9/24/20

The Psychology of Communication

Essay Example and Info

This image will be replaced with something course specific.

Remember!

All the information you need for your essay can be found in the Essay
Handout. This is your ‘one stop shop’ for all essay related information.

If you have questions after carefully reading the handout and these slides,
email your tutor and they can provide assistance.

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The Essay
• Essay Due:
• 7th October 2PM
• Submit via link on learn.uq.edu.au
• 2000 words (+/- 10% OK)
• Write word count on title page
• Title Page should include
• Title
• Your Name and Student Number
• Your Tutor’s Name and Tutorial
• Word Count

Note: Fi has just put some old ads on these

slides for visual interest. Not related to the
content.

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The Essay
• Format and Referencing
• APA 7th
• Who is familiar with APA 7th?
• All the information you need is found via the
library!
• Google “UQ APA” and it is your first link!
• https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing
/apa7

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— DO NOT DO IT!
— Seriously.
— Turnitin will detect it.
— Very serious academic offence.
¡ When you are studying, never copy and paste without noting where you copy from.
¡ Put it into your own words – also, if you do that it will look like you actually understand what you’re writing!
¡ Be very careful studying with friends/emailing drafts.
BUT… reordering ideas in your own words = fine!
• Using a lot of the same words = fine!
• Using common terms or phrases = fine!
• We look at any originality report sensibly. For example, we may see that there is 33% overlap in an assignment with
other sources, but in no way does it indicate plagiarism
• What could it be?
• Reference list.

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The School of Psychology does not guarantee a trouble-free semester of study. The best
preparation for unexpected illnesses and other disruptive events is to start your
assignments early in the semester. Extensions are not a remedy for students experiencing
more significant interruptions to study.

Please refer to Section 5.3 of your course profile for specific instructions on applying for
extensions or deferred examinations/quizzes. If applying through mysinet for a deferred
examination (either mid-semester or end of semester) you must meet the deferred
examination eligibility criteria and timelines available at https://my.uq.edu.au/information-
and-services/manage-my-program/exams-and-assessment/deferring-exam

Don’t put things off –get started!

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When should I start my essay?

NOW!
• About to go into mid-semester break – perfect time
Fi says:
• “There is no muse of assignment writing – do not wait until you “really feel like it”. Instead,
make a list of what you are going to do (and maybe even a timeline) and get going!
• Look to your lecture notes (or rewatch those gems!) for ideas about what aspects of
communication you think you need to work on, as well as what theories/strategies might be
useful to you in coming up with evidence based suggestions about how you could work on
it. In addition, it is a great idea to get going on a literature search to see what the state of
play is for the topic you have chosen (use Google Scholar, the UQ Library, PsycInfo). You
can also go through the references on the following page and see if any are relevant to
your chosen topic.”

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So how could you go about doing this?

Have you worked out what your essay topic will be?
If not, take a second to think about it
• An area of communication you feel you would like
to/need to improve on
Given this, what could your introduction look like?
Your introduction lays the groundwork for the whole
essay
Ideally it tells the reader what the core problem is,
and what you are going to be arguing, and in what
order.

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Example Good and Clear Introduction (entirely made up, with mainly made up references)

Criticism is a fundamental part of life; we will be criticised by our parents, our friends, our partner, our employers, and
our workmates. In general, the literature suggests that we find criticism painful, and difficult to hear (Barlow, Fulcher, &
Demichelis, 2020). Certain types of people, however, find criticism harder to take than others. Rejection sensitivity
reflects a tendency to perceive, expect, and overreact to rejection (Downey & Feldman, 1996). In general, people high in
rejection sensitivity have been found to interpret even small or constructive criticisms as rejection, and respond poorly to
them (Hannan & Fisher, 2018). In this essay I will make the case that I am particularly prone to rejection sensitivity.
Below I briefly describe rejection sensitivity, and why it is a problem, before suggesting two evidence based solutions
that might help to reduce my rejection sensitivity. First, I will draw on the mindfulness literature to argue that non-
judgemental observation of thoughts and feelings may reduce rejection sensitivity (e.g., Peters, Eisenlohn-Moul, &
Smart, 2016). I will then turn to the literature on cognitive behavioural therapy to suggest that restructuring my thoughts
around rejection could reduce my sensitivity to it (Varley & Fitzsimmons, 2019).

Word Count = 196

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The body of the essay – Identifying the problem

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In this section I would:
• Elaborate on why criticism is important
• Adaptive, allows us to change
• Valuable learning tool
• Describe what rejection sensitivity is
• Detail original study, and briefly outline how rejection
sensitivity is conceptualised, measured, or understood
(or all)
• Describe the literature that explains why rejection sensitivity is
a problem
• Briefly summarize bad things it is linked to
• Focus heavily on work showing the link between rejection
sensitivity and criticism (core argument in this essay)
• Describe studies, and explain how rejection
sensitivity could interrupt ability to learn and grow
from criticism
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• This paper was real

• Rejection sensitivity
linked to judgemental
mindset
• How do we use this
to make an
argument?
• First, read the paper
carefully
• Highlight relevant
sections
• Then summarise

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Read carefully for relevant information!

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• I would first clearly make the theoretical

argument that rejection sensitivity may be
associated with judgemental thinking
• I would clearly draw on and reference
this paper and the ideas we have just
seen
• I would then move on to looking at the
data, and what I needed to cover in the
essay
• How did the authors test their
hypotheses? What do you need to
describe for your essay?

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• Results revealed that people who were especially

rejection sensitive also reported more negative affect
(feeling bad and sad).
• But less so if not judgemental
• More so if judgemental
• This is complex stuff – this level not needed!
• Here for interest

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How did the authors test their hypotheses? What do you need to describe for your essay?
• Peters et al. (2016) recruited 451 psychology undergraduate students to take part in a correlational study. The
then measured the extent to which these participants were rejection sensitive (e.g., were anxious about being
rejected, and anticipated rejection; Downey & Feldman, 1996), as well as several facets of dispositional
mindfulness. Relevant to this essay, they measured non-judging of inner experiences, a construct that tapped into
how much people negatively judge themselves. An example item was: “I disapprove of myself when I have
irrational ideas” (reverse scored). The results revealed that as predicted, people who were more judgemental of
their inner experiences were also much more likely to be rejection sensitive (r=-.40***). Further to this, the results
suggested that rejection sensitivity was linked to feeling more negative affect, but this relationship was weaker for
people who were non-judgemental. The results of this study thus suggest that becoming less judgemental may
reduce rejection sensitivity, and further, that a non-judgemental attitude towards inner experiences may protect
people from some of rejection sensitivity’s harmful effects. Although the study only looked at one specific
population (university students), and is only correlational, it drew on a large sample, and investigated novel ideas,
and thus is informative.
• I would then move on to discuss mindfulness, and what steps I could take to practice or increase non-judgemental
observation of my inner experiences (with reference to the literature), and how this might help me reduce my
rejection sensitivity.

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