Multicultural Psychology Interview

Multicultural Psychology Interview

Interview Project Guidelines

Description:

For this project, you will choose a topic relevant to multicultural psychology (e.g., immigration/acculturation, cultural identity development, experiences with racism/prejudice, interracial dating). Then, you will conduct at least one semi-structured interview on the topic with someone of another cultural background (e.g., different ethnic background, generational status, socioeconomic status, sexual identity). For ethical/safety purposes, you may not interview minors and you may not choose topics on personal experiences with illegal activities encompassing illegal drug use, domestic violence, and child abuse. Additionally, please make sure that you will be able to apply multicultural concepts to your project, as you should be demonstrating knowledge from this class.

To have enough information to analyze, your interview should last at least 40 minutes. If your interview is under 40 minutes, you must conduct another interview session either with a different person with the same set of questions or the same person with new questions. Regardless, the topic must remain the same. Note that your interview must be conducted in-person or via a video or phone call. Email, texting, and instant messaging are NOT okay.

You will summarize your findings from the interview, apply course concepts to understand your findings, relate your findings to scholarly literature, and finally, propose a new study.

In your paper, you must clearly, thoroughly, thoughtfully analyze your findings from the interview through a minimum of three concepts from the course (e.g., different types of intelligence, direct vs. indirect communication, stereotype threat). You may mix-and-match concepts from different chapters. Note that concepts like etic vs emic approach and individualism vs collectivism count for ONE concept not two, as each is necessary to understand the other.

In addition, you will relate your findings to those of three empirical articles. You may not use a book, a theoretical article, or a review article instead. You also may not use an article that is assigned as a class reading. You should briefly summarize the findings of the studies, and then describe how the experiences of the person you interviewed are similar to or different from the findings of these studies, and offer some possible reasons for differences (if applicable).

Finally, you will evaluate the weaknesses/limitations of these studies and propose a future study based on your findings and readings.

To help you with time management and to provide you with feedback, this project will be completed in 3 stages (Interview Project Idea, Interview Project Part 1, and Interview Project Final). As such, an essential part of this project is improving your work through feedback. I expect you to carefully review the feedback that I give you and to incorporate the feedback into the next assignment.

Your Idea (due to Canvas by Tuesday 2/11 at 11:59pm)

Your idea should include:

1) (20 pts)

(a) The topic of your interview – please choose ONE topic.

(b) Why this topic is important. Make sure to use a researcher’s perspective. Consider the importance to society or to the field of psychology rather than listing personal benefits.

2) (20 pts)

(a) Who you are interviewing in terms of their relation to you (i.e., how do you know this person?). Do not include this person’s real name.

(b) How their cultural background differs from yours (remember to mention your own cultural background too)

3) (30 pts) Three open-ended questions you might ask in relation to your topic.

4) (20 pts)

(a) A brief (e.g., 1-2 sentence) summary of one empirical article that you might use for the comparison, and its relation to your chosen topic. The summary should be written in your own words.

(b) Please list the title and authors of the article AND paste either the text from the abstract or a screenshot of the abstract as well (if you use a screenshot, make sure I can read it). An APA-style citation is not required.

5) (10 pts) You will also be graded on whether your idea is appropriate, well-articulated, and easy to understand. Formatting and length does not matter here (you may use bullet points), but please proofread what you submit.

Total: 100 pts

Part 1 (due to Canvas by Tuesday 3/10 at 11:59pm)

Part 1 is designed to bring you closer to completing your final project. This is also an opportunity for me to give you feedback and to make sure you are on the right track. Here, your main focus will be completing and summarizing your interview. You should review your feedback from the Interview Project Idea before proceeding with Part 1.

Final Project (due to Canvas by Friday 4/24 at 11:59pm):

The page requirement, from the Introduction to the Conclusion, is 6-14 pages. There is no page requirement for the remaining sections of the paper. The structure of your paper should be as follows. It is strongly recommended that you use headings for each section:

