Application Paper
1) You will turn in 1 application/reaction paper for the course.
• The goal of this paper is to first help you absorb information from lectures and
readings, then let you go beyond presented information to explore what interests
you the most.
• The paper should include a brief description of the social psychology
concept/theory/technique you have chosen and a description of your
application/reaction/integration.
• The possibilities for this paper are endless. For example, you could:
o Use a social psychology theory to make sense of your thoughts, behavior, or
emotions. (Can evolutionary theory tell me why I find my significant other
attractive?)
o Reference a movie/tv show/book and illustrate how a social psychology topic in
this course was related to a scene, character, or the story as a whole.
• Present and discuss real world examples (personal, in the news etc.) that do or do
not fit what we are learning through lectures and readings.
• Raise questions or even propose a potential research study idea for future
psychological academic research.
Use of Turnitin: Consistent with MSU’s efforts to enhance student learning, foster
honesty, and maintain integrity in our academic processes, I have chosen to use a tool
called Turnitin to compare your papers with multiple sources. The tool will compare
each paper you submit to an extensive database of prior publications and papers,
providing links to possible matches and a ‘similarity score.’ The tool does not
determine whether plagiarism has occurred or not. Instead, I will make a complete
assessment and judge the originality of your work. All written submissions to this
course may be checked using this tool. In choosing to use Turnitin in this course, I have
agreed to follow five guidelines. They are:
Syllabus – 6
1. I will use Turnitin as part of a balanced approach to encourage academic
integrity and foster student success.
2. I will openly disclose the use of Turnitin in this course on the syllabus.
3. For a given assignment, I will use Turnitin for all papers.
4. I will make the final determination of originality and integrity.
5. Please do not plagiarize (also reference the syllabus section on the use of
generative AI in this course on pages 9 and 10 for what constitutes plagiarism and you
can also go to and read this link
guides/plagiarism.html).
2) The paper is worth 45 points.
• Please see the course schedule at the end of the syllabus for the due date.
• It is your responsibility to check that the assignment has been uploaded properly.
You can turn in any assignment before the deadline.
• The paper is graded on the following criteria:
o Did the paper meaningfully discuss something relevant to what we’ve covered in
class at the time of the due date?
Formatting:
Two complete pages, double-spaced text (12-point Times New Roman font and 1-inch
page margins). Please only submit files that are either .docx or .pdf, otherwise I
cannot open and view them (for example: .pages files). Microsoft Word is typically
the ideal program to use, although Google Docs is also acceptable, but the file needs
to be converted afterwards to a .docx or .pdf once you finish writing it.
– Other than that, there is no required specific format; it should simply be written in a
professional manner.
• You can write on any topic covered prior to the paper due date.
• If your application paper did not properly apply the concepts, you will receive brief
written feedback.
