I need a research topic about psychology , plz help!?

Question

Rule:
I cant use internet as a resource.

The paper must be 5 full pages of text.

It should be an explanatory paper. (not to argue a point, but to explain something to the reader from various source)

No personal opinion in the paper.

This is kind of hard to me. I wanted to write something about psychological illnesses. however, if the topic is "schizophrenia", it would be too board.

Please give me some insights =P
P.S. I need a thesis too!! =(

Answer 1

sounds tough. sounds like you are writing a section of a text book...why don't you explain one concept in psychology looking at it from different theoretical perspectives... Run it by the prof first but you might for example try to explain what the cause of schizophrenia is seen as by different theoretical approaches....Although I could be way off..sounds like a boring way to write a paper. mind if I ask what school its for and who your prof is so I can read up on the guy at rate my prof.com

Answer 2

You can still use psychological disorders, and it shouldn't be any harder than any other topic you would choose. There are so many to choose from you don't have to just go with schizophrenia; there are so many personality dissorders that you may even have fun researching! Here's a few off the top of my head; Narcisistic personality dissorder, schitzotypal PD, Obssesive-compulsive PD, Histrionic PD, Avoidant PD. There are many sexual and mood disorders you can choose from also. Go to your library and delve into an Encyclopedia Britanica or a World Book and a few dictionaries. Since the popularity of the internet has risen we forget where to look for simple text answers. I suggest you choose a disorder that seems interesting to you, research it and begin writing your paper. If you've gotten THIS far in your psyc class don't be discouraged! It only has to be explanatory so that takes half of the pressure off of you. You have 5 pages to EXPLAIN a dissorder; what it is, why they think it occurs; symptoms of it, treatment of it, and rehabilitation and/or living with the disorder. Go for it, you can do it!

Answer 3

I took an abnormal psychology class last semester and I had to write a similar paper. I chose to write on schizoaffective disorder. It is basically a combination of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It's not near as broad as general schizophrenia but it involves much of the same material. If you get stumped on sources, you can always resort to symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar. DSM-IV-TR is the best source, there is a lot of information in there if you want a general overview of the disorder as far as just symptoms and such. If you are interested, you can contact me and I can give you my reference list. Good luck!

Answer 4

Kay Redfield Jamison wrote a very interesting book called Touched With Fire about the correlation between great creativity and manic depressiveness. Jamison is bipolar, herself, and is also a psychiatrist. So, I would recommend that book to you. I first read ABOUT that book in a Psychology Today journal... so there's an academic journal and a book recommendation for ya.

Here's a little bio blurb about Jamison: http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/nightfallsfast/jamison.html

Here is a little blurb about the book: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-068483183x-19

Good luck!

Answer 5

The single best topic that you could focus on would be the sexual abuse of children. There are SO MANY mental health consumers whom were sexually abused as children, many of whom end up in prison.

If that doesn't apply to your course, another alternative would be to measure the advantages and disadvantages of talk therapy versus psychiatric meds.

Answer 6

Go through psychology journals and books. You should get ideas from there.

It all depends on what kind of psychology you're interested in. I was personally interested in social psychology. so looked in soc psy journals and books. I worked on self-esteem, locus of control among athletic and non-athletic grade schoolers.

Answer 7

how about hypnosis use for addiction recovery? or subliminal messages in tv, radio, movies. there was a very interesting volume of Time magazine a few weeks ago about the brain, you might want to check it out, www.time.com

Answer 8

You are trying to use the internet as a resource.
Go somewhere else besides near your computer and brainstorm.
Go find a real live person or group and study them silly.

Good luck.

Answer 9

why does Hawaii have the highest rate of bi-polar individuals ?! expose the greedy Ph D's > the islands are just trying to bring in federal $$$$$.

Answer 10

I would suggest writing about the history of psychology. There's so much history. IM me and I can send you my lecture notes.