Reference no: EM132294391

PAPER ASSIGNMENTS

Overview:

Students will be expected to write two papers throughout the course of the semester (Review of article 1 and Review of article 2). These assignments have been designed to provide students with an opportunity to critically evaluate the results of psychological research and to interpretresearch results into everyday language.

Writing article reviews consists of having students describe and explain the main variables in a research study, the statistical techniques being used, the main findings, and strengths and limitations of the authors' analytical approach. Students will be required to do two separate article reviews due at different times in the semester.See course calendar for dates.

A selection of academic journal articles will be made available on the D2L course site. From the options available, you will select two articles to review. You will review one article per paper (so review of article 1 will review one article, and review of article 2 will review a second article).

A sample is located on the course D2L site. Please see below for additional instructions:

Article Review (worth up to 200 points; 100 points per article review)

Each article review should include the following headings and related information:

1. Article.What is the APA-style citation for your article?

2. Research Question. What is the research question the article sought to answer? (Note: sometimes authors won't actually give a question, but you can deduce it from the hypothesis and the purpose of the study). What is the hypothesis (or hypotheses) the author discussed? Research question AND hypothesis must be given to earn full credit.

3. Sample. What population did the researchers use to answer their question? Describe the participants. Information should include age range, racial/ethnic breakdown, gender breakdown, and any other important information about study participants.

4. Key Variables. Identify the independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s) in the study. What were the conceptual and operational definitions of each of these variables? Explain what the key variables are and how they were measured.

5. Statistical Techniques. Based on the research question and the variables, what statistical techniques did the researchers use to examine their topic? Be sure to mention specific techniques by name (e.g., Multiple regression, ANOVA, t-test, etc.)

6. Research Results. What did the results reveal? Were the results statistically significant or not and how do you know? Be sure to provide actual numerical information (e.g., results of the statistical technique described in section above, along with associated p-value where appropriate).

7. Interpretation. What do the results mean in plain language? What is the practical (not statistical) significance of these findings?

8. Strengths. What did the researcher(s) do that you think was beneficial for their study? What were the main strengths of their analytical approach?

9. Limitations. What did the researcher(s) do (or fail to do) that would have been beneficial for their study? Suggest a way to improve the statistical analyses in this article. This could include conceptual differences (to increase external validity) or statistical differences (to increase internal validity)

Formatting:

• Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, using 12 point Times New Roman font, 3-5 pages in length.

• The top of your first page should include a short header with your name, the course number,semester, and the assignment name. (e.g., Sally Student; PSY 230, -Spring 2016;Review of Article 1).

• The assignment should be divided into nine sections that are labeled and bolded: Article, Research Question, Sample, Key Variables, Statistical Techniques, Research Results, Interpretation, Strengths, and Limitations (see sample in D2L).

• Your paper should be written in full sentences, to a scholarly standard, checked for spelling and grammatical errors.

• The reviews should be written in your own words. Limit your use of direct quotes wherever possible in favor of paraphrasing using your own words.

If you absolutely must use a direct quote, be sure to cite correctly (with author's last name, year of publication, and page number where the quote was found). You may find it helpful to refer to some of the APA resources offered in the syllabus (e.g., The Owl at Purdue, APA Style Essentials, or the 6th copy of the APA's publication manual. See Course Materials section of syllabus).

Note that if your submission report shows 50% similarity or more, your paper will be returned ungraded to be redone. Standard late penalties will apply (10% off per day late, including weekends; No late assignments accepted in excess of one week past original due date).

• Be sure to use proper APA-style in-text citations, even when you're simply paraphrasing (and not using direct quotes).