DUE 9-28-05 (revised due date); worth 10%

The goal of the journal article review is to familiarize you with scholarly research in psychology and how research studies are conducted and described.

Requirements:

1.The report must be based on your reading of an ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER from a SCHOLARLY PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL.Scholarly psychology journals do NOT include magazines like Time, Newsweek, or even Psychology Today.

2.The article you choose must be related to the etiology, diagnosis, or treatment of a specific psychological disorder.

3.The article must have a publication date of no earlier than 2002.

4The article must report on empirical research. To determine whether your article reports on empirical research, look to see whether it has a METHODS or PROCEDURES section that is clearly labeled as such.

5.If there is any doubt as to whether the paper you have chosen will be acceptable, you must check it out with me.

OVERVIEW: The final version must be at least 2 FULL double-spaced typedpages ( I do not grade either single spaced or hand written papers).You must follow ALL the directions in the Writing Tips Guidelines included below.A sample Journal Article Report is available on the World Wide Web at my web site, under journal article review assignment.You must follow the guidelines below.

1.Hand in a copy of your article; be sure that you have underlined or highlighted the article as you read it.The underlining demonstrates to me that you have read the article.

2. Please supply all of the information requested below concerning the paper you read. Please write your paper using the following sections and section headings. In other words, begin your paper with a section entitled HYPOTHESIS.

A.Whenever you refer to your study in your paper, you must reference the information from the article you read using the name and date system used by the American Psychological Association (APA) (see referencing guidelines attached).

B.State the HYPOTHESIS of this study. (Remember, a hypothesis makes a specific PREDICTION. A hypothesis is NOT a statement of purpose.)

C.Summarize the BACKGROUND information that was available to the authors that prompted them to do the study. (Tell me WHY the study was done.)

D.Describe the METHODS and subjects used.There are 2 parts to this section.

a.Identify the research method used in the study

1.Identify the research method used in the study

a.if your study was experimental research, then identify the independent and dependent variables and the control and experimental groups

b.naturalistic or laboratory observation

c.case study

d.survey

e.psychological test

2.Describe specifically what the authors did; how he, she or they conducted this experiment in a step-by-step description. Do not include statistical methods.

3. What were the most important RESULTS of the study? What information did they obtain? Do not confuse this with conclusions of the study. The results sections often describe the outcome in statistical terms that you may not understand, please just skip over the statistics and give a brief summary of what happened in your own words (do NOT just quote what the authors said….I want you to try to put this in your own words).

4. What was the CONCLUSION of the study? Did it SUPPORT or REFUTE the original hypothesis? Explain the meaning and/or implications of the conclusion. Again, be sure to use your own words.

5. Furnish complete REFERENCE information, in proper American Psychological Association (APA) style. Example: Becker, L.J., & Seligman, C. (1981). Welcome to the energy crisis. Journal of Social Issues, 37(2), 1-7. See referencing guidelines for more details.

Scholarly Psychology Journals (Related to Abnormal Psychology) Available

in the GeorgiaPerimeterCollege Libraries:

American Journal of Psychiatry:

CLARKSTONvol. 142+: 1985+

DUNWOODYvol. 140+: Jan 1996 +1983+ MICROFILM only

Journal of Abnormal Psychology:

CLARKSTONvol. 83+: 1974+

DUNWOODYJan 1996 +

Journal of Counseling and Development:

CLARKSTONvol. 63+: Sept 1984+

DUNWOODYvol. 63+: Sept 1984+

DECATURcurrent year only

Journal of Counseling Psychology:

CLARKSTONvol. 21+: 1974+

DUNWOODYvol. 17+: 1970+

DECATURvol. 20-30: 1973-1983

PsycINFO, a scholarly database for psychology, is available on GALILEO (a Web-based resource for the state of Georgia), through EBSCOhost. I urge you to learn to use this important resource!This will allow you to search for scholarly articles in psychology.Unfortunately, this databaseis not linked to full-text articles, so if you find an article you are interested in, you will have to try find a actual copy of it in the library (our holdings are limited, and public libraries do not usuallycarry scholarly journals) or in one of the full-text databases (more likely, see below).Use of databases with full-text articles, such as Research Library (from ProQuest) and Academic Search Premier (from EBSCOhost), which are available through GALILEO will greatly expand the range of journals available to you at GeorgiaPerimeterCollege.

Suggestions for improving your papers

·READ THE WRITING TIPS & GUIDELINES CAREFULLY

·READ APA REFERENCING GUIDELINES CAREFULLY

·REMEMBER THAT ALL WRITTEN WORK IS GRADED ON WRITING AS WELL AS CONTENT

·REVIEW THE ATTACHED GRADING CRITERIA SHEET SO YOU WILL KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR

·INCLUDE ONLY THAT WHICH YOU UNDERSTAND

·IF YOU USE THE AUTHOR’S WORDS (DIRECTLY OR AS PARAPHRASE) YOU MUST USE A REFERENCE, OTHERWISE IT IS PLAGIARISM

Grading Criteria for Journal Article Review – Due 9-28-05

Writing Criteria – don’t forget, GPC has a writing lab that will help you with your writing!
 

