PSY4007 Introduction to Studying Psychology Assignment Brief 2026 | Arden University

PSY4007Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme, you are required to submit a portfolio assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the module, you should be able to:

• Describe and discuss historical, ethical, and wider issues within psychology.
• Explain core theoretical perspectives in psychology.
• Evidence and reflect upon engagement with development opportunities for skills for success.
• Demonstrate a developing academic skillset, including sourcing and communicating evidence.

Graduate Attributes

Contextually innovative: applying skills of critical, creative and evidenced based analysisand/or personal reflection to current real-world situations and future challenges.

Through completing this assessment, you should have enhanced key professional development skills, including independent learning, developing your own working and learning strategies, time management, information seeking, understanding andawareness of limitations of theoretical perspectives, and the importance of reflection.

Guidance

Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, themodule name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list (see referencing section for more information). You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.

You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.

Maximum word count: 2,500 words

Please refer to the full word count policy, which can be found in the Student Policies section here: Arden University | Regulatory Framework

Please note the following:

Students are required to indicate the exact word count on the title page of the assessment.

The word count includes everything in the main body of the assessment (including in-text citations and references). The word count excludes numerical data in tables, figures, diagrams, footnotes, reference list and appendices. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count.

Please note that exceeding the word count by over 10% will result in a 10-percentage point deduction.

Assignment Task

There are FOUR parts to this assignment – you should answer all parts.

Part 1: Psychological Perspectives (750 words) LO2

Discuss which perspectives in psychology you believe are most useful for explaining human behaviour. Choose two perspectives from the psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive, developmental, social, humanistic, biological, evolutionary, and individual differences. Provide examples and evidence to support your arguments, considering the strengths and limitations of each perspective.

Part 2: Sourcing and Communicating Psychological Evidence (500 words) LO4

STEP 1: Find a recent (within the last 10 years) peer-reviewed journal article about a psychological topic of your choice.

STEP 2: Write a summary of the article, including the following key sections:

• introduction (including the research question or objective),
• methodology (briefly describing the research design and methods),
• results (summarising the key findings),
• discussion (highlighting the implications and significance of the findings), and
• conclusion (providing a summary of the main points and potential future directions).

STEP3: Provide a reference that follows either APA or AU Harvard referencing format(select the formatting appropriate to your programme of study – Referencing Guide at the bottom of this brief).

STEP 4: Identify where and how you found this source, and whether the source is appropriate to use in academic work and provide an explanation of why.

Part 3: Wider Issues in Psychology (750 words) LO1

Explore how historical events and contexts have influenced the development of ethical guidelines and practices in psychological research. Provide an example of a significant historical study or event that raised ethical concerns and discuss its impact on shaping ethical standards in psychology.

Part 4: Reflection on Skills for Success (500 words) LO3

Use one of the reflective models you have learned about in the module (Gibbs, Driscoll) to write a reflection about your current and future development in your own academic skillset or skills for success. To help you do this, engage with some tools and resources to explore your academic and/or professional development. For example, this could be a meeting with a Professional Development Coach or someone from the Career team. You could attend an Academic Skills workshop (or watch the recording afterwards) or engage with the Arden Futures platform. You could also engage with the English Language Hub or complete some of the Psychology Employability Portfolio (PEP). Other relevant resources that help you to explore your own academic and professional development are acceptable.

NOTE: If you are unable to make an appointment to meet with someone, you can always watch a recording of a skills workshop or professional development session to complete your reflection.

This module is marked using the Arden University Categorical Marking Criteria.

Formative Feedback

You have the opportunity to submit a plan of all tasks (maximum 1000 words), or two tasks of your choice (maximum 500 words each) to receive formative feedback.

The feedback is designed to help you develop areas of your work, and it helps you develop your skills as an independent learner.

If you are a distance learning student, you should submit your work via Turnitin. Please check your iLearn module pages/forum for the formative feedback deadline and submission link.

If you are a blended learning student, your tutor will give you a deadline for formative feedback and further details. If you have a confirmed extension to your summative(final submission) deadline, please contact your lecturer for information on extensions to the formative feedback deadline.

Formative feedback will not be given to work submitted after the published date or the date specified by your tutor (if a blended learning student).

Submission Guidance

Assignments submitted late will not be accepted and will be marked as a 0% fail.

Your assessment can be submitted as a single Word (MS Word) or PDF file, or as multiple files.

If you choose to submit multiple files, you must name each document as the question/part you are answering, along with your student number, i.e., Q1 Section ASTUXXXX. If you wish to overwrite your submission or one of your submissions, you must ensure that your new submission is named the same as the previous one for the system to overwrite it.

You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments that show evidence of academic unfair practice. (See the Student Handbook, which is available on the A-Z key information on iLearn.)

Assessment Criteria (Learning Objectives Covered-all)