PSYC-1 Introductory Psychology Article Summary

or this assignment, you can use the use google scholar or other databases as long as you choose a peer-reviewed journal article. You should never pay for an article; choose something else if you cannot get free access.

From the topics listed below, search the database for a study on that topic. The length of the paper you choose to read does not matter, but look for papers that you find interesting. You will be writing an article summary of the experiment you read. The specific instructions on how to do this are listed below. You will also have an introduction and conclusion. This paper will be evaluated by turnitin.com, so be sure to paraphrase and use in-text citations to avoid plagiarism.

Students are required to choose from one of the following topics:

-Social Media Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. (e.g., effects on relationships, mental health etc.)

– Conformity

– Discrimination (e.g., racism, sexism, etc.)

-Stereotype threat

-Obedience to authority

-Bullying

-Bystander effect

-Treatment for mental disorders (e.g., depression, eating disorders, drug abuse, etc.)

-Human factors psychology (e.g., user experience, user interface design, human computer interaction). Experiments in this category must include the study of human’s behavior, cognition, and/or perception.

-Video games (e.g., use in learning, effects on aggression, etc.)

-Learning and memory

This paper will have a word limit of minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 600 words and will require a scientific journal article from peer-reviewed journals. Do not go over the word count by more than 50 words.

The following structure can be used as a guideline:

Start with an APA style title page

• Introduction

Define the topic and formulate a thesis statement. Explain the topic that you have chosen to write this paper about, also discuss why you have chosen this topic.

• Body

-Summarizing the empirical articles:

1. Summarize the authors’ purpose (~3-5 sentences). Why did the authors conduct the study? What was their rationale?
2. Methods (~5-8 sentences). Discuss how the study was conducted. Here, mention how many subjects were there for the study, their characteristics (e.g., college students, children, age, etc.), how were the data collected (e.g., was it through survey, interview etc.), was this study an experiment or a correlational study, finally, identify the independent (what was being manipulated by the researchers) and dependent variables (what was being measured; what was the behavior of interest in the study). You should be able to identify if the study was a correlational study or a true experiment where independent variables were manipulated to assess changes in the dependent variable(s).
3. Summarize the results (~4-6 sentences). What did the experimenters find? Where there statistically significant findings? Discuss what the main results were for the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. There may be more than one independent and dependent variable. In this case, you may choose what variables are of most interest to you and write about those.
4. Summarize the authors’ comments and conclusions (~3-4 sentences). Also discuss any limitations of the article you may find and suggest ways to overcome those limitations. Mention how the findings in the article are related to your thesis statement.

• Conclusion:

What are the overall conclusions from your research on your topic? What did you learn from this research experience? How, if at all, will knowing more about this topic influence your behavior? What did you find most interesting about this topic and the information you gained from your research?

Be sure to cite in-text and provide an APA style title page and reference section. Please put your word count after your last reference. Only the following formats are accepted, so please choose one of these:

MS Word, Acrobat PDF, RTF. Failure to use the correct format may result in a zero.