How to write a psychology essay
Writing a psychology essay is similar to writing any other essay requiring planning, intensive research, understanding the topic, and research analysis before beginning to write the essay.
It is different from other essays in the sense that, a psychology essay questions about your understanding on a situation or reaction. For example, a psychology essay may question your understanding on the role that genetics play in collaboration with various environmental issues, which relate to schizophrenia’s two hit theory. The essay may specifically require you to relate your discussion on neurological antecedents, which are related to schizophrenia.
In any psychology essay, an individual first conducts research on the topic or question, and outlines the essay before proceeding to write the final essay. When the essay is complete, the following step involves reviewing the essay, and proofreading it. This guide will discuss how psychology essays differ from other types of essays, and provide a guide on how to write them. It is advisable that the opening paragraph captures the attention of your reader, and directs them to the topic of your essay. A good way to do this is by using facts, and statistics relating to the discussion of the essay.
Planning how to write a psychology essay
It is important to plan your essay carefully before starting it. Avoid looking at the key words and topic in a hurry, and begin writing the essay without planning. Suppose you are required to write an essay about neurological antecedents, which is related to schizophrenia, do not just write about antecedents and schizophrenia because the essay will not be focused on the main assignment. Planning gives you a good opportunity to organize yourself how you will attack the essay topic, the time you need to allocate for research, and what you need to allocate for writing the essay.
Research and analysis
Learning how to write a psychology essay involves a lot of research and analysis. The best place to start a topic research is in a University library with an academic database. Many university libraries provide access to various psychology databases, such as PSYCInfo and PSYCHNET Using these libraries based databases over the internet can provide you with relevant information through academic websites like http://www.allpsych.com, and http://scholar.google.com. These websites are both professional journals , and publish peer reviewed psychological articles. The internet provides an excellent place to conduct research by accessing the various professional association sites, which contain links to different sites containing related information.
In the writing stage, indicating references is easier when you highlight the phrases from a journal article. It is easier to remember the information you have highlighted when organizing the essay. This makes the information available including the reference.
Outlining the essay
Prolific writers can decide to avoid this part. An outline preparation is important in college essays because it offers a guide in writing the essay, and assists in organizing the essay. Preparing an outline helps you remain focused on the topic. Preparing an outline ensures that every important area of the essay is discussed and relevant information is used to support the arguments presented. An outline well prepared makes the work easy for you in writing the rest of the article by filling additional details from the reference on the various supporting points outlined.
Writing the essay
An essay’s flow is as important as its outline, which assists you to write the essay fast. The following essay areas may be used using or without subheadings.
I. Introduction
It is characterized by information, which captures the attention of a reader using figures, facts, and describes the background of the problem including the essay’s objective. For example, in a study to identify depression in various adoptive parents, signs and symptoms are similar to those for post-partum depression in mothers who have given birth although there is an insufficient record about this issue.
II. Research question
A research question should be identified after stating the topic area. A research essay or literature essay requires only the research questions. In a quantitative essay, a hypothesis on the essay is stated.
III. Literature review
This section of your psychology essay is intended to offer an insight into the research question using evidence presented in the various scholarly literatures. In the essay, your presentation is required to be followed by literature review in a critical analysis format.
IV. Conclusion
This section should summarize everything discussed in the essay, and to ensure that the reader does not have any questions, which need clarification. A good conclusion does not leave the reader seeking more information from the essay. Effective conclusions draw a reader’s attention using words like, “In conclusion…” which direct the reader to the concluding remarks.
Many psychology essays use the APA format. Another format commonly used is the Harvard style. It is important to take note of the paper formatting instructions because instructors deduct points when the correct paper format is not followed.
After you complete writing the essay, it is important that you proofread it to correct spellings, and grammar mistakes in the essay. Use an updated grammar and spell check software to check for all grammatical mistakes.
We hope you gained a lot from reading our free ‘how to write a psychology essay’ guide.