Students will locate any psychology or related journal article from any peer-reviewed (http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Peer_review) journal (here is a helpful list: http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Journals). The easiest way to find an article is to use one of the libraries data bases. PsychInfo is the best and allows you to search peer-reviewed full-text availability (almost 700,000 articles available to you).
Students will submit their copy of the journal article along with a paper that summarizes and critiques the journal article. Among the questions students may want to answer are the following:
What is the purpose for the article?
What is the author trying to accomplish?
What issues or problems are raised?
What data, experiences, and evidence are given?
What concepts are used to organize this data and experiences?
How is the author thinking about the world?
Is her thinking justified as far as we can see from your perspective?
And how does she justify it from her perspective?
How can we enter her perspective to appreciate what she has to say?
A good way to get a “handle” on your article is to try and answer as many of the following questions about it after reading it thoroughly. You can do this by going through each section:
Introduction:
Why did the researchers conduct this experiment?
What theory does this research support or challenge?
What are the research questions?
What are the hypotheses?
Method:
Is this a correlational study? Experimental study? How do you know?
What is the IV (independent variable)?
What are the DVs (dependent variables)?
How were each of the variables operationalized?
Describe the participants. List specifics.
Describe the measures and materials used.
Describe the conditions under which the participants were tested.
Results:
What were the results of the statistical tests (in your own words)?
Discussion:
What conclusions did the author reach?
How do these conclusions relate to theory and past research?
Once you have answered these questions, begin to ask some critical thinking questions. There are four types or levels of critical thinking questions students should use in their paper. Here are some examples of these questions taken from Randall (2002).
Summary and Definition Questions: what is (are)…? who…? when…? how much…? how many…? what is an example of…?
Analysis Questions: how…? why…? what are the reasons for…? what the types of…? what is the process of…? what other examples of…? what are the causes/ results of…? what is the relationship between …and …? what is the similarity or difference between… and…? how does …apply to …? what is (are) the problems or conflicts or issues…? what are possible solutions/ resolutions to these problems or conflicts or issues…? what is the main argument or thesis of…? how is this argument developed…? what evidence or proof or support is offered…?
Hypothesis Questions if…occurs, then what happens…? if …had happened, then what would be different…? what does theory x predict will happen…?
Evaluation Questions is…good or bad…? …..correct or incorrect…? …..effective or ineffective…? …..relevant or irrelevant…? …..clear or unclear…? …..logical or illogical…? …..applicable or not applicable…? …..ethical or unethical…? what are the advantages or disadvantages of…? what are the pros or cons of…? what is the best solution to the problem / conflict / issue…? do I agree or disagree …? what is my opinion…? what is my support for my opinion…?
The rubric used for grading this assignment is attached to the last page of this syllabus and is also available online.