The Perceptual Process of Those who are blind or who suffer from some variance of visual impairmen

PSY 305 Literature Review

Topic of Choice: The Perceptual Process of those who are blind or who suffer from some sort of visual impairment

Your understanding of Perception will culminate in a formal literature review paper, worth 250 points (25% of your course grade). This paper will address an aspect of Perception that you personally find particularly interesting and will integrate earlier course work as well as build upon course learning and existing knowledge. This project will require an independent literature review to integrate a variety of different social psychological concepts, critically analyze research, and creatively develop ideas for future research. Your task is to identify a topic, conduct a thorough literature review of research about this topic, and write a 3-5 page, APA style paper (not including cover page and references) to thoroughly describe and evaluate this research and to propose future directions in research on this topic. The components of this paper will be:

1-page cover page

3 to 5-page body of paper: Introduction with subsections as needed, discussion section, limitations section, and future directions section

References: a minimum of 5 academic journal articles relating to your topic

Additionally, prior to submitting your final paper, you will submit a research paper outline, worth 50 points (5% of your course grade). This outline will begin with a brief description (3-5 sentences) of your topic and why you chose it. You can design your outline with keywords, or with full-sentences, and it should be about 1 page long. Do not spend too much time on this assignment; it is simply intended to help you clarify your ideas and develop a structure for your paper, as well as to allow me to provide feedback which may be helpful while you conduct your literature review and write your paper.

TOPIC DETAILS

Your topic can be anything that is covered in this course that is of a particular interest to you. I encourage you to choose a topic that relates in some way to your real life, major, other course work, and/or research interests.

INTRODUCTION AND SUBSECTION DETAILS

In this section you should thoroughly describe the prominent studies related to your topic, explaining what has already been studied and discovered (related theories and facts). You should summarize results (concisely) from scientific studies on your topic in such a way that the findings are accessible to a mainstream audience. If there are sub-topics within your larger topic, please label those sections accordingly. For a topic that has been researched for many decades, you may choose to label your subsections as foundational studies and contemporary studies.

DISCUSSION SECTION DETAILS

In your discussion section, you will synthesize the information from your introduction. You should summarize the findings and effectively communicate the findings and overall importance of this research, while commenting on broader theoretical implications for understanding perception. You should connect these findings to the real world, perhaps through a current event or noteworthy social incident.

LIMITATIONS SECTION

In your limitations section, you will address any gaps that you found in the existing literature. Common gaps in literature may include a limited sample size, limited sample demographics (e.g. only college students, or only a certain culture or race), or a lack of the use of experimental methods. Additionally, there is likely another psychological construct that may be related to your topic and that relationship has not been studied yet. You should also critique the existing literature for strengths and limitations.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS SECTION

In your future directions section, you will suggest ways to overcome the gaps you identified in this body of research. You do not need to design an entire study. Rather, you will suggest methodologies that have not utilized yet and/or relationships with other constructs that have not been studied yet. Explain what you would expect to find and why it is important for this research to be conducted.

GRADING DETAILS

The extent to which you have achieved the learning objectives for this assignment will be evaluated using a rubric that gauges:

• Clarity: Excellent papers will demonstrate that the student has a firm understanding of the literature while discussing it in a way that is free of scientific jargon and would be easily understood by a lay audience.

• Organization/Structure: Excellent papers will have strong organization, each point following logically and sequentially, organized around a central thesis statement, question, or argument following the underlying sequence of thought involved in the scientific process

• Scientific Accuracy: Excellent papers will have all terms, concepts, phenomena, and theories explicitly and accurately defined, with research studies that are described thoroughly and cited appropriately.

• Professional Style: Excellent papers will have professional writing throughout, free of casual, conversational language, esoteric colloquialisms, etc. The paper presents information in a way that reflects the standards of a working professional academic environment, in APA style.

• Writing Quality: Excellent papers will contain writing that is polished and free of errors in spelling, grammar, diction, punctuation, etc.