To answer this question, you will need to extract the essence from the perspectives presented that demonstrates their materialist foundations. You will need to act on the feedback from WRIT1 such that memory features in your answer, but now you must also include evidence not limited to memory, but that which challenges the materialist paradigm in psychology more broadly. Evidence may come from the Series 1 perspectives Lectures, or from the specific examples from the Series 2 Lectures.
The essay should be written in a formal academic style.
· Describe the contributions and philosophies of a range of psychological perspectives.
· Use appropriate referencing.
· Use a formal academic style of writing.
· Present different sources of information.
Build a rationale in writing.
· Don’t refer to yourself (no “I”, “we” or “my”). Formal academic writing typically takes a 3rd person perspective and that’s what we want you to do for this assignment.
· Do reference all claims made in your work. Whenever you say that something is the case, you need to show the reader where they can find the evidence for what you said. That doesn’t mean where you read it. The format is Name, Date.
· References are about evidence. As such, we are writing about research papers or books not people. Therefore, Don’t give first names and initials, Do just give a name and date (this is short-hand for the full reference that will appear in your reference list).
· We Don’t want to see references to pop-psych sites like simply psychology. They never generated any evidence.
· Don’t give us some pre-formatted spiel form simply psychology. You make the argument.
· Do structure your essay such that each paragraph is about a particular point you are making.
· Don’t talk about your essay in your essay. The reader will be reading it all anyway. If you have an introductory paragraph, introduce the ideas, not the structure. If you have a concluding section, sum up the argument rather than just recap what you already said.
Content:
· Do read the whole question and the explanation of what is expected so that you Don’t include content that was not asked for or doesn’t answer the question and you Do address all elements required.
· Do demonstrate the materialist foundations for whatever you are looking at (the proposed biological basis. That doesn’t mean by perspective, as materialism is materialism (there isn’t a biological materialism and a separate cognitivist materialism).
· Do include elements of the first essay about memory.
· Do include something other than memory. This could be attention, sensation or perception for example.
· Do give something of the materialist basis for these (i.e. what is the reason for thinking it is brain based).
· Do give philosophical/logical arguments against the materialist position (they are in the lectures and reading I gave you).
· Do give empirical evidence against the materialist position (at least as formulated (this is in the lectures and reading I gave you).
· Don’t just sling arguments in as they appear. Make them relevant to your essay. It should be a coherent whole, not a collection of disparate ideas.
· Don’t feel you need to include everything. Choose content such that it is sufficient to answer the question you have been set.
· Do draw out for the reader why the evidence you are presenting makes the point you want it to make. For example, if talking about terminal lucidity you should tell the reader what it is (pointing to evidence) and explicitly that as the brain structures required (by the materialist position) for attention have been destroyed, yet the ability to attend returns. Do explain how this undermines the argument that attention is dependent on those structures. You don’t have to explain how those patients can pay attention; you are simply pointing out problems for the materialist argument.
If you do not include the proposed biological (materialist) basis for the things you discuss (i.e. memory and another faculty), you will likely get below 40%.
If you miss out either philosophical arguments against or empirical evidence against a materialist position, you will likely get under 50% (if you miss out both, you will likely get under 40%).
As you are writing about more than one thing you would ideally do the same for each thing you write about. For example, your essay could take the following format:
· An intro to the materialist ideology in general.
· Proposed biological basis of memory.
· Evidence for this.
· Philosophical argument against this.
· Empirical evidence against this.
· Proposed bio basis of perception, attention or sensation etc etc.
· Evidence for this.
· Philosophical argument against this.
· Empirical evidence against this.
· Some general conclusion about the validity or utility of the materialist position.