Picking Good Topics for Your Psychology Research Paper: Basic Tips
When writing a psychology essay, students need to pick high-quality, unique topics. They should avoid writing about topics that have already been discussed in the past by other students and academicians. In addition, students should find a topic that they actually enjoy. The student will be spending a lot of hours reading and researching, so they will want to make sure that they pick a topic that they actually want to spend the next few weeks reading about.
Read Through Course Textbooks
One of the main way is to pick a topic is to read through the class textbook. Within the textbook, the student will be able to read through all of the information that they covered during the previous quarter. As the student reads through their class books, they should take notes about potential topic ideas that could be interesting for a paper.
Search Online
There are a number of ideas that can be found on the Internet. Many professors, writers and fellow students will actually post their essays or thesis statements online. Students can find these examples by doing a basic search of the Internet. If that does not work, the student can always go the psychology department home page to see what students are currently writing about.
Read the Syllabus
At the beginning of the quarter, the professor most likely handed out a syllabus for everyone to read through. Within this syllabus, the professor may have written specific topic ideas that they expect from their students. In addition to reading through the syllabus, the student should also look at the writing prompt. They should look in the prompt for any topic ideas that the teacher wants or paper requirements. Before the student begins their paper, they should make sure that they understand all of the requirements that are listed in the prompt. Otherwise, the student will be stuck fixing their prompt later on.
Some Additional Topic Ideas
If students are still unable to think of a topic for their paper, they can try out some of the following ideas. These ideas can be used as they are written or they can be modified to suit the student's psychology class.
- What are some of the implications of cyber bullying? How does it affect a student's mental development?
- How has the recession impact the self-esteem of college-aged job seekers?
- What is parapsychology? Are there any parapsychology techniques that deserve a place in modern medicine?
- Why is premenstrual dysphoric disorder so frequently ignored by doctors?
- Are there too many psychological classifications? Does this mean that no one is truly “normal”?