|
Dr. Cowden |
Spring 2004 |
PSY 201 Article Reviews
Objectives: To become
more familiar with psychological terms and theories.
To
become more familiar with scientific research.
To
develop your writing skills.
Schedule: for due
dates see on-line schedule.
Points: Article
reviews counts 30 points apiece depending on the quality of the writing and
analysis.
Journals: To
prohibit cheating, the article must be from one of the journals
available in our library or through one of our on-line services. Our largest
source is the various on-line databases though we have some in print as well,
such as the Journal of Marriage and the Family. The on-line databases
contain full-text version of articles from these journals, among others: Annual
Review of Psychology, the Journal of Counseling and Development,
the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Adolescence,
the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, the Journal of Marriage and the
Family, and the Archives of Sexual Behavior. You should select an
article with 5 or more pages so that you have enough to write on. An editorial,
letter to the editor, or book review is not sufficient. Do not use
nursing journals as they rarely report original research. Look for sections
labeled Method, Results, and Discussion so you can see that you have primary
research, not a research summary.
Style: Each
review should be 3 to 5 pages (double-spaced, word-processed) involving
the article's major points or findings and your evaluation of them. Can
you find any flaws in the study? Any ways of improving it? Are you convinced by
the author's conclusions? Each article should start with a full citation
including the title, journal name, all authors' names,
volume number, and page numbers (you don't need to include a
copy). In addition, so that I don't waste a lot of time searching out an
article source, I want you to tell me where you got it. If it was
through the college you only need to specify Health Reference, Expanded
Academic, or Proquest databases. If you found it on the World Wide Web say so
and add the URL. Here is an example:
Ali, Alisha, &
Toner, Brenda B. (2001) Self-esteem as a predictor of attitudes toward wife
abuse among Muslim women and men in Canada. The Journal of Social Psychology,
141, 23. Expanded Academic.
Structure: Be sure to answer the following questions, which
psychologists use to evaluate research. This will help you structure your
paper.
Is your article good research? If not,
explain why not. This review will be MUCH easier if you pick an article
that recounts one research study rather than attempts to summarize lots of
studies.
Ethics: Wording must be your own. To use someone else's sentences is plagiarism, just as using someone else's ideas without credit is plagiarism. No quotations are allowed. Information on correct paraphrasing can be found at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html.
Extra Credit: You may do a third article review as extra credit,
but the point count will be up to 15.
Magazines: you may use a magazine article instead of a journal
article, but then the maximum number of points is 15. Please note that Psychology
Today is a magazine because it is easy to read and aimed at the general
public. Newspaper articles are not OK. You can save
yourself a lot of running around if you check "articles with text"
and "refereed articles" before searching on Infotrac.
Common pitfalls: Be
sure you explain early on who the participants
were and how they were obtained. Make sure you describe the findings before you
start to evaluate them, and be sure to make some comment of your own at the
end.
How
to Read a Research Paper
A
Three-Step Guide for the Psychological Scientist
Reading research paper ("primary sources") is partly a matter of experience and skill. First of all, DON"T PANIC! If you approach it step-by-step, even an evil-wicked-mean-and-nasty paper can be understood.
1. Skim the paper quickly, noting basics like headings, figures, and the like. This takes less than five minutes. You're not trying to understand it yet.
2. Skim the paper for a general impression. Don't panic; you're not trying to understand it yet.
3. Go back and read for comprehension.
* In the Introduction, note the hypothesis and what the author says about previous findings.
* In the Methods, try to get a clear picture of what was done at every step. What was actually measured? As far as you can tell, was the measurement appropriate to answer the research question?
* In the Results, see if the figures and tables are helpful. However, unless you've had statistics it may be hard to make heads or tails out of this. If so, go on to the Discussion, where any really significant result should be addressed.
* The Discussion contains the conclusions.
This is the most important and most useful section. Do you agree with the
conclusions drawn from the data? Are they overgeneralized or appropriate? What
further studies would you think of to continue the research or answer remaining
questions? This is the most important section for summarizing the article
because it tells you what the results mean.
Modified from Ann McNeal,
* Use the spell checker and grammar checker
in your word processing program to find commonly misspelled words, incomplete
sentences, etc.
Updated Dec. 3, 2003