Overview

A position paper will be used as one of your comprehensive assessments. Within the position paper, you will make value judgments about prevailing debates in the field of psychology. While you will be relying more on your personal viewpoints, you must substantiate claims with logic, reason, and evidence, as supported by scholarly research. In Module Five, a literature review will be completed as part of the framework in preparation for this assignment. Using resources identified in the literature review, you will craft your position paper due in Module Seven.

This assessment will assess your mastery with respect to the following course outcome:

- Defend a position on one of the significant debates in leadership psychology using scholarly evidence

Prompt

Your position paper should answer the following prompt:

Choose one or more of the current debates in the field of leadership psychology and defend a position. Sample debates include:

- Analytical versus holistic approach
- Individualism versus group cognition
- Balancing employee satisfaction/needs and the bottom line

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Background - Detailed information about a debate prevalent in the field of psychology must be presented. The following questions must be answered:

a. Which debate was chosen? Why?

b. What is the historical importance of the debate?

2. Positions - To be considered a debate, there must be a discussion that involves opposition.

a. Address the distinct positions of the debate.

b. Is each side of the debate sustainable? Why or why not?

c. Are the leader's responsibilities practical in nature? Why or why not?

3. Defense - To be able to participate in a structured debate, one must choose a position and prepare to defend that stance.

a. Which side of the debate do you choose to defend? Why?

b. Provide an official position defense, including evidence to support your position using scholarly research.