Assignment: Introduction to Psychological Science
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 data from the original research. The goal of this paper is to practice critical thinking and summarizing research articles.
For this assignment, you will use two articles. The first is from a peer-reviewed research journal and the second is a popular press summary of the research:
Peer-reviewed article: Jackson, L. A., Witt, E. A., Games, A. I., Fitzgerald, H. E., von Eye, A., & Zhao, Y. (2011). Information technology use and creativity: Findings from the Children and Technology Project. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 370-376. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.10.006.
Popular press article: Snider, M. (2011, November 2). Research: Video games help with creativity in boys and girls. USA Today.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Read the peer-reviewed article, paying close attention to their research design and findings. Here are the different sections you will generally find in these types of research reports:
• The Abstract provides a summary of the research; what was done and why, and what happened.
• The Introduction provides background information on the topic and previous related research, ending with a summary of the study to be done, its purpose, and the hypothesis (or hypotheses).
• The Method provides specific and technical details about how the study was conducted including the Design of the study which outlines whether it is an experiment (with random assignment), what the different variables are and how they were measured. It also describes the participants and how they were recruited, the specifics of the stimuli shown to participants (if these were created), and the step-by-step procedure participants went through when completing the study.
• The Results provides specific and statistical information about the analysis of the findings. Graphs of the data are usually found here. This section can provide technical details that are sometimes hard to follow, but it should also have some text that explains what the statistics suggest about the answer to the research question or hypothesis.
• The Discussion starts with a summary of what was found in the study and whether the hypotheses were confirmed or disconfirmed. Then, what happened in the study is compared to what was known from previous studies to try to put it all together.
After reading the peer-reviewed article, read the popular press article, paying close attention to how the findings of the peer-reviewed article are interpreted and described in the popular press article.
Review what you learned from lecture regarding research methods to remind yourself about study characteristics that determine when you can and cannot draw causal conclusions.
Use the following outline to write your paper:
1. Summarize the peer-reviewed article.
o Identify the research hypothesis, the variables, the design of the study, and the outcome.
o Explain whether and how the outcome of the study supports the research hypothesis.
o Did the design of the study support causal conclusions? Why or why not?
2. Summarize the popular press article.
o State what the popular press article says about what the research can tell us.
o The popular press article may or may not use causal language. Note any statements, phrases, or conclusions that imply one thing causes another.
3. Evaluate whether the popular press article provided an accurate report of the original research.
o Compare the original peer-reviewed article about the research and the popular press article in terms of whether they implied a causal relationship between the variables that were studied.
o Describe whether, and in what way(s), the conclusions in the popular press article may go beyond what the research study can really tell us.
o Suggest and explain a possible third variable that might account for the finding that videogame playing is associated with creativity.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.