Group Exchange Assignments:

Each student is asked to contribute to the group's knowledge. Three types of contributions will be expected. The first type of contribution will be summaries of journal articles that you read as you explore the literature on the psychology of music and/or develop reference lists for the major paper you will be expected to write for the course. Click on the word summaries above for more information. The second contribution will be a presentation of your major research paper. Finally, I expect each of you to pose a question or comment for the class on each set of assigned readings using the class email address so everyone will have a chance to read and respond to your comments. The class email address is f-psy-344-003@gustavus.edu (subject to change).

Writing Assignments

Major Paper: DUE December 12, 2019

The major paper can be either a review of some aspect of research on the psychology of music or a fully developed research proposal. It is the expectation of the instructor that throughout the course each student will be pursuing a topic related to the psychology of music that is interesting to the student in more depth than will be devoted to any topic in class discussions. The major paper provides an opportunity for the student to report their work on this topic. If the paper is a review of a research area, it should report both historical and contemporary perspectives on the topic selected. Papers will be evaluated on coverage of theory and research, depth of understanding demonstrated in the paper, organization of material, and clarity of presentation. It is expected that papers will provide an assessment of what is known about the topic and make suggestions about questions that remain to be addressed.

If the paper is a research proposal you must choose a topic area which interests you and review the work that has already been done in this area. Then you should formulate a research strategy - identifying independent and dependent variables, procedures, and equipment to be used. When you have formulated a plan you will produce a paper which summarizes the relevant background research which has been done by others, states your hypothesis, describes the subject population you would study, describes in detail the procedures you would use (including descriptions of all experimental manipulations and dependent measures), describes the results which would confirm or disconfirm your hypotheses, and states the implications you think your proposed study would have. In effect you would write a paper which includes the Introduction and Methods sections of a journal article and abbreviated results and discussion sections. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ACTUALLY CONDUCT THIS RESEARCH. Papers will be evaluated on coverage of related research and theory, effectiveness of the proposed research design, depth of understanding demonstrated in the paper, organization of material, and clarity of presentation.

Either type of paper should be written in APA format, specifically that used for references and citations. I expect either type of paper to be 8-12 pages in length including a reference section. Students are expected to have read all of the papers which they cite and to make it clear when a reference to someone else's work is via a secondary source. The reference sections in the your text provide an excellent list of reference works. PsychLit on the web provides a convenient way to find research related to the problem you select.