At this point in the semester, you have read, written, and thought much about th – graduate researcher

At this point in the semester, you have read, written, and thought much about the vast variety of
influences on human behavior that scientists have recorded across many different scientific
disciplines. You have finished Sapolsky’s text, and in the last two chapters (Chs. 16 & 17), he has laid
out two important arguments. First, he has articulated an argument regarding his view of both the
criminal justice system, and human free will – specifically, what we need to do to reform criminal
justice in light of his position on free will. Second, he has offered his view of the future of human
behavior regarding whether humans progressively move toward our best behaviors or our worst
behaviors.
What you must do for this exam is to write an essay that accomplishes two things:
First you must summarize, in your own words, what Sapolsky has to say in these two main
arguments. His first argument, regarding the future of criminal justice is the more complex, and is
boiled down to three main things. In Part 1, make sure you clearly summarize all three. Sapolsky’s
second argument about his view of the future of human behavior can be boiled down a little more
succinctly, so just include that in Part 3.
Second, for each of the two arguments he makes, you must articulate your thoughts in response to
his arguments. If you disagree with him, you must formulate an argument against his argument,
supported by at least two pieces of reputable scientific evidence (that Sapolsky cites in the text, or
that you find in a peer-reviewed journal outside of the text). If you agree, with him, you must
formulate an argument in support of his argument, again supported by at least two pieces of
reputable scientific evidence. Again, you will write two arguments, in support of or in opposition to
Sapolsky’s arguments. In Part 2, you will do make your argument about criminal justice reform. In
Part 3, you will make your argument about your view of the future of human behavior.
I’ve broken these tasks into three parts, because I want you to spend an equal amount of time and
an equal amount of writing on each of those three parts. Do your best to construct this like a
coherent single essay that covers these three main areas. Also, do your best to format it according
to the guidelines of APA style, with no title page or abstract, but with a references list at the end in
APA style. Your essay should at least 500 and no more than 750 words, or about 2-3 typed, doublespaced pages in an APA-approved font. Resources about APA writing will be provided in the Exam 4
folder. Your essay will be evaluated according the rubric provided in this document on page 3.
You will submit your final essay as a Word .DOC or Adobe .PDF, using a TurnItIn link in Blackboard in
the Exams area, in the Exam 4 folder. This link will appear on Monday morning of Finals Week, first
thing. TurnItIn will check your submission to determine how much of it matches other peoples’
work. If you have a high percentage of matching text, fix that, and re-submit. You can keep resubmitting until the due date. If you have questions please come discuss them with me during office
hours, or if you can’t participate in video-conferencing, then call the Google Voice number I’ve
provided on the syllabus. I’m happy to clarify things.
PSYCHOLOGY 321 – EXAM 4 (Written Version) 2
Questions that your essay will answer
Part 1
1. We now come to one of the core arguments of the entire book. Sapolsky argues that science will
progressively narrow or eliminate the dominion of free will – which, by this point, is no surprise.
The question is, under those circumstances, how can the criminal justice system be reformed in
a way that reflects this knowledge? a) Briefly Summarize the three things (easy, near-impossible,
and challenging) that Sapolsky argues should be done.
Part 2
2. b) describe your own thoughts on each (of the three things that Sapolsky argues should be
done).
Part 3
3. Make an argument regarding your view of the future of human behavior. a) Specifically address
whether humans are more likely to move toward more of our best behaviors, or toward more of
our worst behaviors. b) Support your argument with at least two pieces of evidence that are
either from the texts assigned for this class – or evidence that comes from other reputable
sources (e.g., peer-reviewed articles, or books like Behave that review the evidence from such
articles and make arguments regarding them).