Psychology dreaming

Psyc 100 Term Assignments

Rationale

► Psychology relies on a variety of research methods in order to come to a better understanding of behaviour and other phenomena. Most research methods can be classified either as experiments or as non- experimental designs and it is important for students of psychology to be able to clearly differentiate which type of a design is being used in any specific study. As such, one goal of the term assignments is for you to be able to find different studies relating to a specific topic and identify which type of research method the study uses to address the questions of interest.

► In addition, reading and interpreting published research are important

skills that all scientists must develop. The term assignments for this course will allow you to demonstrate that you can read, summarize and interpret research literature related to one specific topic within the scope covered in Psychology 100.

Overview

►two components

 Assignment #1 – Article Selection

►worth 3%

►due start of class Tuesday Feb. 21st

 Assignment #2 – Article Summaries

►worth 7%

►due start of class Thursday March 22nd

Assignment #1 – Rationale

►an essential early step in any empirical investigation involves a review of the published literature relevant to the specific topic under investigation

►this assignment will familiarize you with locating “good” research articles as well as introducing you to some aspects of a standard format – namely, APA format

►on WebCT you have been assigned a general topic

 you need to find a more specific research issue related to that topic

 also have date and author restrictions

►An efficient way of finding published research that relates to your topic is to conduct a literature search using PsycINFO

Using PsycINFO

Introduction

 For your assignment you will need to find articles published in scholarly/academic journal. Luckily you don’t need to skim through hundreds of journals looking for a good article. You don’t need to look through hundreds of Google results either.

 This tutorial will introduce you to PsycINFO, an online psychology index which is like a very specialized version of Google. PsycINFO will find citations for articles on your topic, and will even lead you to the actual articles.

Research Topic

Let’s assume you’re interested in

investigating further the phenomenon of

bystander intervention that Darley and

Latane first examined in the 1960’s

so you’re interested in articles referenced

in PsycINFO that have bystander

intervention as a subject

Connecting to PsycINFO

 PsycINFO is the specialized index or

search engine which psychologists and

psychology students use to find journal

articles.

 To link to PsycINFO, open up a web

browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) in a

new window and go to http://www.sfu.ca

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 Now, click on the Library Services link.

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 At the left side of the library home page under the Find column click on the link to Journal articles and databases.

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 Now look under Browse databases by title and click on P to reach all databases with names starting with the letter P, and find PsycINFO in the list.

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 Click on the link to PsycINFO and read the description of this database.

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 Click on Connect to link to PsycINFO

Connecting to PsycINFO (con’t)

 alternatively, you could just click on the Connect link on the previous page

PsycINFO -- you should now have a page like the one below

PsycINFO -- now type in your search term bystander intervention

Using Official Subject Headings

 The dropdown boxes beside (to the right) of each search term

in PsycINFO can be used to restrict the results of the search

Using Official Subject Headings  use the dropdown boxes a choose to search for instances

where the search terms are Subjects

Using Official Subject Headings  you’ll get a screen like the one below and then click on the

Search box to conduct your initial search

Using Official Subject Headings  doing this you should get a screen like this

 the problem with this initial search is that the term “bystander

intervention” is not recognized as an official term within

PsycINFO

 there are a couple of ways of getting around this problem

 the easiest way is to use the “SmartText Searching” feature in

PsycINFO

 to access this feature click on the link (see above)

SmartText Searching

• clicking here gives you the results (listed next)

SmartText Results

•

Narrowing Your Search Results

to Citations to Appropriate Articles

 For many psychology assignments you need to find a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal article which reports an empirical study.

 Luckily PsycINFO provides an easy way to limit your search results by making choices on a Search Options menu like the one that follows.

You can use the sliding bar beside each set of options to read all the options available before making your choices.

Often, you’ll

want to only

choose “Peer

Reviewed

Journals”

Narrowing Your Search Results (con’t)

to Citations to Appropriate Articles

 Now, use the available search options to

choose Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal article

Methodology: Empirical Study

Language: English (and any other languages you

may read)

Then click on the Search button.

Narrowing Your Search Results to Citations to Appropriate Articles

 you can further refine your results to articles published within a certain range of

publication dates by using the sliding bars on the right

 let’s say we want only articles published between 1995 and 2000

Narrowing Your Search Results to Citations to Appropriate Articles

 use the sliding bars on the right (or type the dates into the boxes) to set the limits

of 1995 and 2000 and click “Update Results”

True Experiments or

Correlational Studies?  For many Psychology assignments, you are

instructed to select an article which describes a true experiment, an experiment with an independent variable. An independent variable is one that can be manipulated or changed by the researcher.

 Unfortunately, the PsycINFO indexers code both true experiments and correlational studies as empirical studies. To decide if the article describes a true experiment with an independent variable you need to read the abstract of the article carefully.

Finding the Journal Article

 Finding the journal article described in the citation is the real goal of library research! The SFU Library has an excellent collection of psychology journals, some online and some in paper format.

 Just click on the Where can I get this? link in the PsycINFO citation to open up a new window with information about where to get the journal.

Where can I get this

Assignment #1 – Formatting

►the American Psychological Association (APA) has a publication manual that outlines standard format for articles submitted for publication

►your assignments need to conform to APA formatting guidelines

General Instructions

►your manuscript should be printed on one side of standard sized paper

 22 X 28 cm -- 8 ½ X 11 in.

►use 12-pt Times Roman font

►leave uniform margins of at least 2.54 cm (1 in.) at the top, bottom, left, and right of each page

►double space between ALL lines of the manuscript

Example Title Page

Be sure to include:

• the short title & page

number

• the running head

• the title

• submission information

Reference Page

►your reference list should appear on a NEW page at the end of your paper

►it provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper

►each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list;

►similarly, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Reference Page

Note: References are listed

alphabetically by last name

of the first author of each

source.

