Narcissism and Selfie-Posting I’ve uploaded an example paper, rubric, instruction paper, and 3 of the articles you’ll need. I have 4 more articles to provi

Narcissism and Selfie-Posting I’ve uploaded an example paper, rubric, instruction paper, and 3 of the articles you’ll need. I have 4 more articles to provide 1
Running head: COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
Counterfactual Thinking: Appointing Blame
Former Student
Florida International University
2
COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
Counterfactual Thinking: Appointing Blame
As free-willed beings, we can often become the victims of our own decisions. Imagine
accidentally running over a stray cat because you decided to look away from the road at the exact
moment the kitten decided to cross the street. Following the accident, most people would be
plagued with thoughts of how alternative circumstances or decisions could have prevented such
an unfortunate situation. Every time an individual forms a ‘what if’ scenario in which he or she
mentally alters the course of events occurred, they are participating in a process that is known as
counterfactual thinking (Ruiselová, Prokopčáková, & Kresánek, 2007; Williams, Lees-Haley, &
Price 1996). This process allows individuals to consider the multiple factors at play in a situation
(i.e mutability), and to decide what specific condition was responsible for the ultimate outcome
of the event. The primary focus of our study is to analyze the extent of culpability people place
on a particular factor depending on the preventability of the outcome. That is, if it is easy to
“undue” an event that ends in a tragic outcome, will participants find an actor who fails to
engage in that easy behavior more at fault?
The development of counterfactual thoughts relies on the variability of the situation, as
well as the knowledge that different actions could have resulted in alternate outcomes (Alquist,
Ainsworth, Baumeister, Daly, & Stillman, 2015). According to Alquist et al., situations that are
believed to be highly changeable generate more counterfactual thoughts than events that seem
unavoidable. However, ruminating on every conceivable alternative of a situation would take an
unlimited amount of time and resources. Instead of allotting so much time and energy on a
cognitive task, people tend to narrow down the different scenarios that come to mind according
to the degree of controllability of the factors involved (McCloy & Byrne, 2000). For example,
the deliberate decisions individuals make that ultimately lead to a certain outcome is considered
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COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
to be a controllable event, whereas uncontrollable events are unavoidable circumstances, such as
traffic jams or natural disasters (McCloy & Byrne, 2000). When mentally forming a scenario
different than the one occurred, individuals tend to change controllable rather than uncontrollable
events (2000). Therefore, events that are within an individual’s jurisdiction generally receive the
brunt of the blame for the resulting situation.
In a similar light, a study performed by McCloy and Byrne (2000), discovered that
inappropriate events are more often changed through the process of counterfactual thinking than
appropriate ones, especially when the outcome of these events was negative. Inappropriate
events include the decisions individuals make that are considered to be ‘socially wrong’, whereas
appropriate events are ‘socially acceptable’ actions. Due to these results, we can conclude that
what McCloy and Byrne consider to be “inappropriate controllable” events, will likely be
regarded as highly culpable factors in the outcome of a situation.
Another contributing factor to perceived culpability is the extent of knowledge of the
actors involved in an event, as well as the intent of their actions (Gilbert, Tenney, Holland, &
Spellman, 2015). For example, in the aforementioned scenario, had the driver known that
looking away from the road would have caused her to run over the stray cat, the driver would
have been more likely to be perceived guilty, even though the actions and the outcome of the
situation remained the same. This rationalization is the product of a bottom-up method of
thinking in which individuals are able to generate more counterfactual thoughts due to the actor’s
knowledge of the outcome (Gilbert et al., 2015). As these authors have noted, the increased
development of counterfactual thoughts will in turn attribute more responsibility to the actor,
which will ultimately increase perceived blame. But this is not the full picture when it comes to
focusing on the role of counterfactual thoughts in altering participant responses.
