Psychology Research Paper: 20 Topics and Ideas to Cover

Topics and ideas
Posted on March 13, 2019

Beyond doubt, psychology is one of the most interesting and diverse sciences to study and research. Nowadays, it is present in the social, personal, and professional spheres of human life, having a considerable influence on them and related conscious and subconscious factors. As a result, both a professional psychologist and a college student who studies therapy for his master’s degree would be able to find a great variety of psychology paper topics and ideas to research.

To find a good topic for the psychology research paper, you may search for aspiration and original ideas in specialized libraries, related books, and articles. While searching for the topic, it is important to keep in mind that it should be narrow enough, so the writer could adequately cover all the necessary subjects and not overwhelm the text with insufficient information. Also, it is crucial for the author of the paper to follow the guidelines provided by the professor or the instructor and pick up the topic from within the related course. For example, an abnormal psychology course may require the student to research various psychological disorders and related issues whereas a criminal psychology course may require researching the psychology of Jury selection or the efficiency of anger management and applying different behavioral patterns to violent offenders.

Topic and Ideas for Psychology Research Paper

Below you can find examples of topics for psychology research paper:

1. The Underlying Causes of Prejudice and Discrimination

In such a paper, you may define basic causes of prejudice and discrimination, explore their roots and triggers, and provide several efficient solutions. Moreover, it is a great idea to use a number of statistical figures and facts to support your claims and convince the audience. All the necessary sources for this paper may be found in official reports and specialized journals on criminal justice and psychology.

2. Major Modern Social Influences on Teenagers

This topic should include detailed research on the influence of the social media platforms and the Internet on teenagers, as well as the influence of the family environment, social environment, and other related factors. It is also highly recommended that you support the claim with statistical facts and find the relation between the provided figures and behavioral patterns of the young people.

3. Social Identity and Its Role in the Modern Society

This topic may appear to be both captivating and challenging at the same time as the researcher has to explore the notion of social identity and its place in the modern world. Besides, it would be necessary to compare the role of social identity with the other roles that have a significant influence on people today. The sources on the topic may be found in specialized libraries and journal articles about social issues.

4. Causes of Eating Disorders among Teenagers

Nowadays, the number of teenagers who suffer from eating disorders continues to grow rapidly. From that perspective, you may research the main causes and triggers for these disorders among young people and suggest a range of efficient solutions. All the supportive materials may be found in official reports provided by medical institutions, peer-reviewed articles on eating disorders, and previous topical research.

5. Autism and Modern Society

In this paper, the author has to provide the definition of autism and a short description of this complex neurobehavioral condition, mention the most popular ways of treatment that are widely used nowadays, and explore the role of people with autism in the modern society. Because autism is considered to be a neurobehavioral condition, the supportive information may be found in specialized medical journals and official reports provided by Autism Research Institute and a range of healthcare organizations.

6. The Most Efficient Ways to Recover from Amnesia and Memory Loss

This captivating topic requires the writer to conduct detailed research on the issue, make a thorough comparison of the most common ways to recover from amnesia and memory loss and define the most efficient of them. In this way, the researcher has to use facts and pieces of evidence to support his or her claims and convince the audience of the benefits of the discussed approaches. The research may be based on previous research on amnesia and memory loss and peer-reviewed topical articles.

7. Major Factors that Influence Problem-Solving Abilities in Teenagers

This topic requires the researcher to study all the factors that can have both positive and negative effects on problem-solving abilities in teenagers and define the most common of them. Besides, it is important to evaluate factors related to different spheres of teenager life that usually include different social and personal aspects. Valuable information on the topic may be provided by official police reports, psychological research on problem-solving abilities in teenagers, and scientific articles.

8. Factors that Provoke Violence in Children

For this paper, the writer has to define a range of factors that cause violent behavior in children and make their thorough evaluation. For sure, among them, you could mention physical punishment that is used by the family members and psychological violence of the family members at home. Official reports provided by the police usually contain all the necessary information on violence in children and provide valuable statistical facts that may be used as support material for the research paper.

