Please include and modify the attached and expand on it to meet the requirements.
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to inspire you to reflect on some personal and emotional experiences and how these experiences help you relate to the world around you. This should be in follow up to our discussion on motivation and emotion (chapter 10).
Audience:
Your primary audience is me, the instructor, but I would like for you to write to a layperson audience.
Voice:
Casual or informal tone because of your layperson audience. I do expect you to discuss your experiences and song choices using terminology from any/all of the chapters we have discussed so far.
Emphasis:
Your focus should be to describe each life experience, connect it to a song, and analyze how/why certain lyrics resonate with you. In other words, what do the lyrics mean to you? You should also discuss the psychological concepts of motivation and emotion as they relate to your experiences and song choices. You may also use any other concepts that we have discussed to further develop your narrative.
Support:
Use the elements learned in chapters 1-10 of Exploring Psychology to help you form strong reflections on each life experience and song choice. You must also cite your media sources in APA format.
Organization:
Your first page should be a cover page (note that this is not counted in your page total). It should include the title of your paper. Your name, the name of the psychology department, the course number and title, my name, and the date the paper is due. You may then start your paper on the next page.
The first paragraph should be a brief introduction to the topic of this paper and how it relates to psychological concepts discussed in class. In each successive paragraph (~6 paragraphs), detail the name of the song and artist and how it relates to your chosen personal experience. These paragraphs should be ordered in a thoughtful manner – not randomly. They can be chronological according to the timing of your experiences or they can be in an order that makes sense as a soundtrack. The final paragraph should be a reflection on the soundtrack you created and the entire project. You must also include a reference list on a separate page following your paper (also not included in your page total).
Format:
In general, follow APA guidelines (example essays and formatting guidelines may be found here: https://apastyle.apa.org), but I do recommend that you use headings for each paragraph. For the introductory paragraph, it is okay to use the heading “Introduction”. For the paragraphs detailing your life experiences please use the song title and artist as your heading. The last paragraph may be labeled “Conclusion”.
The top, left-hand corner of the first paper should include your name, my name, the course number and title, and due date of the assignment. The paper should be a minimum of 3 typed pages (not including the cover page), double spaced, using 12-point font. References should be formatted with a hanging indent.
Assignment Description:
A major part of the science of psychology is motivation and emotion. As humans, we have an incredible capacity to feel not only our own emotions, but the emotions of others as well. One way we express emotions is through song. Music has become very important to human existence and can bring about a variety of emotions. It can also bring about memories of people, places, and events.
For this assignment, pick 6 life experiences personal to you, then pick a song for each life experience that you feel represents that experience. When writing your paper, you will want to be as descriptive as possible about each life experience and how your chosen songs relate to those experiences. I have added an example of mine below, but please remember to make this assignment your own and have fun with it!
***
“Sleep on the Floor” by The Lumineers
Between 2017 and 2019, I was having somewhat of a quarter-life crisis. Even though I had a degree, I wasn’t sure about my career path; I wasn’t sure I really wanted to go to medical school. Through the whole process of MCAT, primary applications, secondary applications, interviews, getting waitlisted, and reapplying, I grew increasingly apathetic. I did a lot of self-reflecting during that time and listening to “Sleep on the Floor” helped set off a chain of events that brought me to a decision about my future. The lyrics, “if we don’t leave this town, we might never make it out,” and “I was not born to drown,” helped me to realize I was stuck (Schultz & Fraites, 2016). “Will you lay yourself down and dig your grave? Or will you rail against your dying day?” Wesley Schultz sings (Schultz & Fraites, 2016). Pondering this question influenced me to choose a new career path and believe I had the courage to grow into the unknown.
Title (The Soundtrack of My Life)
Introduction
***Use elements of these chapters to help you with your introduction: sensation/perception – ch. 6, memory – ch. 8, emotional intelligence and possibly musical intelligence – ch. 9, as well as motivation/emotion – ch. 10. The big elements of this assignment are memory and emotional intelligence; I am asking you to remember life events and interpret your emotions through specific songs.
Song #1
Song #2
Song #3
Song #4
Song #5
Song #6
Conclusion
***Discuss the soundtrack you made and why you chose to put the songs in the order that you did. I also want you to reflect on this assignment – what you thought about it, how you felt writing the assignment, etc. It would also be a good idea to tie it back to the psychology principles discussed in your introduction.
References
Myers, D. G. & DeWall, C. N. (2019). Exploring Psychology. (11th ed.). Worth Publishers.