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COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
In pursuance of counterfactual thinking and its relationship to perceived blame, we have
devised a study that analyzed the extent of culpability people place on a particular factor
depending on the preventability of the outcome. We provided participants with one of three
scenarios, each of which depicted a variation of the same situation where alternate events lead to
different conclusions. In the changeable condition, an actor engaged in a behavior that led to an
undesirable outcome (death) that could have been avoided had he acted differently. In the
unchangeable condition, the same actor engaged in a behavior that once again led to an
undesirable outcome, but here the outcome could not have been avoided if he acted differently.
In the neutral condition, the actor engaged in an alternative behavior, but the outcome was still
undesirable. We predicted that participants would place more blame on the actor in the
changeable condition where the actor could have avoided the undesirable outcome had he
behaved differently than in both the unchangeable and neutral conditions, where the actor’s
behavior could not be altered. This is because we expected changeable participants to generate
more counterfactuals (more statements about how the actor could have behaved) in the
changeable condition.
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COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING
References
Alquist, J. L., Ainsworth, S. E., Baumeister, R. F., Daly, M., & Stillman, T. F. (2015). The
making of might-have-beens: Effects of free will belief on counterfactual thinking.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(2), 268-283. doi:
10.1177/0146167214563673
Gilbert, E. A., Tenney, E. R., Holland, C. R., & Spellman, B. A. (2015). Counterfactuals,
control, and causation: Why knowledgeable people get blamed more. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(5), 643-658. doi: 10.1177/0146167215572137
McCloy, R., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2000). Counterfactual thinking about controllable
events. Memory & Cognition, 28(6), 1071-1078. doi: 10.3758/BF03209355
Ruiselová, Z., Prokopčáková, A., & Kresánek, J. (2007). Counterfactual thinking in relation to
the personality of women–doctors and nurses. Studia Psychologica, 49(4), 333-339.
Williams, C. W., Lees-Haley, P., & Price, J. R. (1996). The role of counterfactual thinking and
causal attribution in accident-related judgments. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
26(23), 2076-2099. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1996.tb01789
Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions for Paper I: Study One Literature Review Instructions (Worth 25 Points)
Ryan J. Winter
Florida International University
1
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
2
Purpose of Paper I: Study One Literature Review
1). Psychological Purpose
This paper serves several purposes, the first of which is helping you gain insight into
research papers in psychology. As this may be your first time reading and writing papers
in psychology, one goal of Paper I is to give you insight into what goes into such papers.
This study one-lit review will help you a). better understand the psychology topic chosen
for the course this semester (Selfies), b). learn about the various sections of an empirical
research report by reading five peer-reviewed articles (that is, articles that have a Title
Page, Abstract, Literature Review, Methods Section, Results Section, and References
Page), and c). use information gathered from research articles in psychology to help
support your hypotheses for your first study this semester (Selfies). Of course, you’ll be
doing a study two literature review later in the semester, so think of this Paper I as the
first part of your semester long paper. I recommend looking at the example Paper V,
actually, to see what your final paper will look like. It might give you a better idea about
how this current paper (as well as Papers II, III, and IV) all fit together into your final
paper of the semester.
In this current paper (Paper I), you will read five research articles, summarize what the
authors did and what they found, and use those summaries to support your Selfie Study
hypothesis. IMPORTANT: Yes you need five references, but keep in mind that you can
spend a lot of time (a page or two!) summarizing one them and just a sentence or two
summarizing others. Thus spend more time on the more relevant articles!
For this paper, start your paper broadly and then narrow your focus (think about the
hourglass example provided in the lecture). My suggestion is to give a brief overview of
your paper topic in your opening paragraph, hinting at the research variables you plan to
look at for study one. Your next paragraphs will review prior research (those five
references required for this paper). Make sure to draw connections between these papers,
using smooth transitions between paragraphs. Your final paragraphs should use the
research you just summarized to support your research hypothesis. And yes, that means
you MUST include your study predictions (which we provided in the researcher
instructions and debriefing statement. Use them!). In other words, this first paper will
look like the literature reviews for the five research articles you are summarizing for this
assignment. Use those articles as examples! See what they did and mimic their style!
