SOSC1980 Psychology and Everyday Life

Essay Assignment (40%)

Guidelines

Consultation Session: on Zoom, in class, Jul 21 (Tuesday)

Consultation Deadline: 5pm, Jul 27 (Monday)
Due: 5pm, Jul 29 (Wednesday)
Key points:
 Task: Examine a coping strategy to reduce stress in life by applying psychological research findings, concepts
and/or theories.
 Essay Assignment: Use the Template and submit your essay in MS Word on Canvas.
 Word Limit: Write 500-800 words, maximum 800 words, including main text, in-text citations (required) and
title/heading(s) (optional). The word count excludes end-of-paper references (required) and appendix
(optional). Write no more than 800 words to avoid penalty.
 Consultation: Come ask questions at the Consultation Session (Jul 21). We do not read drafts. Come to
consultation with specific questions will allow us to help you better.

Objectives
 To demonstrate your understanding of some fundamental concepts and principles of relevance to the
psychology of everyday life.
 To analyze daily experiences with reference to research findings, psychological concepts, and theories.

Task
Essay Assignment (500-800 words; 800 words max; due at 5pm, Jul 29; use template)
a. Identify 1 (one) strategy that you heard is effective to reduce stress, but you have NOT tried or used it
consistently.
b. Name and describe this strategy and explain why it is effective.
c. Consider 1 (one) barrier people commonly have in adopting this stress coping strategy and suggest 1 (one)
way to overcome the barrier.
d. Discuss how you would incorporate this strategy in your own personal life.
*You’re expected to write in an essay format with an introduction and a conclusion.
*A good essay would employ research findings, psychological concepts, and/or theories to construct and support
the argument throughout the discussion.

Template and Word Limit

 Use the working templates on Canvas to organize your outline and paper; one mark per submission will be
deducted if templates are not used.
 Word limit: Maximum 800 words, including the main text, in-text citation (required), and title/heading(s)
(optional); but the word count excludes end-of-paper references (required) and appendix (optional).
 Marks will be deducted if you go beyond 800 words. The penalties are as follows:

Up to 10% extra: 5% off raw score

11%-20%: 10% off raw score
21%-30%: 15% off raw score
31%-40%: 20% off raw score
41%-50%: 30% off raw score
More than 50%: 40% off raw score

Consultation (consultation deadline: 5pm, Jul 27)

 Consultation Session: on Zoom, during class time on Jul 21. This will be an open-floor Q&A session. Come
ask questions and/or hear what your fellow classmates ask.
 You may also make individual appointments with us. Please contact me at vivienpong@ust.hk prior to the
consultation deadline. I will get back to you within 2 working days. However, we do not go over drafts.
Instead, come prepared with specific questions.
 We highly recommend that you take advantage of the Consultation Session and ask all your questions there.
No further questions will be addressed after 5pm on Jul 27.

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Assessment Rubric

Poor Satisfactory to Good Excellent

- The strategy and the barrier
are not relevant.
- The effectiveness and the
suggestions to overcome the
barriers are superficial.
- The way(s) to incorporate the
strategy in your life is not
feasible or realistic.
- The analysis and discussion
overall lack clarity and/or
appropriate support from
psychological research.
- The essay is unclear and
disorganized.
- The analysis and discussion
of the strategy, effectiveness,
barrier and suggestions are
overall reasonable, clear and
logical, and supported by
psychological research
findings.
- The way(s) to incorporate the
strategy is realistic.
- The essay is clear, well-
organized and free from
major grammatical mistakes
or spelling errors.
- The strategy and the barrier are
reasonable, and the
effectiveness and suggestions
are in-depth
- The way(s) to incorporate the
strategy is realistic.
- The analysis and discussion are
clear and logical, and supported
by substantial psychological
research findings
- The essay is exceptionally clear
and well-organized which
demonstrates superior
understanding of the topic.
- Overall, the essay is
thoughtfully written and shows
great effort.

