Affirmative Action
Description
In the field of psychology, just about everything is controversial, and you’ll need to develop your ability to look at things from multiple perspectives.
Do disparities exist between diverse groups? Are certain diverse groups exposed to more negative results than others?
Whether you agree or disagree with a particular stance, it’s important to not just understand the evidence being used to support the argument, but to be conversant in it and weigh it with other arguments and evidence.
This assessment asks you to choose a position and then prepare to support it as if you were going to participate in a debate. Preparing for debates is a way of steeping oneself in a topic and all the evidence available. While there won’t be an actual debate in the assessment, the act of preparing for one gives you in-depth practice at building arguments, counterarguments, and rebuttals that you only get a start at when writing a short paper.
This activity builds on critical thinking skills.
Choose a position and then prepare to support it, using the Debate Preparation and Summary Worksheet, as if you were going to participate in a debate.
In the worksheet, present your position and arguments for the debate topic, counterarguments to your position and arguments, and rebuttals to those counterarguments. The worksheet will finish with a conclusion on the strength of your position. Before submitting the worksheet, be sure to review the assessment scoring guide to ensure that you meet all criteria, including the following:
Your position.
At least three well-developed arguments.
Evidence to support your arguments (that is, data and research), including how the evidence supports the arguments.
Counterarguments to your points.
Rebuttals to the counterarguments that oppose your arguments.
Evidence to support your rebuttals (data and research), including how the evidence supports the rebuttals.
A conclusion that asserts why your position is strong.
In-text citations and references for all sources of information.