We live in an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural world. Once, one rarely encountered anyone who did not know who Jesus of Nazareth was and, indeed, did not already possess considerable information about him. That is not as true today. What we know, or think we know, about Jesus of Nazareth derives from many different sources: what we learned in church, what we have read in the New Testament, what the popular culture says about him, and so forth. All of this information gets folded into our contemporary understanding of Jesus. As a backdrop for our serious inquiry into Jesus of Nazareth, it is important to have a clear and self-conscious portrait of who we understand Jesus to be now, before we begin our serious study of Jesus in the primary sources, the four Gospels. Following a serious study of Jesus in the Gospels, we might discover that our portrait of him has changed, or not. Either way, our current portrait of Jesus becomes a “benchmark” of sorts for the study ahead.
Instructions
Imagine you are a reporter for your local television affiliate reporting for the 6 o’clock news. Using your cell phone, tablet, or camera-equipped computer, video yourself doing a “field report” on “Jesus of Nazareth” to a television audience that is hearing about him for the first time through your report. Set the video in your time (today), not in the first century. You can shoot the video either “in the studio” (your home or office, etc.) or “in the field” (with a church for a backdrop, for example). Include in your report what you consider to be the irreducible minimum of information your television audience must know about Jesus in order to know who he was. You decide what that is. Keep in mind that you are describing Jesus as you currently understand him. This is not a “research project” on Jesus of Nazareth. Because you only have three (3) minutes in which to capture Jesus for your audience, you may wish to compose a short script to memorize or a set of bullet points from which to work, as television reporters do.
Length of video: three (3) minutes maximum length.
No source citations are necessary.
When complete, upload your video file (“mov” or “mp4” file) to LU’s Media Page (watch.liberty.edu) and post the video’s URL as your assignment submission. Be sure the video is not marked “private;” if it is, the instructor will not be able to view it.
Note: If there are compelling reasons why the student cannot complete the assignment as described, contact the instructor and they will provide an alternative method for you to complete the assignment.
Psychological tests can be used in ways that are helpful or harmful. Ethical standards and legal constraints are placed on their use to protect the public, such as when tests are used for determining educational placement or in employment selection. For this assignment, you will write a two- to three-page paper that details a psychological testing scenario and its ethical considerations.
To successfully complete this assignment, organize your paper in the following manner using each of the headings provided below in boldface.
Create a one-paragraph scenario describing a situation in which psychological testing might be utilized (e.g., learning disorder evaluation, law enforcement candidate screening, pre-surgery evaluation, competency to stand trial determination, or pre-employment testing). This list is not exhaustive.
Feel free to identify and discuss other applications of psychological testing in your scenario. Although not required, you are encouraged to create a scenario relevant to a field you would consider pursuing for your personal career.
Paragraph 3 (Ethical Concerns)
Apply the assigned readings to identify at least three potential ethical concerns based on principles from Standard 9 in the APA Ethics Code (e.g., 9.01 Bases for Assessments, 9.02 Use of Assessment, 9.03 Informed Consent in Assessment, 9.06 Interpreting Assessment Results, 9.07 Assessment by Unqualified Persons, 9.08 Obsolete Tests and Outdated Test Results, or 9.10 Explaining Assessment Results).
For each ethical concern, be specific about how the principle relates to the scenario you created.
Paragraph 4 (Test Bias, Reliability, Validity, and Ethics)
In this paragraph,
Define test bias.
Describe the types of test bias that could impact the evaluation for the scenario you created.
Discuss how reliability and validity are linked using the example in your scenario.
Integrate what you learned from Chapter 2 with the information learned in the two assigned articles to determine how reliability and validity are related to ethical concerns.
Paragraph 5 (Solutions)
In this paragraph,
Apply information from the APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation to offer solutions for the three ethical concerns you identified in Paragraph 3.
Propose how to address the concerns related to test bias and to ensure tests and assessments utilized are reliable and valid. Refer to information from Chapter 2 in the textbook and the APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation.
