The effects of ADHD and academic performance

    Assignment 1 consists of writing the Introduction Section of an APA-style research paper.  A true research paper is not a report on some topic of interest, for example a report on Autism or ADHD.  A true research paper consists of conducting a study in order to add to the body of scientific knowledge concerning the relationship between two or more variables, for example, the relationship between ADHD and academic performance.  You are only writing the Introduction Section of an APA-style research paper because you will NOT conduct an actual study.  You will introduce a problem (e.g. a relationship between two or more variables), develop the background of previous research on the problem, and state your research hypothesis for a study that you propose (but will not carry out) in order to add to the body of scientific knowledge concerning the problem.

    You should all pick a topic that interests you, possibly a topic that is personally relevant (e.g. relating to your work, hobbies, interests, etc.)  The topic must be one within the scientific field of psychology relevant to the particular course (Child Development, Adult Development, Lifespan Development, or Introductory Psychology).  Refrain from any non-scientific topic such as astrology, parapsychology, or phrenology.  For example, a research paper topic might be ‘The relationship between home environment during childhood and intelligence’, ‘The relationship between parental involvement and academic performance’, or ‘The effects of motivation on workplace performance’.  The following steps will help you to complete the assignment in a timely manner, thus producing a better paper:

    (1) Turn in your topic (3rd Week).  I will go over the topics, determine the appropriateness of each topic, and make suggestions concerning the refinement of each topic.

    (2) Conduct a literature search (4th  Week).  Your topic may need to be further refined based upon the results of the literature search, for example, you may find that the topic is too broad or too narrow.  You must find six articles published in peer-reviewed journals that you will cite in your introduction section.  During the third week of the semester, we will spend an entire class session in the library, during which time you will be taught how to search the academic databases available to PCC students and staff for articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

    (3) Complete an outline of your research paper (By 5th Week).


    (4) Complete a “final” draft of the research paper (By 9th Week).

    (5) Have a tutor in the Social Science go over your research paper and make suggestions concerning its refinement (before 9th Week).

    (6) Refine and turn in the final draft of your research paper (12thWeek).

    A full APA style research paper consists of the following parts:  Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Method (Participants, Procedure, Materials, etc), Results, Discussion, References, Tables, and Figures.  Your paper will consist of the following parts:  Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, References.  A description of these parts and an example are presented below.  Additionally, there is an example paper available to you, written by a former student who received the maximum points possible.

    General Formatting Rules

    For your paper, Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, and References, should be on their own pages.

    For a full APA-style paper, the Title Page, Abstract, References, Table(s), and Figure(s) should be on their own pages.

    – In a full APA-style paper, you do not put page breaks in between the Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion sections.

    Adhere to the following rules in typing the entire paper:

    (1) Write in the past tense.  In a full APA-style research paper, past tense must be used in the abstract, introduction, and method, present tense can be used in the results and discussion sections.

    (2) Use 12-point font.

    (3) Double-spaced

    (4) Use one-inch margins all the way around (left, right, top, and bottom).

    (5) Indent the first line five characters for all paragraphs in your paper except the abstract and references.

    (6) Single space after sentence terminators (e.g. ‘.’, ‘?’, ‘!’).

    (7) Capitalize the first letter following a colon if the clause following the colon is a complete sentence.

    (8) Use left paragraph alignment, not justified paragraph alignment.

    (9) Do not hyphenate (split) words at the end of a line.


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