• Before you proceed on your final paper, carefully go through my comments on your prior drafts, revising your paper to address each comment. You will lose points if you ignore my comments. Make sure that if I point out an issue once, that you fix it throughout the paper.
• Introduction (1+ paragraphs)
  • Introduce your topic
  • Explain the importance of your topic. Make sure to use a researcher’s perspective. Consider the importance to society or to the field of psychology rather than listing personal benefits.
• Summary of interview (2+ pages)
  • Introduce your interviewee(s) and your relation to this person (i.e., how do you know this person?). Do not include this person’s real name.
  • Describe how your interviewee(s) differs from you culturally
  • Describe the setting(s) of the interview(s)
  • Give an overview of the main themes from the interview(s), supporting these themes with quotes from the interview(s)
    • Themes are simply main findings from the interview(s) – you do not need to relate them to course concepts
    • Refrain from imposing your own views and assumptions – do not make any claims that are not substantiated with what they said in the interview(s)
  • Address issues of reflexivity – how might your own assumptions, values, attitudes, or beliefs shape the interview or your interpretation of the interview? What did you do to minimize your own bias?
• Analysis of interview findings through at least 3 course concepts (1+ pages)
  • Analyze your findings from the interview through course concepts, remembering to cite the textbook in correct APA format
  • Remember to describe each concept first!
  • Recommended format: 1 paragraph per course concept = 3 paragraphs total
• Comparison of interview findings to those of at least 3 empirical studies (1.5+ pages)
  • Articles chosen do not need to match up to the 3 course concepts
  • Summarize the objective, method (i.e., sample, design, variables examined), and findings of articles on your topic (suggested length = 3-5 sentences per article)
    • Do not include details about IRB approval, consent procedures, debriefing, statistical tests used, test statistics
  • Compare article findings to findings of your interview
  • Give reasons for any differences between your findings and findings of the studies
    • You do not have to give reasons for similarities – you also do not need to “force” any differences if there aren’t any
    • Tip: Look at methods of the articles (sample characteristics, how the study was conducted, when it was conducted, how constructs were measured) for possible explanations
  • Recommended format: 1 paragraph per study/comparison = 3 paragraphs total
• Conclusion (1+ pages)
  • Summarize and reflect on the most important themes from your paper
  • Critically evaluate limitations/weaknesses of prior research (at least 2 limitations), and if desired, your interview method
  • Propose, describe, and justify a future study based upon your main findings and current gaps in the literature
    • Include details regarding the research question, participants, design (e.g., interviews, observations, experiments, survey study), setting, and hypothesis (if quantitative) or research question (if qualitative)
  • Recommended format: 1 paragraph each for summary/reflection, limitations/weaknesses, and future research=3 paragraphs total
• References page
  • APA style reference page that includes the textbook and your 3 empirical articles, plus any other sources you cited
• List of prepared interview questions
  • Minimum of 10 open-ended questions and non-leading appropriate for your topic. These are the questions that you prepared going into the interview – they may differ slightly from those in your transcript
• Transcript of interview
  • Record the date, setting, and the start and end time of the interview
  • Include a typed transcript of the full interview, including questions and answers (It is recommended that you audio-record your interview)
• Screenshots/text of the abstract of each empirical article cited in the paper (Make sure the text is readable)

Please review the rubric (on the next page)

+Writing Center Bonus – 3 points (3%) – Both Part 1 and the Final Project are eligible

To receive the 3% boost, you must include both:

 1) A snapshot of the Writing Center stamp you receive

2) A snapshot of your notes from the meeting (either hand-written on a hard copy of your paper or recorded through “Track Changes”, “Comments,” or similar word processing functions).

 Simply paste these images at the end of your assignment before you submit it to Canvas.

Late penalties: You will lose 10% of the total grade for each day or fraction of a day that your project is late. For example, if your project submission is 5 minutes late, you will lose 10 pts (10% of 100 pts).

Formatting requirements:

Your paper must be in standard APA format, meaning 1-inch margins, size 12 Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and no spaces between paragraphs. Headings do not count towards the page requirement. You do not need a title page or a header.

Writing:

Your project will be evaluated on the quality of writing, so please make sure to use proper grammar and spelling, and to proofread!

Citations:

You must cite the any source you reference, including the text book, in correct APA format (both in-text and in the style of a References list). Please refer to the “APA Style Handout” uploaded on the course website for how to correctly format your references. Also remember not to use more than 3 properly cited direct quotes from external sources in your paper!

Note that absolutely no plagiarism will be tolerated – if you borrow words from another source, including an internet source, you must properly cite it (in quotes “…”) or else it is plagiarism. You also may not self-plagiarize (i.e., re-use what you turned in in previous courses).