Aging in America

LESSON 2.2 Myths and Realities – Research on Aging

Required Readings

Hooyman and Kayak text, Chapter One, will provide information related to this lesson.

Written Assignment

1. Find one research article on aging and review it for quality and findings. You can find

relevant articles through the Saint Joseph’s College Library homepage. For a step-by-step

tutorial on how to do this, go to:

http://sigma.sjcme.edu/library%20tutorials/CINAHL%20Advanced%20Search.htm

Note: You will want to look only for research articles, and you will have to specify a topic

before you can search the databases.

Note: The approach above will take you only to research articles that have direct links to the articles

listed. If you have the time (or money) to do so, and want a better selection, do not specify free

full text. You can then request that copies of selected articles be sent to you by our library—

usually these are free, but can take a week or more to get. See instructions on the library website for how to access this service.

2. Now, carefully read the article you retrieved and write a 2-3 page paper with the following

information included:

a. Describe the problem that the researchers are trying to investigate (that would usually

be that something that is unknown at present and needs to be investigated).

b. Review the article’s brief summary of previous research done on this problem; this is

usually found under the heading of Background, or Review of the Literature. Read

this carefully and summarize what is known and not known about the problem before

the study you are reviewing was done.

c. Next, state what the researchers are asking in their study (this is the research question

or hypothesis).

d. Finally, summarize what the research found (the answer to the research question) and

describe if and how this information could be applied by older adults or by those who

work with older them.

e. NOTE: Not all articles you find will be research articles, some may be commentaries

or clinical reviews. To assure that you’ve found a research article, look back at steps

a through d above to see the type of information and format you will find in a true

research. If you can’t find this type of information, you’re probably not reading a

research report.

PLEASE NOTE: All graded assignments for this Unit should be grouped together and

submitted using the Assignment Submission form accessed from your course homepage or

http://www.sjcme.edu/gps/assignments.