9. Factors that Influence Language Learning Abilities in Children

Every child has individual language learning capabilities. However, there is a range of factors that may improve or decrease the efficiency of language learning in general. These are motivation, support of the family members or their disapproval, learning environment, age, and even teaching strategies.

10. Factors that Cause Anorexia in Children

Low self-esteem, neuroticism and perfectionism, strong negative emotions and depression, regular stress or life in a stressful environment, anxiety, and pessimism belong to the list of the most common factors that cause anorexia in children. Besides, you could cover the factor of overvaluing body image and evaluate its significant influence on the self-worth definition in early ages.

11. The Most Common Anxiety Disorders in the Modern Society

In today’s world, the most common anxiety disorders are panic disorder, acute stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and social phobia. In fact, anxiety disorders are the most spread mental disorders that affect almost one-third of the world population. Therefore, it is highly important to make detailed research on the point and discuss the most efficient ways of treatment.

12. The Primary Causes of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are a problem that continues to spread all over the world. The main contributors to this problem are the feelings of inadequacy, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and stressful environments. To convey the topic to the reader more fully, you could include some related statistical facts and discuss the ways of decreasing the causes mentioned above.

13. Suicidal Tendencies in the Modern Society

Because suicide is known as one of the most spread causes of death, it is important to discuss attempted suicides and their successfulness, the connection between suicide and marital status, alcohol or drug addiction, and psychological disorders.

14. Psychopaths in the Modern Society

Professionals claim that psychopaths are one of the most dangerous groups of individuals with psychological problems, as their mental condition forces them to lose the sense of right and wrong, cause emotional and physical harm to people, and ignore the feelings and rights of others. These people experience the lack of morality, they are cold-hearted and have excellent manipulator skills, and these features allow them to climb career ladder fast, hold leadership positions, and cause significant harm to the people around. Therefore, it is highly important to learn how to distinguish them in the crowd, deal with them, and avoid the risks of becoming their victim.

15. The Causes of Bulimia

While the causes of bulimia are still not defined, there is a range of contributing factors that are related to genetic, psychological, and even environmental aspects that include media and billboard photos. The main of them are stressful changes in life, psychological trauma, and low self-esteem. The causes of bulimia are usually described in numerous specialized articles and previous research on eating disorders.

16. The Main Causes of Antisocial Behavior

Antisocial behavior is a very common psychological disorder that forces people to behave in a disruptive and hostile way. The main causes that may be discussed in the research paper are domestic violence, drug, and alcohol-addicted parents, sexual abuse and harassment, and the influence of violent media.

17. Mood Disorders in Teenagers

This paper requires the author to conduct research on mood disorders in teenagers, define the most common of them, find out their reasons, and the ways of treatment. All the information on the issue may be found in specialized journals and books.

18. Schizophrenia, Its Main Causes, and Ways of Treatment

Nowadays, schizophrenia is one of the most common severe mental disorders. Therefore, it is important for the researcher to evaluate emotional life events as its major triggers and evaluate the efficiency of medications therapy and psychosocial treatment.

19. The Impact of Violent Music on Teenagers

Since many teenagers like violent music, it is highly important to research its influence on them. To complete the research, you could use topical scholarly articles, compare statistics provided on the official resources, or discuss your personal experience.

20. The Formation of Habits

This captivating topic requires the writer to provide a thorough analysis of the process of habit formation and evaluate the process of regular repetition that gradually becomes habitual or automatic. The sources for this research may be found in specialized psychological journals, scholarly studies, and related books.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the fact that psychology provides a vast range of sophisticated and captivating topics and ideas for research and discussion, it is important to use your analytical skills in order to approach the issue, provide a claim, and support it with facts and pieces of evidence to become a professional research paper writer. All the information necessary for the research may be collected from specialized journals, previous research, and other related reliable materials. Thus, writing a psychology research paper is a great way to discover more information about social and behavioral patterns, and understand people better.

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