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PSYC10003 Essay Prompt  The papers by Olsson et al. (2016) and Williams and Conway (2020) make competing claims about the role of empathy in social learning of fear conditioning.

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PSYC10003 Mind, Brain and Behaviour 1 Individual Written Assignment Brief

Category Assignment Subject Psychology
University University of Melbourne Module Title PSYC10003 Mind, Brain and Behaviour 1

Assignment: Individual Written Assignment: Evidence-based Essay. 
Assignment Topic: Does empathy modulate the social (vicarious) learning of fear?
Count Words: 1200

PSYC10003 Essay Prompt 

The papers by Olsson et al. (2016) and Williams and Conway (2020) make competing claims about the role of empathy in social learning of fear conditioning. Evaluate the quality of arguments and evidence in each paper and make your own evidence-based argument for which conclusion you find more convincing. 

Your essay should include the following broad sections: 

1.An introductory paragraph that includes a) an introduction to the topic, b) a statement about the importance and relevance of the topic, c) a clear statement of your argument, d) a clear overview of the structure of the essay. 

2. The body of the essay should include: 

  1. Paragraph/s that demonstrate your understanding of the aim, design, and key claims of the original paper by Olsson et al., 2016. This requires you to demonstrate your understanding of how Olsson et al. manipulated empathy as both a ‘state’ and a ‘trait’, and the claimed interaction between these factors. You will need to explain the evidence they provide to support their claim about the relationship of empathy to the strength of socially conditioned fear responses, which includes understanding how the key constructs are mapped to their chose independent and dependent variables.
  2. Paragraph/s demonstrating understanding of Williams and Conway’s (2020) close replication of Olsson et al. (2016), including which elements of the Olsson et al. (2016) study they focussed on; which (if any) of their methods diQered from the original study, and an explanation of the evidence they provide to support their claim that trait empathy is not related to the strength of socially learned fear responses when state empathy is high.
  3. Integrative paragraph/s in which you weigh the quality of evidence and arguments from each paper to develop your own argument for which of the two claims is stronger. In this section, strong essays will consider counterarguments, possible alternative explanations for the diQerent findings between the two studies, and what further evidence you might need to be more certain about your own argument (intellectual humility). 

3. Somewhere in your essay you should refer to at least one paper written since 2020 that has cited one (or both) of the two key references and use this to support an element of your argument. This will involve learning how to look for papers in academic databases and determine their relevance to the essay topic. 

4. A concluding paragraph that summarises your arguments. 

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PSYC10003 Required Readings 

Olsson, A., McMahon, K., Papenberg, G., Zaki, J., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2016). Vicarious fear learning depends on empathic appraisals and trait empathy. Psychological science, 27(1), 25-33. 

Williams, A. L., & Conway, C. C. (2020). Empathy does not amplify vicarious threat learning. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 127, 103577. 

Additional readings 

Beckers, T., Hermans, D., Lange, I., Luyten, L., Scheveneels, S., & Vervliet, B. (2023). Understanding clinical fear and anxiety through the lens of human fear conditioning. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(4), 233- 245. Olsson, A., & Phelps, E. A. (2007). Social learning of fear. Nature neuroscience, 10(9), 1095-1102. 

Rachman, S. (1977). The conditioning theory of fear acquisition: A critical examination. Behaviour research and therapy, 15(5), 375-387. 

Skversky-Blocq, Y., Haaker, J., & Shechner, T. (2021). Watch and Learn: Vicarious threat learning across human development. Brain sciences, 11(10), 1345. 

PSYC10003 Additional instructions and advice 

  1. We have provided the two key references by Olsson et al. (2016) and Williams and Conway (2020) for you to read in Feedback Fruits – annotated with tips to help you understand the key points. The links will be in the Assignment Support Module for Assignment 2.
  2. We have also provided you with the reference details of additional recommended readings that will support your understanding of the broader topic of socially conditioned fear and of Rachman’s theory of the pathways to conditioned fear. You will need to find these papers yourself using the library databases. 
  3. The expected word count for this essay is 1,200 words. Please review the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences (MSPS) Undergraduate & Graduate Diploma Student Manualfor information on the School’s word count policy.

Assignment support: 

  • Our practical class in Week 6 will provide advice and support for how to search the literature to find the additional recommended readings and papers that have cited either or both of Olsson et al. (2016) and/or Williams and Conway (2020). 
  • The Assessment Literacy Module (ALM) will be introduced in the Week 6 practical class. It is a self-directed module that helps you understand the marking criteria for evidence-based essays in psychology 
  • Check out the Assignment 2 Support Module for assignment Q&A session times with our Senior Tutors Lindsie and Elektra. 
  • The full assessment criteria (marking criteria) and advice for how to interpret the criteria can be found on the following pages of this document.