As I have indicated in the syllabus, Personal Projects offer a completely optional opportunity for students to focus their learning and energy upon topics they find especially interesting or meaningful for the purpose of reclaiming lost credit (due to absences or other reasons), earning extra credit, or individualizing the content of the course. The way to begin a personal project is to formulate a preliminary proposal that is as well thought out, organized, and detailed as you can make it. It may even be necessary to do some background reading or some preliminary data-gathering to clarify for yourself some of the complexities and considerations to which your proposal must be sensitive.
A sample of a completed personal project proposal is available for inspection in my office to give you an idea of the kind of information that needs to be included. It is certainly not a perfect one and could be improved in many ways, but it is also definitely better than many I have received in the past and had to return unapproved because of inadequate detail and planning. I am expecting each of you to do at least this well with your proposals since, from much past experience, I can assure you (and so can a number of disappointed former students) that the best proposals usually lead to the best projects. Have I gotten the message through to you about the virtues of prior planning and thought? I hope so.
No credit will be given retroactively for work performed on a personal project before its proposal has been approved.
Proposals that a student hopes to have approved by the next Monday must be submitted to the instructor for review and evaluation by at least the preceding Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. The proposal should be typewritten. Ordinarily, if revisions or clarifications of certain aspects of the proposal are necessary, it will be available for return to the student and discussion with the instructor by Wednesday afternoon of the same week. Following this feedback, a typewritten, revised copy of the proposal should be resubmitted to the instructor by Thursday afternoon/evening (i.e., just so I find them slid under my office door or in my mail box by 8:00 a.m. Friday). It is very important that all previous drafts of a proposal be stapled to the back of a current revision when it is resubmitted. Once an original proposal or its revision is approved, the signature of the instructor will be affixed to the front of the final approved proposal, and it will then be returned to the student who must then make two (2) additional copies and resubmit all three (3) by Tuesday, 11:00 a.m. of the following week. One copy will be publicly posted for the benefit of others in the class, the second copy will be returned to the student, and the original draft will be kept in the instructor's file. The student's copy must be attached to the front of the completed project when it is submitted for evaluation and grading.
A student who submits a proposal and has it approved is obligated to make a good faith effort to complete the project. Failure to complete an approved project will result in a letter grade of F being entered for the project. It is not possible to renegotiate elimination of an approved project.
The format of all completed personal projects should conform to that described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (copies are available in R.O.W. Library--they are often listed under the Psychology 450 or 451 course), especially with respect to the structure and organization of papers and the method of handling references both in the body of the text and in the list at the end [partial style summary here]. As with the special events, you will find the material on p. 69, #3.32; p. 110, #3.92; and p. 115-127, #3.100; especially useful, though other sections are also relevant. In general, the instructor should be able to find an appropriate reference in the text for identifying the source of any idea or information that is not the student's own. Failure to meet this criterion constitutes a violation of the standards of academic integrity.
A final general requirement for students doing personal projects is that they
purchase a small compact spiral notebook, even before beginning a proposal,
in which they are to keep a detailed (i.e., to the nearest 15 minutes of time)
account of the time they invest in the project. Entries in this time log might
read like the following.
As with all other graded work, the letter grade that is assigned to a Personal Project corresponds to a numerical equivalent that is used in the calculation of the final course grade. These numerical equivalents are listed in the course syllabus.
In grading personal projects, it is not my policy to award points directly for the time and effort spent in researching and preparing a proposal. This preliminary work is viewed as an investment that is simply necessary in order to get yourself in position to do a good job on the actual project that will follow. Careful, thoughtful, detailed planning will be reflected in the quality of the final project and will receive its "just dues" at that time.
In evaluating a personal project, besides making an overall, rather global evaluation of the quality of the project, I also usually consider its length and its scholarly quality as separate components. Credit on the project may vary depending on the organized, well-informed, succinctness of the writing and my evaluation of the degree of demonstrated library research. In order to strengthen this part of the evaluation, I require that students attach Xerox copies of the first pages of those articles listed in the reference list of their papers immediately behind the reference list.
In order to obtain the greatest rewards and sense of learning from personal projects it is recommended that more than one be undertaken during the semester. Often much can be learned from an early, initial project that will contribute significantly to the improvement of subsequent projects. (This is a good reason to start early with your projects, especially in view of the deadlines described next.)
As a general rule no personal project proposals are accepted later than four (4) weeks before the end of classes, and all completed projects are due approximately three (3) weeks before the end of classes. (The exact dates for all of these deadlines can be found on the course schedule.)
Proposals are usually so particular in their nature or in the resources or contacts they require that only the original submitter is interested in or able to perform the activity. Examples would include doing observations at a particular day care center, school or other similar facility; participating in a particular community service organization; or reading a book or other material that is of particular interest to one individual. An acceptable weighting for the project will be determined through a process of communication and negotiation between the instructor and that student.
As you will see very shortly, all forms of personal project have some dependency
on good library skills. Therefore, the student who is especially eager to get
started with a personal project may want to make sure that they either already
have or are actively working to acquire comfortable familiarity with the psychology
related resources of library and their use.
It is my impression that personal projects generally fall into one of the following broad categories.
In a well planned study, even the field data are neat, orderly, and concise so that it is often unnecessary to accompany them with a typewritten transcript. For all observational projects in this course, behavioral data must be recorded in a small notebook, on note cards (see the Sample Observation Card in this workbook), or on a special data sheet that has been designed for the project and has received the instructor's approval. If you would like more detailed information about different approaches to doing observations and about how to record observational data, I have a copy of Irwin and Bushnell's Observational Strategies for Child Study as well as some other relevant materials in my office. Chapters 3-11 are especially useful for most projects that students design. When the project is completed these raw data must be placed int he manila envelope that contains the logbook as well as other "support" materials such as bibliographic cards, notes cards, and preliminary drafts, and submitted with the final report.
The process of analysis and interpretation in the best observational projects usually involves drawing upon other references in the literature of psychology. When this is the case, the manila folder that accompanies the project should also contain the appropriate bibliographic cards and notes cards for the references cited in the text. Finally, in all cases, all previous drafts of the project should also be included in the manila folder.
Although subjects of any age may be observed in one of the projects, students are often especially interested in focusing on children and their development. I have prepared a summary of locations where children can often be found and observed. Please consider the issues of ethics and professional responsibility that I note at the end of that summary and do not begin without first talking with
In the case of library projects that are book reports, it is acceptable to develop a project around a book that is being read for another course as long as the orientation of the proposal is clearly psychological in its content. However, in such cases no point credit can be given for the time spent reading the book. The fact that the book is being used in another course must be explicitly mention in the proposal -- failure to do so is regarded as an act of academic dishonesty in the course. When credit is given for reading a book, viewing a videotape or movie,, etc., notes or other similar material should always be submitted as evidence of active analysis of the experience.
Students doing library projects are expected to follow good scholarly procedures while doing their projects. Therefore, they should place all "support" materials such as analytical notes, bibliographic cards, note cards, and preliminary drafts of their project in the manila folder that is submitted along with the final draft of their project. These materials are meant to enrich and strengthen the process of scholarly writing; they are not to be "whipped off" after the paper is essentially completed in order to lend respectability to the effort or engender the approval of the instructor. Any attempt to do this is considered an act
A manila folder/envelope marked with the required information on the outside and that contains: