Create a 6–9 minute podcast on a contemporary topic in psychology, including an analysis of historical and societal influences, impact on future social thinking, and a plan for how you (and others) can be the change.
For this assessment, you will reflect upon different concepts discussed throughout the course, their historical relevance and intersection with today’s psychology, and why you need to be part of the positive change moving forward. Submit a 6–9 minute podcast or audio file where you connect one HISTORICAL school of thought’s founding figures and ideas with one contemporary school of thought’s ideas. Step 1: Select one contemporary focus in psychology:
Environmental psychology.
LGBTQIA+ psychology.
Black psychology.
Feminist psychology and intersectionality.
Decolonizing psychology curriculum/research.
Step 2: Select one historical school of thought that you believe helped to somehow inspire or contribute to your contemporary focus selected in Step 1:
Functionalism.
Structuralism.
Psychoanalysis.
Behaviorism.
Cognitive.
Gestalt.
Humanism.
Step 3: Select one of the timeless psychology debates that may fit in from “5 Timeless Debates in Psychology” from the Timeless Debates reading list:
Nature versus nurture.
Materialism versus constructionism.
Person versus situation.
Consistency versus change across development.
Cultural universals versus cultural variability.
Step 4: Locate four peer-reviewed journal articles that align to your contemporary focus. Be sure that at least one article represents diversity, equity, and inclusion. To accomplish this goal, find at least one article that either comes from an international journal, uses a non-Western population, or represents clearly the experiences of an underrepresented group in the literature. Note: Two articles may be from our course readings, but the other two should be from outside of course readings.
For this assessment, create a podcast or audio recording. Your final product should be 6–9 minutes in length. Use the Assessment 4 Podcast Preparation Guide [DOCX] to help you prepare your script prior to recording your podcast.
Describe the contemporary topic of interest.
Evaluate its social significance.
Analyze the historical and societal influences that have led to this new area of psychology via reviewing research from four peer-reviewed journal articles.
Explain how the older school of thought influences the present-day field of psychology and specifically your contemporary topic of interest.
Include at least one theorist name within this discussion!
Explain how one of the five timeless debates from Geher (2021) fits with the contemporary topic of interest.
Explain other historical events and/or movements that may have inspired interest in this topic area.
Explain how this new school of thought may guide social thinking in the future.
Create a plan for how you (and others) can help be the change in the future to improve the human experience in this contemporary area of psychology.
Consider individual, community, and global scales.
There are two deliverables: Submit both your audio file or link and a reference page listing your sources.
Length: 6–9 minutes.
Oral communication: Must be clearly spoken and paced.
Resources and citations: Use a minimum of four peer-reviewed journal articles. Two may be course readings. One must represent diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Citations may be stated orally to give due credit. Format reference list according to current APA guidelines.
