Topic and Outline Development

OVERVIEW
This Research Paper: Topic and Outline Development Assignment is the first in our Research Paper Assignment series. It provides an opportunity for you to take a closer look at a topic related to physiological processes and psychology. You will use your work in this Research Paper: Topic and Outline Development Assignment to sharpen your research and writing skills while you prepare to write your Research Paper: Final Paper Assignment.

INSTRUCTIONS
For this Research Paper: Topic and Outline Development Assignment, you will:

1. Show the progression of topic selection to purpose statement to basic outline using a copy of the table provided in the Research Paper: Topic and Outline Development Template. Note: sample data is provided. Please do not use this topic or any of the references.
2. After completing your copy of the template table, you will use the information to create a current APA-formatted document with the title page, your purpose statement, a reference list with at least 8 journal articles (that meet the criteria listed below) and your textbook. The completed development chart will be included after your references as an Appendix.
3. Article Criteria:
   • 8 peer-review journal articles published within the past 5 years.
   • At least 6 of the 8 articles should describe original research.
   • Each article must support your research question and purpose statement.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

Research Paper: Topic and Outline Development Assignment.

Please review all three instructional documents. In particular, the “Template” document is an excellent tool to use to build your own assignment. Furthermore, I recommend reviewing the Research Paper: Final Paper instructions. After reading these documents, please contact me if you have any questions or need help! Below is a bit more information to help:

Topic Selection: Your topic needs to be chosen from the course textbook and reflect physiological psychology (the connection between the nervous system/brain and behavior). Feel free to look ahead and find something that interests you. One mistake I often see is that students will write about a mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, etc.) but fail to discuss it from a physiological psychology perspective. If you choose to write on these topics, the focus should be on how the brain is implicated in these disorders.

Here are some examples of topics:
• How stress impacts the brain
• The cerebral cortex
• How is the brain implicated in hunger
• The brain’s role in decision making
• The parts of the brain implicated in schizophrenia

You are required to use academic journal article references via LU’s online library database (APA PsyNET). Websites and non-professional sources are not allowed; you will not earn credit for these and be asked to find new sources.

Your assignment should be ordered as follows:
Page 1 – Title Page
Page 2 – Purpose Statement
Page 3 (and more if required) – References (8 scholarly journal articles)
Page 4 (and more if required) – Appendix (attach the completed template)

Please reach out if you have any questions about this assignment.