Popular Psychology

Instructions: You will locate a minimum of two news articles or web sources about psychology and answer the questions below. You may also use a single “pop” psychology book as an alternative. Your answers should be submitted in paragraph form, using APA style for formatting, references, and in-text citations. Your answers to these questions should take you about 2-3 double-spaced pages. The general topic for the articles you select are up to you. You are strongly encouraged to read and find articles about a topic(s) that interests you. Questions to Answer: You must respond to all of these issues in paragraph form. Summarize each article/book and whatever study/topic they’ve covered. Make sure to identify whether the article talked about a study, was “self-help”, or was related to psychology in some other way. Did the headlines of the articles accurately reflect their content? How so or how not? When answering this item, think about how could the headline be misinterpreted by people who choose not to read the entire article. Evaluate the sources (this would be the publication, the reporter, the audience, anyone who was interviewed for the piece, etc.) to determine the motivation for writing the piece. For this, think about whether their previous experiences, personal values, or financial motivations may have affected the way the article/book was written. Here, you’re looking for potential bias in the way the information is presented. Give a justification for your responses here. To what extent did the article talk about research or science in their piece? How does this affect your judgment of the article? Here, think about what you’re learning in some of your science-based courses about the value of the scientific method for investigating important questions. Be specific in your answer. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of reading about psychology from popular news sources. What are the benefits to society in exploring psychology here? What are the potential dangers? Is the news a good place to learn about psychology (or science in general)? Why or why not? In your answer, consider how news and opinion pieces are shared on social media. You may also find it helpful to take into account the scientific training of the average social media user when answering this question.