Submission (due 5pm, Jul 29 on Canvas)

 Name your Word file using this format: “Essay_Last Name_First Name_student number.doc or .docx”. For
example, “Essay_CHAN_TaiMan_20461234.docx”.
 Submit your Outline in MS Word format under the “Assignments” tab on Canvas. The settings on Canvas
allow for unlimited resubmission before the due date.
 Grace-period policy: Submission is subject to a grace-period policy of 5 hours, after which the following
penalty will apply:
> 5 hours to 24 hours : 50% off raw score
> 24 hours to 48 hours : 75% off raw score
> 48 hours : 100% off raw score
This will be strictly enforced. No exception will be made, regardless of the reason for lateness. In order to
ensure that your efforts are reflected in the course grade, please make sure to submit on time.
 Only the submitted file will be graded, even if you claim to have submitted a wrong file, a wrong assignment,
an incomplete assignment, or a corrupted file. It is your responsibility to make sure that the submitted file is
correct and free of problems.

Policy on Plagiarism
Write your own work; do not plagiarize. In simple terms, plagiarism is copying passages and/or ideas from other
sources without referencing those sources. Your paper will be subject to digital plagiarism detection (through
http://www.turnitin.com). Any suspect case will be investigated and reported to the Head of the Division of Social
Science. For a confirmed case, the sanction will range from a reprimand to a failing grade. Also, the Head will
complete a Report on Student Academic Misconduct and forward the report to the School Dean or Director IPO
responsible for the student’s program and the Director of Academic Records and Registration who will keep a
record. If the case is serious, the Head may refer it to the School Dean or Director IPO or the Provost for further
review. Additional sanctions may be imposed. Please read http://tl.ust.hk/integrity. It is your responsibility to
understand what does and does not constitute academic dishonesty.

When referring to other people’s ideas/findings, you must:

1. Properly acknowledge the source (thereby avoid plagiarism) by using APA citation format. You need to
take TWO actions:
a) In-Text Citations*: After a direct quote or paraphrasing† an idea, put the author’s(‘s) name(s) and the year
of publication in one of the following formats:
 A recent study shows that “stress affects our immune system” (Chan, 2014).
 It is important that we manage our stress because stress has been shown to impact our immune system
(Chan, 2014).
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  Chan (2014) demonstrated that stress exercised tremendous impact on our immune system.

*In-text citations are within the content of your paper and will be counted toward the word count
†
Paraphrasing is to use your own words when referring to an idea or findings. Changing a few words but
keeping the sentence structure is still considered as plagiarism. If you must keep a sentence intact, use
direct quote with quotation marks.

b) End-of-Paper References: For each in-text citation you have used in the content of your paper, you should
have a matching end-of-paper reference at the end of the paper. Citations and references should come in
pairs. Do not list sources that you have only read but did not refer to in the content. The references should
be arranged in alphabetical order based on the last name of the first author (see examples below). End-of-
paper references are not counted toward the word limit.

A couple examples of proper reference style for a journal article:

Cava, M. J., Buelga, S., Carrascosa, L., & Ortega-Barón, J. (2020). Relations among romantic myths,
offline dating violence victimization and cyber dating violence victimization in
adolescents. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(5), 1551.
Garbinsky, E. N., Gladstone, J. J., Nikolova, H., & Olson, J. G. (2020). Love, Lies, and Money: Financial
Infidelity in Romantic Relationships. Journal of Consumer Research, 47(1), 1-24.

Accordingly, the in-text citations would be, “(Cava, Buelga, Carrascosa, and Ortega-Barón, 2020)” and
“(Garbinsky, Gladstone, Nikolova, and Olson, 2020)” respectively. Be sure to use the last name of the
authors; do not use their first names.

For more details, refer to the online citation resource called “Online Writing Lab” (OWL) from Purdue
University (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/1/). It provides a detailed APA format and
style guide. Our library also provides a short video tutorial and citation resources
(http://libguides.ust.hk/c.php?g=207918&p=1372827). We encourage you to consult these websites when
you have citation questions. If you are still uncertain, let us know and we will help you!

2. Paraphrase (i.e., write in your own words) and do not copy full sentences or parts of sentences from
the source – copying the entire or a part of a sentence would still be plagiarism even if you properly
acknowledge the source. If you find that you really need to use the original text, be sure to put in quotation
marks to indicate that it is the original text. Quotation marks should be used sparingly. It is your
responsibility as a scholar-in-training to cite the ideas and the work of others correctly.

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