We will be learning about theories of motivation throughout our course and how emotional self-regulation plays a part in achieving our goals. There are many potential applications of psychological theories to real world situations. Reducing procrastination, learning a new activity, changing our diet, avoiding substance use/abuse, and managing stress are just a few examples of personal motivational challenges. Your job for this assignment is to: create a personal motivational plan (for yourself) to reach a desired goal in the future by drawing on theory and research to describe your motivational challenge. Your paper must draw on one theory from our textbook, as the basis for your paper.
Any of the theories in the book are acceptable, if you can formulate a convincing argument for how it applies. One theory will ‘fit’ or make sense better than the other, depending on your topic. You must explain the theory clearly, summarize the relevant research (drawing on empirical journal articles) on how that theory predicts behavior, describe your motivational challenge (past or future), then convince your reader of how the theory explains your situation, based on evidence for the theory (past literature). Because this is a very practical and applied use of theory, your plan will include very detailed and specific examples of how the theory is applied to your motivational situation. Because this is a paper about you and your life, some (limited) use of first person is appropriate and acceptable in your writing (i.e., where you talk about your own challenge). You are encouraged to discuss your chosen theory and topic with me, in advance, for feedback.
Your grade for this assignment will be based on how well you have followed these instructions (i.e., be sure to include everything), how well you summarize the theory, the relevance and quality of your literature review and sources, how well you apply theory to your personal motivational challenge, how well you support your arguments for why the theory fits your situation, and the general quality of your writing (i.e., grammar, spelling, and paper structure count towards your grade).
Please note that each paper should be an individual effort, i.e., no group work is permitted, and the idea must be original/your own (see also the note on plagiarism below and the academic integrity information at the end of this syllabus). Please note that your assignment must be ‘new’ work (i.e., our academic integrity rules state that you “have not and will not submit this work, either as a whole or in part, to satisfy another course requirementâ€�.
Format The assignment must be between 5 to 6 double-spaced pages of writing. In addition to the writing/text part of your paper, you will have a title page and a references page. For this assignment, you will be using a minimum of 5 recent empirical journal articles.
This assignment is worth 50 points. A rubric of grading criteria is provided.
Other Format Considerations:
Typed, double spaced, 1 inch margins. Please use a cover sheet
Use 12-point “Times New Roman� font
Use current APA publication style and format
Reference Page