Research Assignments Complete ONE of the following. Submit on January 18th. Use APA format. Go to Owl Purdue & Citation Machine to familiarize yourself with this documenting format. Be critical of the sources you find: no wiki, no “free- for-all-googling”. Try to find respectable, relevant research. (Google Scholar can help) Download the sample APA paper on Owl Purdue and use it as a model * this is not an option; I will not accept another format*

Guidelines Use 3-5 sources. Your paper should be a combination of the information you find in these sources & your own observations and insight. Information from the sources should be mostly paraphrased (from the original), but you will be expected to use between 2 and 5 direct quotes, as well. Length: 1) cover page, 2) abstract, 3) 4-6 pages (double spaced, 12 font) of content (use subheadings), 4) reference page

Fake Psychological Illness Movies like “One Flew OVer the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Primal Fear” have main characters who fake psychological illness to avoid legal problems. Explore the incidence of defendants who use the insanity plea and how many win “not guilty by reason of insanity” judgments. What is the legal definition of insanity? Do a significant number of defendants try to use insanity as a defence? Are there documented cases of people who successfully faked insanity? Describe any of those cases or hypothesize why there haven’t been many of these cases.

Famous People and Mental Illness Research a historical figure who did or is believed to have battle mental illness. What was their illness? How did it affect their life? Does the illness still exist today? What is its prevalence? You could choose: Abraham Lincoln, Vincent Van Gogh, King George III of England, Rosemary Kennedy, Sylvia Plath

Dissociative Amnesia A famous case of dissociative amnesia concerns the daughter of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. In 1920, people believed that an amnesiac woman named Anna Anderson was Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the tsar. Research the Romanov family and the conflicting evidence surrounding Anna Anderson. What is dissociative amnesia? Why did Anna arouse suspicions concerning her identity? What evidence supports Anna’s claims? What evidence disputes them? What means can researchers use to verify claims like Anna’s?

Television Violence Watch different television shows to see how violence is depicted in each. You could watch a news broadcast, a sitcom, a police drama, a medical drama and a nonspecific drama. Define act of violence How many acts of violence occur overall? How many occurred in each show? Does one type of program depict more violence than another? Why or why not? What was different about the violence depicted on the different types of shows? Would you feel comfortable letting children watch the acts you saw? Why or why not? What kinds of effects can violence in television have on behavior?