The session long project for our course is going to give you the opportunity to prepare a professional paper addressing an issue within the field of Psychology.

In psychological research, investigators begin with a general area of interest and then narrow their focus down to a specific Research Question or set of questions. For example, if the issue of interest to me is child abuse, my research question might be, "How does being physically or sexually abused as a child affect an individual later in life?" The first thing I would do, before beginning to design my own research project to find the answer to my question, would be to see what is already known about this topic by surveying the current research literature. I may find that the answer to my question has already been provided by other researchers and scholars.

This SLP assignment will enhance your ability to locate, assimilate, and critically assess information from existing published literature in order to answer a specific research question or set of related questions. The questions you are to address are as follows:

One of the most significant events in the recent history of the U.S. has been the deployment, combat, and return of our military personnel to Iraq and Afghanistan. With many of these men and women being deployed as many as three, four, or five times into life-threatening environments, there is a growing awareness and concern about the potential effects of traumatic experiences upon one's psychological well-being.

With that in mind, your SLP research project is to address ONE (1) of the following:

1) What do we know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? What psychological symptoms are associated with it, and what effective treatments exist today (if any) to manage those symptoms?

2) How do traumatic experiences in childhood impact us later in life? Do they affect our ability to cope with subsequent traumatic experiences (either positively or negatively)? Do they somehow make us prone to experience more trauma later in life, and if so, how might that happen?

3) Given your understanding of three main psychological theories (Psychodynamic/Freud, Humanistic/Rogers, Cognitive-Behavioral/Beck), how might an adult who'd been traumatized as a child be treated differently by a psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral therapist? Which therapy orientation do you think would be most effective for this person, and why?

4) Given your understanding of stress, the 'fight-or-flight' response and the neurological processes associated with it, what makes some events in life more difficult to cope with than others? Why are some people more capable of coping with stressful situations than others? Is the ability to cope with stress related to personality, intelligence, or some other variable?

Your final Session Long Project (with all revisions) is due at the end of module 5. You are expected, however, to submit each of the following segments of your work upon the completion of each module, accordingly:

1.   MODULE ONE: Overview of Issue and Research Question

2.    MODULE TWO: Reference List Page (5-10 references)

3.    MODULE THREE: Detailed Outline of Paper

4.    MODULE FOUR: Solid Draft of Entire Paper

5.    MODULE FIVE: Final Paper in its Entirety

MODULE ONE / SEGMENT ONE

In accordance with the above timeframe for your SLP work, the task at hand for this first module entails preparing an Introductionpresenting an overview of the issue you wish to pursue for this course component (that is, the issue you chose to address from the four choices). This overview should be 2-3 paragraphs in length - identifying and further describing the issue to be addressed, along with subsequent sub-topics / details on the identified issue.

Your overview should be labeled, "Introduction", and should conclude with the specific RESEARCH QUESTION or questions pertaining to your selected issue.

NOTE: The four choices for research questions are listed above: Your Introduction should end with one of these, either word-for-word or re-worded. For example, my Introduction might start with a general statement about the role of negative experiences in our growth and development, define "trauma" as a particular type of negative event, and then define PTSD while presenting statistics about the prevalence of PTSD in society. I might then end my Introduction with, "This paper will address the questions, What do we know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? What psychological symptoms are associated with it, and what effective treatments exist today (if any) to manage those symptoms?'"

Your paper must go on to address any and all research questions posed in this introductory section.

EXPECTATIONS

Before submitting your work, be sure to review and refine your paper in accordance with the following expectations:

1.    Do you identify a pertinent issue involving psychology?

2.    Do you provide a detailed summary of the manner in which the identified issue will be addressed throughout your paper?

3.    Do you conclude this Introductory section with a clear statement of the specific Research Question(s) you will be addressing?

4.    Do you address the above items in a manner reflective of college-level writing and research skills?