Assignment Content
Instructions
For this assignment, you will read and respond to a popular article that reports research in psychology.
• A popular article is one written for a general audience. Examples of potential sources for a popular article include, but are not limited to, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, Science, Discover, Psychology Today, Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic.
• A popular article is different from a peer-reviewed scholarly research articleA peer-reviewed scholarly research article is written for a scientific audience and usually includes an abstract, introduction, method, results, and discussion sections.
• For this assignment, again, you are looking for a more popular article written for a general audience.
Choose an article that reviews a psychological topic published within the last 5 years.
• You can search for an article by topic (maybe something we have covered that has interested you) or you can search for an article by publication (review some popular article sources and see if you find something that appeals to you).
• The following tutorials provide information about how to search for your article. The first video explains more about what we mean by a ‘popular’ article and how to search by a topic (e.g. stress, memory, personality disorders)The second video explains how to search by publication (e.g. Scientific American, Discover).
• Topic Search (includes some popular source criteria) – YouTube
• Publication Title Search – YouTube
• PSY 110 – General Psychology – PSY 110: Article Summary Paper – LibGuides at Gateway Community and Technical College (kctcs.edu)
• Consider the length and detail of the article when making your choice. A short article that lacks detail might be challenging to stretch out to a 3-5 page summary.
• Topics might include the brain, memory, sleep, emotions, motivation, learning, psychological disorders, health, stress, etc.
• You will need to choose an article and email it to me for approval.
Read the article and write a minimum 3-page (of actual content – your name and title aren’t “content”) paper in APA format that includes the following and a reference page:
• Summary: General summary of the article capturing the key points including the main topic, research/information (any research methods/results reported in the article), supporting details, and conclusions.
• Five Connections: Apply the textbook to your article by including FIVE connections between the two. The point here is to relate what you have been learning in class to your article topic. For example, I may have an article on dementia to which I can connect topics in the Brain, Development, Memory, and Health/Well- being chapters. What topics from class or chapters in the text best relate to the research/information in your article? Include page numbers to reference the text.
• A note, consider a variety of areas to connect to in the textbook. If most of your connections come from the same page or two, that is more like one connection.
• Critical Thinking: Include your own critical thoughts on the topic. What questions do you have about the topic? Why do you think this research and information is relevant and/or important? What did you learn through writing this paper? What other topics has it prompted you to consider?
• Organization and Mechanics: APA format (12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1″ margins; Works Cited page); Three pages of content; logical flow to paper.
• Make sure that you put this information in your own words to avoid plagiarism – changing a word here or there is still plagiarism. If you must, use no more than 1-2 short, direct quotes with quotation marks and page references.
