Preparation
Select an area in your field or other area of interest and explore how psychological research has had an impact in solving practical problems in that field. Areas of applied research in psychology include:
• Business.
• Criminal justice.
• Education.
• Forensics.
• Health.
• Mental health treatment.
• Public safety.
• Sports.
• Technology.
Note: The American Psychological Association's Research in Action Web site (linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading) is also a good resource to explore for topics and articles. Please note that if you use articles from this Web site, they are considered professional but not scholarly sources of information, because they are not peer-reviewed. You can use one of the articles from the site as one of your resources, but you will also need information from two scholarly articles.
Select one topic of interest. For example, you might be interested in one of the following topics:
• How supervisor training impacts development of future leaders in the workplace.
• How research on jury bias has been used to improve courtroom proceedings.
• How research in sports performance has been used to improve athlete performance.
• How research in product design is used to improve human performance.
• How research in product design is used to improve workplace safety.
• How research on the effectiveness of a violence prevention program can be applied in the workplace.
• These are only a few examples, and you are not limited to these topics.
Directions
Write a 4-5-page assessment (not including title page and references page) that addresses a human factor problem to which a solution has been researched and applied. Make sure to complete the following:
• Present information from three sources of information (at least one professional and at least two scholarly sources) on a topic in applied psychology.
• Summarize psychology research findings that have been applied to solve a specific problem or make a specific improvement.
• Describe the methods used in the research.
• Apply findings from research to solve practical human factor problems.
• Describe how the application benefits human health or well-being.
• Include a title page and references page (not part of the 4-5 pages of content).