Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Arizona State University/Advanced Forensic Psychology (Fall 2022)

This course provides an advanced introduction to forensic psychology – a subfield of psychology in which basic and applied psychological science or scientifically-oriented professional practice is applied to the law to help resolve legal, contractual, or administrative matters. “Forensic” comes from the Latin word for “court,” and “forensic psychologists” are psychologists who help courts make decisions about people when some question related to psychology is involved. Thus, forensic psychologists typically are involved in cases “pre-adjudication,” which means before the legal decision is made, and they help courts make informed decisions about cases. ​

Forensic psychologists provide services (e.g., assessment, treatment, presentation of research) explicitly for the purposes of informing a legal decision (e.g., performing a child custody evaluation to inform the court’s upcoming decisions about parenting time and rights in a divorce decree, conducting competency restoration treatment services in an attempt to restore trial competency so that the defendant can be adjudicated “competent” and move forward with their ongoing legal case, providing a summary of the research data about factors that contribute to a false confessions or mistaken eyewitness identifications while the case is ongoing). ​

We learn in-depth about some of the major ways in which psychologists are involved in the criminal court system (e.g., when legal questions arise about a defendant’s competency to stand trial, his/her mental state at the time of offense). We teach each other about some of the other criminal and civil competencies that psychologists help the courts assess (e.g., when questions arise about a defendant’s competency to confess, to plead guilty, to be sentenced and executed, to make a will, to consent to research). And we cover some of the other common questions forensic psychologists help answer (e.g., risk of future violence, risk of future sex offenses, ability to safely live in the community, juvenile delinquency). Finally, we learn about the paths toward careers in forensic psychology.

On wikipedia, the representation of forensic psychology could use some serious improvement. I'd like to have my class of PhD students in psychology-law, taking a course in advanced forensic psychology, help improve the state of knowledge on wikipedia about these issues. I also would like them to learn the value of wikipedia and consensus of knowledge.

Week 5
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

Begin a blog about your experiences. You can use discussion questions to frame your entries, or reflect on the research and writing process. Create at least one blog entry each week during the Wikipedia assignment.

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 7
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

Week 9
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Psychology

Science Communication

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 10
Guiding framework

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

Week 11
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 12
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 13
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Week 14
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 15
It's the final week to develop your article.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
 * Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Week 16
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.