Psychology
of Gender:
Final
Exam-Paper & Presentation
Psychology
342 -- Fall 1999 -- Dordt College --
Dr. Lantinga
Purpose
Throughout this semester
you will have done a great deal of reading, thinking, and talking about
various issues regarding gender. The purpose of the final exam-paper
is to demonstrate your ability to take what you've learned and apply it
to some question regarding gender that was not covered in this course.
Exam-Paper
Format
Your final exam-paper involves raising a question,
proposing ways that 3 different perspectives would likely answer that question,
showing support for those perspectives, and drawing a final conclusion.
I strongly suggest getting started on this paper (at least the first
step) well in advance of the due date.
-
Consider any
question related to the psychology of gender that is not directly addressed
in the class. You might look through your journals for question ideas.
For example:
-
Why do men
sexually harass women more than women harass men?
-
Why are people
often resistant to using gender-neutral language?
-
Why are there
negative social consequences for people who resist traditional gender roles?
-
How might
the increased media portrayal of rape influence perceptions of "normal"
sexuality?
-
Why are there
so few women leaders?
-
Compare and
contrast how three different theoretical approaches would answer your proposed
question. For example: why are there so few women leaders?
-
sociobiology:
lack of testosterone in women, too much hormonal variation with the menstrual
period makes women undependable emotionally and intellectually
-
social
psychology: social structures and norms prevent women from becoming
leaders without suffering prohibitively negative social consequences
-
radical
feminism: men have power in our society and will not allow women to
usurp their position
-
Use research
evidence to support your arguments (based on the assigned readings and
research articles from outside of class, if you wish).
-
Take a position
on the question -- which perspective (or combination) provides the best
answer?
-
Draw some
conclusions. For example, what are the implications of your answer
for different groups of people? For different cultures?
Paper
Evaluation Criteria
The
exam-paper will be graded on a 100-point scale. Key criteria include:
-
depth of insight
into the question and the three perspectives
-
ability to
critically evaluate the various perspectives regarding this question
-
organization
and clarity of the arguments
-
empirical
support for the arguments
-
solid conclusions
and credible implications regarding the question
-
professional
writing style and format considerations (e.g., typed, page length, APA
style, few grammatical or structural problems)
Class
Presentation
To give you an opportunity to
refine your ideas, you will give a 8-10-minute presentation of your final
exam-paper in class during the last week of the semester. Your peers
and the instructor will then have a chance to ask you questions or help
you to clarify your ideas. Your presentation will not involve
reading what you've written so far but should be an outline of your question,
of how each perspective would address the question and what support they
would give, and your conclusions. You may use notes, but you should
not read your paper.
Your
presentation will not be graded, but the feedback you receive will be invaluable
for making improvements on your final exam-paper before you turn it in
(remember: your paper is worth 25% of your course grade). Therefore,
the more you have thought about and prepared your material before giving
your presentation, the more helpful the feedback will be.
this page last revised August 17, 1999
Psych of Gender home page