Here, though, you will end the paper after providing your hypothesis. In Paper II, you
will pick the topic up again, but in that future paper you will talk about your own study
methods and results.
2). APA Formatting Purpose
The second purpose of Paper I: Study One Literature Review is to teach you proper
American Psychological Association (APA) formatting. In the instructions below, I tell
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
3
you how to format your paper using APA style. There are a lot of very specific
requirements in APA papers, so pay attention to the instructions below as well as Chapter
14 in your textbook!
3). Writing Purpose
Finally, this paper is intended to help you grow as a writer. Few psychology classes give
you the chance to write papers and receive feedback on your work. This class will! We
will give you extensive feedback on your first few paper in terms of content, spelling,
and grammar. You will even be able to revise aspects of Paper I and include them in
future papers (most notably Papers III and V). My hope is that you craft a paper that
could be submitted to an empirical journal. Thus readers may be familiar with APA style
but not your specific topic. Your job is to educate them on the topic and make sure they
understand how your study design advances the field of psychology.
In fact, your final paper in this class (Paper V), might be read by another professor at
FIU and not your instructor / lab assistant. Write your paper for that reader – the one
who may know NOTHING about your topic and your specific study.
Note: The plagiarism limit for this paper is 30% (though this excludes any overlap your paper
might have with regard to citations, references, and the predictions). Make sure your paper falls
under 30% (or 35% if including predictions).
Note: I am looking for 2.5 pages minimum with predictions.
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
4
Instructions for Paper I: Study One Literature Review (Worth 25 Points)
Students: Below are lengthy instructions on how to write your study one literature review. There
is also a checklist document in Canvas, which I recommend you print out and “check off” before
submitting your paper (we are sticklers for APA format, so make sure it is correct! We mark off
if you have a misplaced “&”, so carefully review all of your work and use the checklist! It will
help). Also look at the example paper in Canvas. It will show you what we expect.
1. Title Page: I expect the following format. (5 Points)
a. You must have a header and page numbers on each page.
i. If you don’t know how to insert headers, ask your instructor or watch this
very helpful video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pbUoNa5tyY.
ii. The header goes at the top of the paper and it is left justified.
1. Use “Insert Headers” or click on the top of the page to open the
header. Make sure to select the “Different first page” option so that
your title page header will differ from subsequent pages
2. The R in Running head is capitalized but the “h” is lower case,
followed by a colon and a short title (in ALL CAPS). This short
running head title can be the same one as the rest of your paper or
it can differ – the choice is yours, but it should be no more than 50
characters including spaces and punctuation
3. Insert a page number as well. The header is flush left, but the page
number is flush right.
iii. Want an example header? Look at the title page of these instructions! You
can use other titles depending on your own preferences (e.g. SOCIAL
MEDIA AND NARCISSISM; SEFLIES VS. GROUPIES; JUDGING
OTHERS; etc.).
b. Your Title should be midway up the page. Again, see my “Title” page above as an
example of the placement, but for your title try to come up with a title that helps
describe your study one. Avoid putting “Paper One”. Rather, consider the titles
you saw in PsycInfo. Create a similar title that lets the reader know what your
paper is about
c. Your name (First Last) and the name of your institution (FIU) beneath the title.
For this class, only your own name will go on this paper. Double space
everything!
i. You can also refer to Chapter 14 in your powerpoints and/or Smith and
Davis textbook
d. This Title Page section will be on page 1
2. Abstract?
a. You DO NOT need an abstract for Paper I: You cannot write it until you run both
study one and two, so omit it for now
3. Literature Review Section (12 points)
a. First page of your literature review (Page 2)
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
5
i. Proper header with page numbers. Your running head title will appear in
the header of your page WITHOUT the phrase “Running head”. To insert
this header, use the headers program.
ii. The title of your paper should be on the first line of page two, centered. It
is IDENTICAL to the title on your title page. Just copy and paste it!
iii. The beginning text for your paper follows on the next line
b. Citations for the literature review
i. Your paper must cite a minimum of five (5) empirical research articles
that are based on studies conducted in psychology. That is, each of the
three citations you use should have a literature review, a methods section,
a results section, a conclusion/discussion, and references.