Using Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics by Kaiser and Silva as a reference guide, you write an exegesis research paper submitted in three (3) iterations. Students choose between three (3) biblical passages on which to write the paper. The three passages from which you select one are:
Psalm 1:1–6
Mark 4:26–29
Ephesians 4:7–16
By the time you submit the Meaning portion of the paper, you should have a minimum of ten (10) resources listed in your Bibliography. Your primary resources for this assignment should be commentaries and journal articles retrieved from the ATLA database housed online in the Jerry Falwell Library. Part of the grading criteria for your paper will include proper use of Turabian style in all portions of your paper. Please review the sample paper provided as an example of both the content and form of your paper. Although you are submitting your paper in three sections each previous section must be attached to the currently submitted section. This means that when you submit the Meaning portion of the paper, I should see the Introduction and Context portion. When you submit the Significance and Application portion, I should see the Introduction, Context, and Meaning sections. Each portion of the paper has its own set of assignment instructions provided in the appropriate module/week when it is due.
The Exegesis Research Paper for this course is intentionally spread out over several Modules. This is a developmental approach to paper writing that allows the adult student ample time to construct each portion of the paper, receive feedback, make corrections, and improve the quality of the paper as you continue writing it. This approach is aimed at improving exegesis skills, writing ability, and editing techniques so that the student learns by doing.
INSTRUCTIONS
The context section will run between 3-4 pages in length, double-spaced in 12 point Times New Roman font type. This portion of your exegesis paper has two sections. The first section is your Introduction that serves as an overview of what you will write concluding with a thesis/purpose statement that alerts the reader as to what you plan to achieve in the writing of the paper. The thesis/purpose statement should be highlighted so that it can be easily located by underlining, bolding, or highlighting in yellow like this.
The second section is the most important and should receive the bulk of your attention. Here you will explore the historical, cultural, and literary contexts of the passage selected. This process zooms out and then zooms in. You zoom out with the historical overview of the time frame in which the passage was written. You start to zoom in with a focus on cultural matters that were current in the society when the passage was written. Finally, zoom in directly on the literary setting paying attention to genre or type of literature, placement in the larger book, and any unique literary features that cause the passage to stand out (like repetition of a particular word, emphasis on a specific location, etc.). The Introduction, Historical, Cultural, and Literary sections will have a separate centered heading following Turabian style.
Be sure the paper reflects a graduate level vocabulary.
For assistance with Turabian formatting, please see the Turabian Format Quick Guide and the Turabian-Based Writing Guide located on the Exegesis Research Paper: Context of the Passage Assignment page under Exegesis Research Paper: Context of the Passage Resources.
Your assignment will be checked via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
Prior to writing your introduction, identify a career field that utilizes psychological tests or psychological assessment information (e.g., education, clinical or counseling psychology, applied behavioral analysis, human resources, criminal justice, forensic psychology, addictions, behavioral health). Next, identify a specific job title or position within the career field you selected. In this discussion, you will take the role of a candidate who is interviewing for an internship position that will allow you to learn more about how psychological testing and assessment are utilized in the career you identified. Assume that the internship offers an opportunity to learn more about each of the types of assessment covered in this course and in the course textbook. Review the course topics by clicking on the weekly overviews in the left navigation bar and briefly review the major headings in your textbook.
Address each of the following requirements in your introduction:
Identify the title of the career you chose to write about and the specific job title or position. Clearly label your introduction as “Professional Interview Introduction for [insert career or job title you selected].”
Tell the class and instructor about yourself in a professional manner as if you were introducing yourself to the other interns and internship director.
Frame your introduction so that it responds to the following interview question: “Tell us about your professional career interests and what you are interested in learning from this internship experience.
Assume that the internship offers an opportunity to learn more about each of the types of assessment covered in this course and in the course textbook. Review the course topics by clicking on the weekly overviews in the left navigation bar and briefly review the major headings in your textbook.
Indicate in your introduction three topics related to psychological assessment that you are interested in learning more about and how these topics may relate to your future career goals.
Explain your understanding of psychological testing and how it is used in assessment in your chosen field. Include a personalized definition of psychological testing, using the textbook as a guide.
Focus your explanation on demonstrating your understanding of key methodological and theoretical concepts concerning psychological testing to the internship director that is interviewing you in this role play.
Identify at least one scholarly source to address how psychological testing or assessment is utilized in your chosen field.
Ethics should be the foundation for nursing research and practice. The Tuskegee Tragedy is one of the well-known events in the history of research that may affect some peoples’ willingness to be a subject in a research study. Please visit the Tuskegee Tragedy website at gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm to learn more about this study. Be sure to click on the links to the left (Timeline, Presidential Apology, Research Implications, etc.) to gain a full perspective of this tragedy.
Answer preview to ethics should be the foundation for nursing research and practice
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
