Guidelines for Research Article Review Bonus Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to get you beyond the textbook and into the recent social psychological literature. The first requirement, then, is that you find a research article published in a relevant psychology journal sometime in the last 10 years. Thespecific article is up to you, but it must meet the following criteria:

(a) it must be in the area of social psychology;

(b) it must be published since 2006;

(c) it must describe some research, as opposed to being a solely theoretical article or an article that only reviews the literature in some research area (please ask me if you are unsure whether an article meets this criterion);

(d) it must be an article located by you; and

(e) it must be a different article than the one you used for any other class requirement.

If you have any doubts about the suitability of a potential article, I would be happy to look at it. Please note that most items you might locate in magazines or on the Internet,although potentially relevant to social psychology, are not appropriate for this assignment.

One way to find an article is simply to flip through recent volumes and unbound issues of various social psychology journals, such as Basic and Applied Social Psychology, the Journal of Social Psychology, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Recent full text articles from Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin are available via the computerized research databases accessible on campus, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology is accessible from Saint Mary's at

www.sciencedirect.com/science/journals.

Another way to find an article is to start with a topic you are interested in and then search PsycINFO, a computerized database that is available via the Saint Mary's library website.

You will find that many published articles describe more than one study; if this is the case for the one you choose, just focus on a single study when you write the assignment.

In writing this assignment, please follow the nine requirements described below, and structure your paper in the same manner and order. In other words, it is not necessary that you write in "essay" format-simply number and answer each of the nine questions separately.

1. Include a full reference to the article using the exact format recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA). An example is provided below:

Darley, J.M., &Latane, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8, 377-383.

2. Summarize the purpose of the article, and briefly describe how the study follows from earlier social psychological research and theory. What was the primary hypothesis of the study?

3. What was/were the primary independent variable(s)? What was/were the primary dependent variable(s)? Note that even in correlational research-where causal relationships cannot be determined with certainty-there are usually implied or theoretically specified "predictors" (i.e., independent variables) and "outcomes" (i.e., dependent variables).

4. What was the nature of the data-experimental or correlational? Briefly explain your answer.

5. Briefly summarize the method of the study.

6. What were the one or two primary findings of the study? Did they support the primary hypothesis?

7. Make one suggestion for further research that builds on the study you reviewed. Explain how this would extend the findings of the study.

8. Briefly relate some aspect of the article to something relevant considered by Myers and Smith (2015) in our textbook, Exploring Social Psychology.

9. Attach a copy of the article to your paper (or a pdf version if you are submitting via email).
Suggested page length: No more-and possibly less-than four double-spaced, typed pages. Try to be clear and concise.

A warning regarding plagiarism: The work you hand in must be your own. Be aware of the definition of plagiarism used by Saint Mary's: "Plagiarism is the presentation of words, ideas or techniques of another as one's own.

Reference to or appropriation of another's work whether by direct quotation or paraphrase must be acknowledged by proper citation. When in doubt, one should seek the advice of the instructor before submitting the work" (St. Mary's University Calendar 2016-2017, p.17-25).

http://www.smu.ca/webfiles/UGcalendar2016-1726April2016.pdf)