Theoretical perspectives within psychology

Your task is to select ONE psychological topic you find particularly interesting. This may be a topic we have covered in the course or a psychological topic we have not covered. You will then examine this topic from three different philosophical or theoretical perspectives within psychology. For example, you could examine your topic from any of the following philosophical perspectives: physiological, behavioral, cognitive, social, humanistic, evolutionary, psychoanalytic, etc). Alternatively, you could opt to examine your topic more specifically using three different theories, which may or may not differ in their philosophical perspectives. For example, imagine that you choose “bullying” as your topic. You could examine how bullying is explained from a biological, behavioral, and social perspective (three different philosophical perspectives). Alternatively, you could choose to examine how three different theories attempt to explain bullying. Two of these theories might be theories from a “social” perspective and one might be a theory from a “biological” perspective.

In either case, you must utilize and cite original sources for those perspectives in your analysis/discussion. This means that you must research your topic to find three different explanations for your topic. Your analysis cannot be based on personal opinion alone.

Write-up: Your write-up should begin with a general overview of your topic and the reasons why it is particularly interesting or relevant to you. This introduction should be followed by an analysis of your topic from three different philosophical or theoretical perspectives. Your analysis should demonstrate a general understanding of your topic and the fundamental principles used by each philosophical or theoretical perspective to explain that topic (using at least three academic sources outside of your textbook as source material). In addition, you should discuss whether the explanations offered by the different perspectives are complimentary to one another or contradict one another. Finally, your analysis should include your own personal reflection of these perspectives and an informed assessment of what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each based on your research of them.

THE CRITERIA:

Review the grading criteria for this assignment on the attached grading rubric (see page 3) to understand what you need to address in your case study to earn points on this assignment.

Your Completed Assignment MUST Include:

1) Identification and description of ONE psychological topic that interests you.

2) A 2-3 page write-up (12 point font, double-spaced and 1 inch margins) in which you examine this

topic from THREE different philosophical or theoretical perspectives within psychology (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, social, physiological/neuroscience, evolutionary, psychoanalytic, etc).

3) Full citations (in text and in a Reference list) for all research sources used in this assignment in APA

format.