References

{centered on first line}

• use hanging indentation for each

reference

Short-title & page#

Assignment #1 – Submission

► assignments are due at the START of lecture, 10:30 am on Tuesday February 21st

 late assignments will receive a grade of zero

► you will need to obtain copies of the abstract for each article as well as copies of the method section for each article.  you will annotate these sections to indicate what makes the article

either a true experiment or correlation and to show that they’re dealing with the same general research hypothesis

Levy et al. Abstract

Experiment Hypothesis

Levy et al. Method Section

Experiment due to random assignment of subjects to the four groups

Assignment #1 – Submission

► You will submit these along with an APA-formatted reference page listing your two articles to your TM (tutor/marker).

► Your submission will also include an APA-formatted cover page (see WebCT for an example) listing your name, student number, and TM’s name.

Assignment #1 Grading

Assignment #2 – Rationale

► One important skill you need to succeed when writing papers, answering essay exam questions, or simply taking notes in lecture is the ability to summarise material accurately and concisely. Accurately means that you have selected only the key points and recorded them precisely. Concisely means that you have used the minimum number of words and figures to communicate the accurate meaning of the original source.

Assignment #2 – Summarizing the Articles

► Article summaries must be written in your own words. If you merely copy the words of the author(s) you are committing plagiarism. [You should work through the Plagiarism module on WebCT in order to avoid plagiarism.] Your article summaries will require you to describe in your own words what the article was about. Each summary should be between 300 – 400 words and should address the following issues in the following order. Please label each section. Failure to clearly label each section will result in a lower grade.

Introduction

In their introduction, the author(s) will describe previous research. In your summary indicate the main findings of that previous research. Additionally, in the introduction the author(s) will describe the purpose of the study they conducted and how it relates to the previous research. In your summary you should identify the question that the author(s) were trying to answer and the hypotheses they were evaluating.

Method

The author(s) will describe the methods they used in their study. In your summary you should provide a description of the methods used in the study and identify the study as using either an experimental or a non-experimental design. For the experimental study identify the independent and dependent variables and provide the operational definitions of these variables. Briefly describe the experimental method used. For the non-experimental study identify the variables being measured and how they are operationally defined. Briefly describe the method used to study the relationship between the variables.

Results

Summarize the major findings that the article author(s) report in the results section.

Discussion

In the article’s Discussion section the author(s) will tell you the implications of what they found in their study. Your summary should include a brief overview of the implications of the study.

Assignment #2 – Formatting

►the assignment should be submitted in APA format

Psyc 100 Assignment #2

Example Summaries

Note:

The example summary is

provided only to illustrate

format.

General Instructions

►your manuscript should be printed on one side of standard sized paper

 22 X 28 cm -- 8 ½ X 11 in.

►use 12-pt Times Roman font

►leave uniform margins of at least 2.54 cm (1 in.) at the top, bottom, left, and right of each page

►double space between ALL lines of the manuscript

Example Title Page

Be sure to include:

• the short title & page

number

• the running head

• the title

• submission information

Example First Page

• Short title & page #

Title

{heading centred}

Introduction

{heading centred,

underlined}

Method

{heading centred,

underlined}

• Start with the summary of

the experimental study

{heading left-justified}

Results

{heading centred,

underlined}

Short title & page #

Discussion

[heading centred, underlined}

Continue with the summary

of the non- experimental

study

{heading left-justified}

Introduction

{heading centred, underlined}

Method

{heading centred, underlined}

Results

{heading centred, underlined}

Short title & page #

Discussion

{heading centred, underlined}

Reference Page

►your reference list should appear on a NEW page at the end of your paper

►it provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper

►each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list;

►similarly, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Reference Page

Note: References are listed

alphabetically by last name

of the first author of each

source.

References

{centered on first line}

• use hanging indentation for each

reference

Short-title & page#

Assignment #2 Submission ► each summary should be between 300-400

words

► be sure to clearly label the sections

► you will need to submit two copies of this assignment:

 your paper/hard copy

► this will include the summary of the two articles (with the title and reference pages)

► also submit your annotated copies of the two articles that you summarized

 an electronic copy submitted in WebCT

► this will be just your written summary of the two articles (with the title and reference pages)

► this needs to be in either .doc or .rtf format

• finally, with your hard copy you’ll need to include a copy of the successful submission page from your WebCT online-submission

Click Here

Click Here

Locate the file on your computer and select it and then click OK

Click Here

Click Here

You’ll want to print off and include a copy of this page with your hard copy.

Assignment #2 Submission

DUE:

►the paper copy is to be submitted at the beginning of lecture (9:30 am) on March 22nd

►the electronic copy must be submitted by 9:00 am on the same day to avoid penalties.

Assignment #2 Grading

First Term Test

►Thursday January 26th

 12% of course grade

 Chapters 1, 2, & appendix

 25 multiple-choice questions

 choice of one of two short-answer essay questions

 bring pencil/eraser and know your student number

Multiple Choice Answer Sheets (need to use a pencil)

Fill in circles completely

Complete Personal Information

Fill in special code

Completely erase changes 3 3 3 3

Short-Answer Essay

► Use Outline  (if you have time)

► Limit essay to space provided

► Circle the question you’ve chosen to answer

► Write your name, ID #, and your TMs name

Jane Student 399999999

Your TMs Name