3-5 Pages Intro to Social Psychology Paper

Please use the following outline to write your critique:

I. Article Review A. Introduction

1. What is the general topic? (1 point)

2. Why is the study important? (1 point)

3. Briefly state the theoretical and/or empirical justifications for

the study (see 1. next page). (1 point).

4. List the hypotheses or research question (see 2. next page), clearly stating the

independent and dependent variables (see 3. next page). (1 point)

B. Method

1. Participants – numbers, ages, demographic information. (1 point) 2. Procedures – basically, what they did. (1 point) 3. Instruments – what they used, and information concerning validity and reliability if

given (if not given, clearly say so). (1 point)

4. C. Results

1. Briefly describe any descriptive or preliminary analyses conducted. (1 point)

2. For each hypothesis, briefly describe the findings. (1 point)

D. Discussion 1. Summarize major findings. (1 point) 2. Briefly highlight the importance of the findings and the main points. (1 point)

II. Critique A. Strengths – describe the strengths of the study considering importance of the topic,

methods, findings, and anything else that you find to be a strength of the work. (3 points)

B. Weaknesses – describe the weaknesses of the study again considering importance of the

topic, methods, findings, and anything else that you find to be a weakness of the work. (3

points) C. Next steps for this line of research.

1. Assume that the relationships they found are true despite any weaknesses of the study. What studies should be done next in this line of research? That is, thinking

conceptually, what hypotheses should be investigated next? (3 points)

1. Any scientific paper must be justified as to why the research is done. Empirical justifications, for example, are given if the researcher has some observed evidence on

which he or she is basing the research question. Theoretical justifications, cite a theory

as a reason to support the research, for example, a particular theory on self-esteem can be

used to study a phenomenon (most research papers will use theory to back up the

argument).

2. The research question is about "what you want to know." A hypothesis discusses the possible outcome of a study.

3. What are Independent and Dependent Variables?

Question: What's a variable?

Answer: A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category

you are trying to measure. There are two types of variables-independent and dependent.

Question: What's an independent variable?

Answer: An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone

and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone's age

might be an independent variable. Other factors (such as what they eat, how much they go to

school, how much television they watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you

are looking for some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the

independent variable causes some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables.

Question: What's a dependent variable?

Answer: Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It

is something that depends on other factors. For example, a test score could be a dependent

variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied,

how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when

you took it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to

find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it does.

Many people have trouble remembering which is the independent variable and which is the

dependent variable. An easy way to remember is to insert the names of the two variables you are

using in this sentence in they way that makes the most sense. Then you can figure out which is

the independent variable and which is the dependent variable:

(Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't possible that

(Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent Variable).

For example:

(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't possible that (Test Score)

could cause a change in (Time Spent Studying).

We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test Score" must be

the dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make sense the other way around.