OVERVIEW:
Psychological studies are commonly discussed in the media. Often, the general public hears about these studies through popular press articles. It is our responsibility to critically evaluate whether the conclusions being drawn by these popular press articles are consistent with the findings from the original research. The goal of this paper is to practice critical thinking and summarizing research articles. Make sure to read the instructions and rubric before starting your paper. If you have questions about this assignment reach out to your assigned CA.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:
First: Read the peer-reviewed article, pay close attention to the research design and findings (feel free to skip the results section, you want to focus on the Introduction, Methods, and Discussion).
Second :Read the popular press article, pay close attention to how the findings of the peer-reviewed article are interpreted and described
Third: Review learned information from the text, lecture, and associated course materials regarding research methods and causality
Fourth: Compose a well-written, scientific report. Specific instructions and formatting guidelines are below.
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS
This is a paper, not a worksheet, you should write a cohesive paper using paragraphs and not bullet points. You will loose points for bullet points. However, you may use these instructions as an outline for your paper.
Title page: name of the assignment, your name, my name, the name of our class, the name of the university, and the due date.
Summarize the peer-reviewed article in a few sentences (e.g., what is the goal of this study?, what are the main theories being tested?, etc)
What was the research hypothesis?
What are the variables (including all predictor/independent, outcome/dependent, and control variables)
Identify the design of the study (correlational or experimental). How do you know this is the design?
What was the finding from the study? What did the researchers find is the relationship between the predictor (independent) and the outcome (dependent) variables?
Explain whether and how the outcome of the study supports the research hypothesis.
Describe the content of the popular-press article, including any info about the research hypothesis, the subject variables (including all independent and dependent variables), the design of the study (correlational or experimental), and the outcome.
Describe what other supporting information the authors use, such as quotes from the researcher or others.
Refer to any statements, phrases, or conclusions that imply causality. Pay special attention to the title and some of the quotes in the paper for causal language. (NOTE: the word is causal, not casual.).
Evaluate whether the press article provided an accurate report of the original research. Did the author use any language that implied a causal relationship between the variables that were studied? Explain.
Describe why causal conclusions cannot be made from correlational studies. Use material from the textbook and lectures (Chapter 2) for this.
Suggest and explain a possible third variable (see Chapter 2 content) that might account for the finding that not feeling cold relates to self-objectification.
References page: Provide references for all the sources you used to write your paper.
GENERAL FORMATTING GUIDELINES:
APA-style title page
2-3 pages of actual content – there is a 10 point deduction for papers more than 3.5 pages or less than 2 pages. Title page and references do not count towards page count.
Complete sentences, no bullet points.
Double-spaced
Size 12 Times New Roman font
1” margins
References page (Hint: There should be three references)
Intext citationsLinks to an external site. when referring to something from the textbook, the peer-reviewed article, and the pop-science article.
NO quotes allowed, there is a 20 point deduction for any use of quotations.
When describing the quotes used in the popular press article, you should paraphrase the content of the quotes. For example, you can say something like “In the popular press article, the Felig is quoted as describing X theory…” or “Felig states in an interview, the participants did X, Y, and Z…”
Review plagiarism rules and guidelines for the assignment here.
File must be turned in as a doc, docx, or pdf.
SCIENTIFIC WRITING REQUIREMENTS:
APA formatting is required and must include the following 3 aspects (click the links for resources on how to format each aspect)
In-text citationsLinks to an external site.
References pageLinks to an external site.
Title PageLinks to an external site.IAPALinks to an external site
Be comprehensive but concise. Focus on summarizing broad concepts accurately. Do not include specific numbers or statistics, rather describe the overall patterns of findings.
Use concrete examples (but do not quote)
Each paragraph should make one clear point. It is better to have many small paragraphs rather than a few large ones.
Order your paragraphs/points in a logical flow, using transition sentences can help with this.
Check your spelling, grammar, and writing quality. A good way to do this is to read your paper out loud.