1. For this first paper, you MUST use at least three of the five articles
provided in the blackboard folder. You can use four if you like, but
you must use three at minimum – however, you cannot use all five.
For that fifth article, you must find it using PsycInfo. There are
some other conditions for this fifth article that you must follow:
a. First, remember that the fifth article cannot be any of the
five found in the blackboard folder.
b. Second, for your fifth article, it can be based on a wide
variety of topics, including general priming studies, studies
on narcissism (without a social media angle), studies on
social media (without a narcissism angle), studies on
impression formation, studies on friendships, etc. Trust me,
there are TONS of topics that can help you in your paper.
Just choose one that will help you support your
experimental hypothesis for your Selfie study. That is, it
has to help you justify your study one hypothesis (all
students are using this same hypothesis, so make sure to
read it. You can find it in the researcher instructions along
with the questionnaires you are giving to participants. I
actually suggest copying and pasting that hypothesis into
this first paper at the end).
c. Finally, you can have more than five references if you
want, but you must have a minimum of five references.
ii. Proper citations must be made in the paper – give credit where credit is
due, and don’t make claims that cannot be validated.
iii. If you use a direct quote, make sure to provide a page number for where
you found that quote in the citations. Do not directly quote too often,
though. You can have no more than three direct quotes in the whole
paper (though zero quotes would be even better). Instead, I would like
you to paraphrase when possible.
c. Requirements for the information in your literature review
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
6
i. Your study one literature review should use prior research as a starting
point, narrowing down the main theme of your specific project – think
about the hourglass example I gave in class.
ii. The last part of your literature review should narrow down your focus onto
your own study, eventually ending in your study hypothesis. However,
DO NOT go into specific details about your methods. You will talk about
your specific methods in Paper II in a few weeks.
iii. Again, to make it clear, at the end of your paper you will give an overview
of your research question, providing your specific predictions/hypotheses.
d. The literature review must have minimum of two (2) full pages NOT
INCLUDING THE HYPOTHESES. It has a maximum of five (5) pages (thus,
with the title page and references page, the paper should be between 4.5 and 7
pages). If it is only four and a half pages (again, including the hypotheses), it
better be really, really good. I don’t think I could do this paper justice in fewer
than five pages, so if yours isn’t at least five pages, I doubt it will get a good
grade.
4. References (6 points)
a. The References section starts on its own page, with the word References centered.
Use proper APA format in this section or you will lose points.
b. All five references that you cited in the literature review must be in this section
(there should be more than five references here if you cited more than five
articles, which is fine in this paper). However, at least three must come from the
article folder on blackboard while the remaining two can come from either the last
blackboard paper or two new ones from psychinfo. Only peer-reviewed articles
are allowed here (no books, journals, websites, or other secondary resources are
allowed for paper one).
c. For references, make sure you:
i. use alphabetical ordering (start with the last name of the first author)
ii. use the authors’ last names but only the initials of their first/middle name
iii. give the date in parentheses – e.g. (2007).
iv. italicize the name of the journal article
v. give the volume number, also in italics
vi. give the page numbers (not italicized) for articles
vii. provide the doi (digital object identifier) if present (not italicized)
5. Writing Quality (2 Points)
a. This includes proper grammar and spelling. I recommend getting feedback on
your paper from the Pearson Writer program prior uploading it on Canvas.
6. Between the title page, literature review, and reference page, I expect a minimum of 4
pages and a maximum of 7 pages for this assignment. But like I said, the shorter the
paper, the less likely it is to get a good grade, so aim for 5 pages minimum.
The above information is required for your paper, but I wanted to provide a few tips about
writing your literature review as well. Students often struggle with the first paper, but hopefully
this will give you some good directions:
PAPER II: METHODS AND RESULTS INSTRUCTIONS
7
● First, remember that you need 5 references, all of which MUST be peer-reviewed (three
coming from the blackboard folder and one or two that you find on your own using
PsycInf…
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