175201 Social Psychology
Assignment 3: Two Short Essays (Part II)
Due date: Friday 17 October by 11:59pm
Assignment length: 500 words each (excluding references)
Assignment task/instructions:
You will already be familiar with this process from A2. Submit both essays in one word document. State each topic/chapter question followed by your essay. The essays are based on Chapters 8, 9, 10, 11 of the textbook. You have two options to choose from.
a. Please select TWO questions / topics for your two short essays from below:
(1) Outline and discuss why 'decent work' is often vital for sustaining quality of life.
(2) Outline and discuss why some groups get sicker and die younger than other groups.
(3) How is social justice relevant to Aotearoa New Zealand? Provide and discuss an example.
(4) Is the concept of propaganda still relevant today? Explain.
OR
b. Please select TWO chapters from Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the textbook, and write TWO short essays on:
(1) What was the most important take home message from this chapter? and
(2) Why do you feel this is important?
In this assessment, we would particularly like to see students demonstrate:
o Depth of engagement, critical thinking and understanding of some of the bigger concepts and the implications of your chosen topic in everyday life, and
o How you have linked this to lessons learned from the course and/or textbook.
Here you can learn more about essay writing.
General guidelines
It is important to remember there are no 'right' or 'wrong' responses to your assignments. By this we mean you can address the response to each question in whichever way you like. What we are looking for is how you articulate your response, how you support that response using appropriate literature, and importantly that you actually answer the question asked. So, be sure to do enough research to give a compelling argument, while also remembering to adhere to the word limits for each assignment.
In general, the organisation of your assignments should comprise the following:
Title: Use your essay question or statement as the title. In the first part of your assignment.
Introduction: introduce the topic to the reader with a broad opening statement and establish some background. You also identify the relevant ideas that you will present in the body of the essay. An example from a journal article illustrates a possibility of how to end an introduction and signpost what will follow:
"Our paper begins with a review of the living wage concept and definition. We then present an outline of our review methodology. The findings section focuses on presenting the topics and disciplines covered in living wage research over the past 20 years and the contexts in which this research has occurred. We identify three clear contributions of a psychological lens to living wage studies, through adding a person-centric perspective, a more inclusive definition, and clearer operationalization through improved measurement. We outline how these can be further leveraged in future studies." (Searle & McWha-Hermann, 2020, p. 2)
Body of the essay: select the most relevant and appropriate material related to your question. The key point here is to be selective (due to the word limit), to tease out from a larger body of literature the most relevant ideas/arguments, and to explore these further. We expect you to draw on relevant scholarly literature (journal articles, books, book chapters) to support key assertions in your essay and to draw on theoretical aspect(s) of the relevant chapter of the textbook. You can also include different points of view where appropriate.
Conclusion: briefly recap what you have covered and highlight the most important points before writing a concluding statement.
See below for the making rubric for this assignment, and we strongly recommend you read the marking criteria before you start writing your essays.