The detail of your description of the individual’s antisocial acts and a description of this person’s childhood experiences.
Learning Goal: I’m working on a psychology writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
Concept: You are assigned a term paper that is essentially a psychological profile of a known
offender. As stated in the syllabus, your paper is an attempt to explain the antisocial and criminal
behavior of someone about whom you have a considerable amount of biographical information.
Your explanation will utilize two psychological theories which will inform a set of
recommendations for rehabilitation. Your recommendations must take into account the risk
posed by this individual.
Grading: The paper will be graded based on several characteristics:
1. The detail of your description of the individual’s antisocial acts and a description of
this person’s childhood experiences.
2. The thoroughness with which you can explain the development and maintenance of
these antisocial acts using two of the following broad psychological theories: 1.
behavioral/social learning, 2. cognitive, 3.psychodynamic. The theories can be
structured as a “compare and contrast” paper in that you propose explanations of the
development and maintenance of antisocial behavior from opposing points of view,
and ultimately resolve these by stating, and justifying, your preferred theory. Your
paper can also be structured as an integrative explanation of the behavior using two
theories which complement each other. A good way to begin your discussion of the
theories used in your paper is to introduce them with a brief description of the theory
itself, before applying it to your case. This can also be a good opportunity to utilize
references.
Please note that throughout your textbook several criminological theories such as
differential association theory, general theory of crime, and general strain theory are
discussed. These fall under behavioral/social learning theories and thus you cannot
select two of these theories for your paper.
3. A set of recommendations about the best way to rehabilitate or manage this
individual, identifying whether it should be in an institutional or community setting.
Your recommendations must take into account the risk posed by the individual.
Recommendations should be consistent with the theories applied to the case you have
chosen. You should both state and briefly justify your perception of the individual’s
level of risk to society.
4. Adherence to standard, grammatically-correct English, APA citation style and
formatting requirements stated below.
Format: 10-12 pages excluding title and references; 12 point font, Times New Roman, 1 inch
margins, double line spacing, at least 7 references (in total), APA style citation. At least 4 of
your references should be empirical, peer-reviewed, academic journal article references which
relate to the theories you apply, the level of risk you perceive, and/or to treatment
recommendations. The word empirical here indicates that the article that you cite should be a
study in which quantitative data was collected and presented in the article. This is different from
a conceptual paper or case study. At least 2 references should be biographical. Website
references can only be used for your biographical sources, not your empirical journal references.
Website references must have a citable author. You are not allowed to use Wikipedia as a source.
Feel free to structure your paper any way you prefer. You can use a term paper format with
sections corresponding to numbers 1-3 above. Alternatively, you could use a psychological
report format listing biographical information, antisocial behavior, theoretical discussion,
diagnostic impressions, risk and recommendations.
Possible Sources of Biographical Information: Documentaries, books, newspaper articles, court
proceeding transcripts etc.
Answer preview for The detail of your description of the individual’s antisocial acts and a description of this person’s childhood experiences.
2965 Words