Instructions
Students will select either a ‘bad’ habit or behavior they personally currently engage in and want to either eliminate or reduce or a ‘good’ habit to begin or increase.
Content and grading:
(1) The student will provide a short introduction on the nature and problem of addiction (2.5 points)
(2) The student will explain the psychogenesis (ie. cause, origin, how it started and developed) of this habit (it can be a substance consumption problem) or behavior (it can excessive use of social media, games, etc.) using concepts presented in class. (7.5 points)
(3) The student will then develop a plan for altering that behavior and will write about the process, relating it back to issues discussed in class regarding changing addictive behaviors. (7.5 points)
(4) Finally, the student will wrap up the paper with a brief conclusion. (2.5 points)
Other requirements
Write using adequate grammar and correct spelling. A portion of your grade depends on these two elements.
I do not require a bibliography. However, if you quote a source do so as follows:
a) it must be in quotation marks (ie. “….”), and
b) the quote must be followed by the name of the author and year of publication of the document in parenthesis – ie. (Parvis, 1999). For a source with more than one author, use the following format: (Parvis et al, 1999).
Submission, late submission, plagiarism
The Term Paper must be submitted no later than July 20th 23h59m via Moodle Turnitin. No hard copy will be accepted due to pandemic restrictions. It can be submitted as a file (Word format) or you can use the copy and paste function to enter your text into the platform.
Note that 10% must be taken off your paper grade for every day your paper is late, including weekends. Exceptions can be made providing there is adequate documentation, i.e. a valid doctor’s note.
*Always remember the ‘5-word rule’: 5 or more words in a row in any sentence in your paper which are IDENTICAL to a sentence from any other source (textbook, online article, another student’s paper, etc.), is considered plagiarism.
Good Afternoon Dr.Viaud,
… I just have a few questions about the final paper and I apologize for the trouble.
(1) Firstly, I was wondering if we only need to refer to the class material for section 2 (cause, origin, how it started and developed) and section 3 (develop a plan for alter that behaviour)? For instance, for section 1 and section 4, can I write my opinion and then for section 3 and 4 I will refer to the notes?
More or less.
You can definitely write more your opinion in sections 1 and 4 compared to sections 2/3. However, this does not mean that you write in sections 1 and 4 elements which have no scientific basis, are totally subjective, unsupported, etc.
(2) For section 2 and 3 you would like us to incorporate concepts that were presented in class to explain the psychogenesis and to develop our plan. Therefore, which chapters do you recommend that will help us the most to complete this? Also, for these two sections, am I allowed to use sources apart from the textbook and lectures? This would be with proper citations of course.
Chapters 1, 16 and 17 are especially useful. Anything discussing or giving examples of applications of the bio-psycho-social model can useful be very useful.
As for the other chapters, they would apply if the behavior chosen does involve a substance. Tobacco, caffeine, cannabis abuse are all likely examples of possible behaviors people may pick.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you
