APA TOPSS Scholars Essay Competition

The APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) is pleased to announce the topic for the 2010 APA TOPSS Scholars Essay Competition. There will be four winners, each of whom will receive a $250 award. Submissions must be submitted by March 1, 2010.

Human behavior is a leading cause of the current environmental crisis, and this is a critical concern for society. One of the goals of psychology is to address problems faced by human beings and to improve the quality of life for all. This essay competition requires you to describe a community service project that could be carried out in your local community to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior. You are asked to develop a statement on how human behavior affects a specific environmental issue and describe a project that you and your classmates could carry out in the local community. You should use THREE of the principles of learning theory listed in Section II to encourage behavior change in your community, and use research findings on these principles to support your plan.

Directions:
Submit an essay of 3,000 words or less that addresses each of the three sections below. Use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association to write your paper.

Section I: Describe a local service project that addresses an environmental issue

As an introduction, describe the impact human behavior has had on the environment, citing at least 3 peer-reviewed journal articles*. You are then asked to describe an environmental concern in your community, addressing how human behavior contributes to this problem. Next, you are asked to describe a project that you and a group of students could work on that would encourage positive behavior change within the community to address this problem. The project should be directed toward a single environmental issue and should include concepts based in learning theory to influence public opinion. Use THREE out of the five principles of learning theory listed in Section II to create your project.

*For a starting point, see suggested readings at http://www.apa.org/science/GC-ClimateChange-small.pdf.

Section II: Applying Principles of Learning Theory

Select three out of the five principles of learning theory listed below, describe them, and explain how each principle or technique could be used in your project.

• Reinforcement
• Schedules of reinforcement
• Shaping
• Observational learning
• Generalization

Your project should apply THREE of these principles, and you should use research findings on these principles and techniques to justify their use in your project. To do this, find at least one research study (per topic) that supports each principle and technique in your project and summarize the findings of each study.

Section III: Conclusion

Discuss the value of using the correct principles of learning theory to develop a project to encourage environmental change (i.e., when is it good and when might it be potentially harmful to use these principles). Then, include a discussion on the long term impact of implementing your project’s suggestions. Finally, briefly describe what you have learned about human behavior and its impact on the environment from writing this essay. Summarize this conclusion in 300 words or less.

Rules

Eligibility
Entrants must be high school students.
Entrants must have been enrolled or be presently enrolled in a high school psychology course.

The Paper
Papers must be no more than 3,000 words in length. Papers exceeding this length will be disqualified.
Papers must be in APA style.
Papers must include an abstract, not to exceed 120 words.
Students should be aware that essays will be screened for originality.

The Procedure
No more than TEN papers per school may be submitted.

All entries must include a cover page with the following information (all required):

• Student's name
• Student's year in school (e.g., junior, senior)
• Name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of current or past psychology teacher
• Student's school name, address, phone number, home address, and e-mail address

Psychology faculty at the college and high school level will serve as judges.

The paper must be submitted online by March 1, 2010.

Rubric (Out of 100 points)

Section I: Describe a local service project that addresses an environmental issue (50 points)
A good answer will:

• Include an introduction describing the impact human behavior has had on the environment that cites at least three sources (10 points)
• describe a project that would encourage positive behavior change regarding an environmental issue (10 points)
• be comprehensive and address an environmental issue (15 points)
• include three concepts based on using learning theory to influence public opinion presented in Section II (15 points)

Section II: Applying Principles of Learning Theory (30 points)
A good answer will:

• include a description of three principles or techniques of learning theory and an explanation about how each of these concepts could be used in your project (15 points)
• include a summary of at least one research study that supports each of the principles or techniques used in your project. (15 points)

Section III: Conclusion (20 points)
A good answer will:

• include a brief discussion regarding the value of using learning theory to change behavior (5 points)
• include a discussion on the long term impact of implementing your project’s suggestions (5 points)
• briefly describe what you have learned about human behavior and its impact on the environment from writing this essay (5 points)
• be no longer than 300 words (5 points)

Questions? Contact Emily Leary via email or phone at (202) 572-3013.