Criteria	Points Possible	Points Awarded
Grammar, spelling	5 points
Writing style: clarity, organization, sentence and paragraph structure, language usage	10 points
Presentation: title page, absence of handwritten corrections, margins, sloppiness, typed, double-spaced, stapled (when handed in), follows all instructions, reference list conforms to APA style	10 points
TOTAL	25 points

Content
 

Criteria	Points Possible	Points Awarded
Underlined journal article submitted	5 points
Clear statement of hypothesis	5 points
Accurate identification of research method	10 points
Thorough and accurate description of methods and procedures	15 points
Effort to understand and describe results	15 points
Accurate and thorough description of conclusions	15 points
Accurate and complete references – both in text and reference list	10 points
TOTAL	75 points

WRITING TIPS AND GUIDELINES FOR ALL WRITTEN WORK

·All written work must be typed and double-spaced with 1 inch margins all the way around your paper.

·Keep a copy of all written work that you hand in.

·Hand in all work stapled...bring it to class stapled, I will not have a stapler with me!Please do not use folders.

·All work should have a typed, title page that includes your full name, the name of the course, the title of your paper, and the date.

·Any work that uses other sources must have a reference list.This should follow the style guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA).All your in text references should also use APA style.Specific instructions for this style are on an attached sheet.

· If you cite a source in your text, it must appear on your reference list.Any source on your reference list, must appear in your text.

·Proof read all your work.Do not hand in your first draft. Expect to do at least one rewrite.For this reason, I strongly suggest that you use a word processor.They are available on campus in the writing lab and the computer lab.

·Have an introductory paragraph that describes what you are going to discuss in the remainder of your paper.Have a concluding paragraph that summarizes what you've written.

·Put main ideas into separate paragraphs that follow what you have outlined in your introduction.

·Your paragraphs and ideas should have a logical flow and your main ideas should be easy to identify.

·Grammar and spelling should be correct.No type-o's please!

·Eliminate unnecessary words and get to your points quickly.Avoid rambling and disorganized writing that does not get to the point.

·Use sex-inclusive language (for example, he or she, they, people).

·Do not have handwritten and sloppy corrections.

·No more than 10% of your paper should be direct quotes.Limit your use of direct quotes, paraphrase using your own words and then cite a reference for the ideas.

·Do not use abbreviations of any sort (including etc.).Do not use contractions.

·USE YOUR OWN WORDS

***REMEMBER***GEORGIAPERIMETERCOLLEGE HAS A WRITING LAB.I AM ALSO WILLING TO GO OVER YOUR PAPERS BEFORE THEY ARE DUE TO GIVE YOU FEEDBACK BUT I MUST HAVE SEVERAL DAYS IN WHICH TO DO THIS!!! ***REMEMBER***WRITING AS WELL AS CONTENT WILL COUNT TOWARDS YOUR GRADE ON ALL WRITTEN WORK IN THIS CLASS!

AMERICANPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION STYLE GUIDELINES

APA guidelines differ from MLA guidelines.Reference citations in your text are different.Reference lists are also different.For this paper, you MUST use the APA style. 

IN TEXT CITATIONS

1.To cite references in the text, you must use the "Name and Year" (APA) style of referencing which is used throughout your text

Example:People who are born blind and whose sight is restored through surgery often have permanent visual deficits that may stem from early lack of visual stimulation (Riesen, 1950).

If there are two authors, you must list BOTH author’s last names, in the order they appear on the publication every time you cite that reference, AND the year of the publication.

Example:The same pattern appears in studies of how English-speaking Canadians behavior toward French-speaking Candadians (Meindl & Lerner, 1985), straights toward homosexuals, and non-Jewish students toward Jews (Fein & Spencer, 1997).

If there are more than two authors, the FIRST time you cite the reference, you MUST cite the last names of ALL authors in the order they appear on the publication.After giving the complete citation the first time, subsequent references to that source can be listed by giving the last name of the first author followed by a comma and the words “et al.”.

Example:Among Canadian and American university students too, men are far more likely than women to admit coercing a partner into sex-using alcohol or other drugs, or threats or actual physical force (O’Sullivan, Byers, & Finkelman, 1998).

Men are more likely than women to admit to coercing a partner into sex (O’Sullivan et al., 1998).

2.Citing a study that you have not read yourself:If you want to cite a study that you have not read but was cited in a book or journal article that you did read, you may only cite the reference that you actually read.In other words, if you read a book by Wade and Tavris and they referred to research conducted by Brown and Stern, you must use the following form for in-text citation:

Example: In their extensive research, Brown and Stern found that undergraduate students prefer psychology over all other courses.(Brown and Stern, 1990: cited in Wade and Tavris, 1990).

In this case, only the Wade and Tavris book is listed in the REFERENCE section of your paper.

REFERENCE LIST GUIDELINES

1.References should be on a separate sheet of paper at the end of your paper and should be entitled References (NOT bibliography or works cited)

2.All your references should be listed alphabetically by the last name of the author.ALL authors’ last names MUST be listed in the order they appear on the publication.

3.Any reference that you have cited in the text must appear on your reference list. 

4.The second and all subsequent lines of all references must be indented.

5.Use the following guidelines for different citations:

Journal article with a single author:

Riesen, A. A. (1950).Arrested vision.Scientific American.186, 107- 108.

Journal article with multiple authors:

Armstrong, K.A. & Fraley, Y.L.(1985).What happens to families after they leave the program:Children Today, 14, 8-12.

Books:

Wade, C. & Tavris, C. (2002).Psychology and Modern Life (7th ed.).Upper Saddle River, N.J.:Prentice Hall.