INP3004 Essay

Applied Psychology Project

INP 3004

This project provides the opportunity for you to begin developing skills needed by scientistpractitioners, which correspond to the learning objectives for this course (see syllabus):

“adopt a scientist-practitioner perspective to demonstrate basic skills: 1) synthesize

information from professional and research sources, 2) connect theoretical ideas to

the central goals of an organization, and 3) articulate ideas in a concise and

persuasive manner”

This project requires researching general information about a contemporary topic that affects real

organizations, reviewing scientific literature on related topics in a report, and disseminating

findings publicly, in some manner. The 5-10 page literature review paper should be written in

APA style / format

(https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/a…

neral_format.html is my favorite resource about APA).Advocacy – Community-Based Learning (CBL)

For this assignment, you will find an organization that advocates for leadership opportunities in a

group you support (i.e., Cuban-Americans, women, working parents, LGBTQIA+, etc.). You

will identify your organization to me and conduct a literature review and write a letter to the

editor of this organization. I will give you an example below.

For instance, if you choose to write to an organization advocating for women at work, you could

do the following:

“Women at Work (www.womenatwork1.org) is a nonprofit organization that provides career

services for the greater Los Angeles area community, including both women and men. However,

their services target women of all ages who need vocational guidance, skills training, and

general assistance searching for open positions. More broadly, Women at Work also advocates

for practices and (political and social) policies that address problems facing women employees.

Browse their website and collect some background information (from the Internet, news stories,

or people’s anecdotes) about hiring or workplace issues affecting women in particular. Then,

examine the research literature to see if scientific information has been discovered about your

topic. Synthesize all of that information to develop a solid understanding of the issue and write a

letter-to-the-editor that could be used for advocacy on behalf of Women at Work.”

If you choose a different topic (i.e., parents at work), include the website for me please!

Literature Review:

Conduct a literature search and locate at least 2 works about your topic from

professional/business sources and at least 3 works from the scientific literature. You are

not required to find a certain number of empirical pieces, but such pieces – when relevant

– may be the most helpful for writing a persuasive letter-to-the-editor (later).

Try to find works that are most relevant to your topic; it will be obvious if you only select

the works that are easiest to access (e.g., to download as .PDFs). You should also

reference any relevant material from this course, in addition to the sources from your

literature search. However, your grade will depend more on how well you review and

incorporate works, rather than the number you use.

In your literature review, synthesize the professional and scientific literature to provide

an “actionable” conclusion. Some of you may find that the literature helps us to

understand the problem better, without offering a solution. In this case, papers may

highlight aspects of the issue that organizations need to consider. Others may be able to

recommend a specific solution/practice/policy for organizations to implement, based on

their review. Either is fine, but all papers should provide a conclusion that allows

organizations to manage the issue better, after reading the paper.

Dissemination of information:Write a fully-formatted draft of a “letter to the editor” for a (respectable) public forum of

your choosing. City, regional, or national newspapers and some magazines will likely be

acceptable sources. Some blogs may also be acceptable. If you are unsure about the

source being acceptable, check with the instructor. In all cases, the source should be

something that might actually publish your work, meaning that your topic seems suitable

for the forum.

Once you have selected a suitable forum, find past letters to use as examples for

modeling your own letter. Use your literature review and reasoning to craft a persuasive,

but scientifically-sound letter. Submit your letter to the instructor, who will then pass it

on to the director of Women at Work.

Very generic information about writing a “letter to the editor” can be found online and

some will be posted to Moodle. Yet, each source varies and may require a particular style

of writing and tone.

Deadlines:

Submit literature review write-up by 10/4

Submit your letter-to-the-editor by 10/4

Grading: 25 points

30 points for the literature review

10 points pass/fail for the letter to the editor fitting with the forum selected, being

consistent with the literature reviewed, and being proofread

12.5 points 10 points 7.5 points 5 points

Grammar No grammatical

errors or

misspelling

A few

grammatical

errors or

misspellings

Both

grammatical

errors and

misspellings

Illegible due to

grammar and/or

misspelling

APA Citations Accurately

follows current

APA citation

format (in-text

and reference

section)

Follows current

APA citation

format with few

mistakes

Incorrect

attempt at

citations

No citations

Logistics Exceeds

expectations,

turns in

complete,

thoughtful, and

thorough

assignment

Meets 5 page

minimum (not

including

reference page),

turns in all

components of

assignment

Does not meet

page minimum,

but still turns in

all components

of assignment

Missing

components of

assignment

Relevance Chooses a

modern topic

relevant to I/O

Chooses an

outdated topic

in I/O

Topic

somewhat

relevant to I/O

Topic not

relevant to I/O

psychologypsychology psychology psychology, but

not completely

Tips on Writing a Literature Review

As with most essays, begin your paper with a “hook” that interest the reader – much like

you would see in a journal article. Start broad and explain the general topic of the paper

and why it is important to organizations/employees.

Literature reviews may focus on certain papers/studies, but should really be structured

around topics or concepts. A specific study or author is not as important as the theories

and empirical findings that come out of research. Thus, avoid introducing each article and

summarizing it mechanically, such as:

“Jager (1986) collected data from 221 college students. He found that…”

Because you may be using a limited number of works, you may need to break your

review into sub-sections around different topics. That is fine.

When describing an empirical article within a review, you can cite it generally or in depth.

To make a general reference, you might simply state a principle or finding and cite the

work in parentheses. When a study had direct relevance to your main topic, you should

provide more detail.

There is no official way to review literature, but most people follow a general pattern

when describing an empirical work in depth (refer to APA journal articles for examples).

Describe the main purpose of the study or theory underlying its predictions, in 1 or 2

sentences. Briefly describe the sample and procedure – in just 1 or 2 sentences, unless

something bizarre must also be noted. Then, summarize the results and provide an

interpretation about how they are relevant to your points. If the study has a notable

limitation (that the authors acknowledge OR that you identify by yourself), address that

in 1 or 2 sentences. If the study has major flaws, you might address those in a 2nd

paragraph. (For instance, you might review a famous study used to support an opposing

point and summarize it accurately, but then follow that paragraph with another one

pointing out why the study is invalid.)

Practice writing succinctly. Adding in irrelevant details and making your paper longer

often reduces clarity and makes points seem less connected.

Always offer some kind of conclusion(s), based your review. You are not writing a “book

report.” Instead, summarize the literature as objectively as you can, but use it to support

your own points/thesis as they relate to organizational practices / concerns.