Everyone knows the classic studies. Almost nobody knows what they actually showed
Conformity, obedience, bystander effects: the famous experiments are widely misremembered, and several have been substantially reinterpreted or failed to replicate. Assignments increasingly reward students who know that.
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Accuracy about the classics, and theory that explains a specific case
Textbook summaries of the famous studies are often simplified past the point of accuracy, and the replication literature has revised several conclusions substantially. A student who describes what a study actually found, including its limits and what later work did or did not confirm, is doing something graders notice immediately.
The second is application. Social psychology essays often ask you to explain a real phenomenon. The points are in using a theory's own mechanism to account for the specific case, not in describing the theory and asserting that it applies.
Article critiques have their own shape. A critique is not a summary with complaints attached: it assesses whether the design supports the conclusions drawn, which means engaging with sampling, measurement, confounds and the gap between what was measured and what was claimed.
- Classic studies described accurately, including their limits
- Replication and reinterpretation acknowledged where relevant
- Theory applied through its mechanism, not asserted
- Critiques that assess design rather than list objections
What we work on
Your own assignment and your own rubric
- Essay structure for theory-to-phenomenon assignments
- Article critique structure and what to evaluate
- Attribution, dissonance, conformity and group process theory
- Writing about the replication crisis accurately
- APA 7 formatting and citation
Your analysis, your essay
- We do not write your essays or critiques.
- We do not supply completed assignments to adapt.
- We do not invent study findings or data.
- We do not complete work you will submit under your own name.
- We teach the frameworks and review what you wrote.
If you cite a classic study, read the original or a careful secondary account rather than a textbook summary. Several of the most-cited findings in this field are routinely misdescribed. Read the full policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Summarize the study briefly, then evaluate whether the design supports the conclusions. Look at sampling, measurement validity, confounds, and whether the claim in the abstract matches what was actually tested. A list of complaints is not a critique; an assessment of whether the inference holds is.
Where it bears on the study you are discussing, yes, and it is usually rewarded. Several prominent social psychology findings have failed to replicate or been substantially revised. Acknowledging that accurately, rather than either ignoring it or dismissing the whole field, is the mark of a careful answer.
Use the theory's mechanism to explain the specific case. Not this is an example of cognitive dissonance, but the participants had freely chosen an effortful action inconsistent with their stated view, which is the condition dissonance theory says produces attitude change.
Sometimes, and check your rubric. Where allowed, treat it as evidence to be analyzed rather than as illustration. Personal examples that are described and not analyzed are the usual weakness.
Your rubric decides, and what matters more is whether they are peer-reviewed and whether you engage with them rather than list them. Five sources genuinely used beat fifteen cited once each.
Send the assignment and the rubric
We will tell you whether the theory is doing explanatory work and whether your account of the literature is accurate.
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