Personality

Paper instructions:

In Session 3 you learned how to use the PsycARTICLES database. This will be your research resource for this assignment, in which you will review recent research literature in the domain of personality.

An annotated bibliography is a paper in which you list and summarizes several sources on a specific topic. For this assignment you will select a personality trait from the list below. You will then search for five articles on this topic within the PsycARTICLES database; all articles must have been published within the last five years. Within your paper you will list each of your five articles using a properly-formatted APA citation, and for each article you will provide a 150-250 word summary that outlines the following:

The specific topic of the article
The rationale for the research, i.e. why did the researchers do this (to test a theory, to fill in a gap, to replicate previous research, to advance a better therapeutic practice, etc.)
A general description of the people who were studied in the research (e.g. age, sex, etc)
A general description of the methods used
A summary of the general conclusions drawn by the researchers
NOTE: You are not expected to summarize the statistical results; that goes beyond the level of an Intro Psych class

You may select from the following list of personality traits:

Be aware that some of these will have more research than others. Ideally, you should choose a topic that generates many search results from PsycARTICLES, so that you can scan through for articles that are interesting and which you can understand sufficiently well to be able to summarize within your paper.

Your paper should begin with a title page (within the same document as the paper) listing your name, class section, professor’s name and the date, and the personality trait you chose to study. Then, on the next page you should begin the bibliography: list the APA citation for your first source, followed by your summary; then, proceed to the second, third, fourth, and fifth citations. A very generic sample paper is attached below, along with links to sources of further reading about annotated bibliographies.

The emphasis in this paper is demonstrating understanding of the material, as summarized in your own words. You may use direct quotes if they are very short and clearly cited within quotation marks, but you should not use longer block quotes.

The paper should be formatted as follows:

The paper should be double-spaced, no more than 12 point font, preferably Times New Roman or Calibri. Do NOT use Courier font. Margins should be no more than 1.25 inches all around.
The paper must be submitted in one of the following formats: Rich Text Format (.RTF); Microsoft Word .DOC format; or Microsoft Word .DOCX format. The “Save As…” menu in most word processors will allow you to select your format.
If you do not submit in one of these formats, I may not be able to open the file (warning: I cannot open files in Microsoft Works or Apple Pages format). If I cannot open the file, you will receive a zero for the assignment.

The paper is due by the Session 15 due date, listed in the course calendar. Once your paper is completed, you must submit it using the link above, or within Session 15.

The grading structure for this paper is outlined below; more detail is available in the full grading rubric, which you can find by clicking on the link above (where it says “Annotated Bibliography”).