Understand the Assignment in Psychology Course

NARRATOR:Listen to a conversation between a student and his psychology professor

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Good afternoon, Alex, can I help you with something?

MALE STUDENT:Well, I want to talk with you about the research project you assigned today.I um... I hope you could clarify a few things for me.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:I'll certainly try.

MALE STUDENT:Ok, all we have to do is do two observations and take notes on them, right?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:[Hesitant—assignment involves more than this] That’s a start —but you need to do some research, too.Then you will write a paper that is not so much about the observations, but a synthesis of what you have observed and read.

MALE STUDENT:[Doesn’t quite understand] OK…and what about the children I am supposed to observe?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Not ‘children’—a single child, observed twice.

MALE STUDENT:[With recognition] Oh! OK. So I should choose a child—with a permission of a child's parent, of course—and then observe that child a couple of times and take good notes, then?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Actually, after your first observation, you’ll go back and look through your textbook or go to the library and find a few sources concerning the stage of development this particular child is in.And then with that knowledge, you will make a second observation of the same child to see if these expected developmental behaviors are exhibited.

MALE STUDENT:Can you give me an example?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Well, um, if you observed a 4 year-old child, for example, my daughter is 4 years old; you might read up on Piaget's stages of cognitive development we covered those in class.

MALE STUDENT:Uh-huh...

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Uh, most likely, what stage would a child of that age be in?

MALE STUDENT:Um... the pre-operational stage?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Exactly, if that's the case, her languages use would be maturing and her memory and imagination would be developed [interrupted]

MALE STUDENT:So she might play pretend like she can pretend when driving her toy car across a couch that the couch is actually a bridge or something.FEMALE PROFESSOR:That is right. In addition, her thinking would be primarily egocentric.MALE STUDENT:So she would be thinking mostly about herself and her own needs, and might not be able to see things from anyone else's perspective.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:[Affırmative] En hums...

MALE STUDENT:But…what if she doesn’t? I mean, what if she doesn't demonstrate those behaviors?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:That's fine. You'll note that in your paper.See, your paper should compare what is expected of children at certain stages of development with what you actually observed.

MALE STUDENT:Ok, I have one more question now.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:And what's that?

MALE STUDENT:Where can I find a child to observe?

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Er, I’d suggest you contact the education department secretary.She has a list of contacts at various schools and with certain families who are somehow connected to the university.Sometimes they are willing to help out students with projects like yours.

MALE STUDENT:Ok, I'll stop by the education department office this afternoon.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:And if you have any trouble or any more questions, feel free to come by during my office hours.