot use the same paper for more than one class. You need to make a separate and independent effort for each term paper.
     Selection of the topic is perhaps the most difficult part of the assignment. You need to find a topic fairly early in this course that will maintain your interest and motivation throughout the entire research-and-writing task. Hopefully this will be a rewarding process of discovery as your research efforts reveal new findings on your topic. I'll provide a few sample topics here to get you started.

Ecopsychology and ecofeminism compared. We deal fairly briefly with a number of environmental topics that better represent the humanistic approach than the scientific approach (e.g., biophilia, ecofeminism, deep ecology). As the "ecopsychology and ecofeminism" title suggests, one type of term paper for this course would present a thoughtful comparison and critique two humanistic approaches. They could be examined analytically (the word "deconstruct" comes to mind) and compared for usefulness in addressing our ecological challenges. 

An assessment of the behavioral approach to environmental actions.Scott Geller and others have completed a number of experiments using the behavioral approach to curb environmentally-damaging activities. These range from the application of reinforcement and punishment to the use of prompts and models as techniques for eliciting behavior change. Is behaviorism the answer we are looking for? Can it provide adequate control over human action? Can it be applied within the constraints of our current socio-political system? A good term paper could attempt to review (briefly) this line of research and sort out the possibilities for us. 

The functionality of two design solutions to the problem of public eating.  A data-based term paper (research report as opposed to research review) might provide a comparison of two design solutions for a specific function -- maybe two contrasting restaurant designs, two bars, two music venues. You would have to locate appropriate sites to compare, gather data describing the two designs, analyze the structural differences and relate these differences to behavior and attitudes representing the success of the sites. In your paper, you could make remodellng suggestions that would make the site work better for a user's perspective.

    You can prepare your term paper on one of these three topics, or you can select a different topic that better matches your interests. But keep in mind that your topic has to deal with environmental psychology and must apply concepts and theories covered in this course. To avoid topic-selection problems, it is important to do a bit of research on your topic, then send a brief description of your intentions to the instructor and ask if it sounds appropriate.

Format Requirements

    Your term paper must be prepared following the format described in the APA Publication Manual. For our purposes, it will be sufficient to use the abbreviated description of APA style provided by Plonsky at http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/apa4b.htm . The advice in sections I and III is most applicable if you are preparing a research review (as opposed to a research report), although some of the information in section II is important (e.g., how to prepare the title page, what belongs in an abstract). In this course, you have the option of doing a research review (based on library research)or a research report (based on a data-based study that you conducted for the course). The sample pages at the end will be useful--especially the one showing how references must be listed. The details are important so pay attention to which words are capitalized, where periods go, what gets italicized, etc.

     Other good sources for APA style are:
        http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796
        http://www.psywww.com/resource/APA%20Research%20Style%20Crib%20Sheet.htm

    Just so there is no misunderstanding, your paper should be double-spaced and set with a 12-point font. I prefer Times New Roman. Your paper should be almost completely free of spelling and grammar errors. It should be organized into the following sections:
1. Title page with all required information. The title itself should be informative.
2. Abstract (not an introduction) which provides the topic, main ideas, and conclusion--all within the 120-word limit.
3. Introduction--has a strong start, announces the topic and gives a sense of its importance, definitions come from research sources and not from standard dictionaries.
4. Body of the paper (includes subheadings for clarity; quotations used sparingly if at all).
5. Academic writing style. This is a serious paper reflecting your scholarship; avoid being chatty or cute. An "A" paper will do more than simply report on your sources. There should be some effort to evaluate sources of information (separate conjecture from valid evidence), compare and contrast different approaches, or in some other way indicate that you are thinking critically about what you are reporting.
6. All sources for this paper are cited by author and year at the point they are discussed in the paper. Citations for any quotations include the page number. I'll be looking at the number and quality of sources used. I'll also assess whether you located recent publications on your topic.
7. Conclusion section summarizes the main points and leaves the reader with a sense of completion (i.e., the paper does not simply stop when the page count is reached with a couple of perfunctory "that's it" sentences tacked on).
8. Reference section. All sources cited in the body of your paper are listed here alphabetically (and no others). Follow APA format exactly (notice whether first name of author is spelled out, where year of publication goes, which words of title get capitalized, etc.).

Assigning the Grade

    I don't use a  rubric or rigid point system when grading these papers. I do look for evidence of good scholarship. I pay attention to the quality of your research, the organization of your paper, the quality of your writing, and attention to format details. It should be obvious that you have read and evaluated your sources thoughtfully and presented them with your own author's voice in evidence. It would disturb me if your paper consisted of relatively few sources summarized one after the other with no apparent effort to think in any depth about what you are writing. Once I have finished reviewing your paper, I mentally compare it with the other papers and sort it into a grade category: A=Outstanding achievement (in that it stands out from the others in overall quality), B=Very good, commendable work, C=Satisfactory (not particularly good or bad, just OK), D=Minimum performance (deserves some credit but just barely), F=Failure, no credit given. Once I have placed a grade on your paper, I consider whether it is a strong or weak example of that grade category. I assign a point score based upon this evaluation of strength using 90-100 for A papers, 80-89 for B papers, etc. So a middle A would get 95 points and a weak A paper might get 92 points.