Intro to Psychological Science
Overview : Psychological and medical studies are commonly discussed in the media. Often, the general public hears about these studies through popular press articles.
It is our responsibility to critically evaluate whether the conclusions being drawn by these popular press articles are consistent with the data from the original research.
The goal of this paper is to practice critical thinking and summarizing research articles.
Instructions: For this assignment, you will be reading 2 articles: 1 popular press article and 1 peer – reviewed research article.
First: Read the research article (Roberts & David, 2016) paying close attention to their research design (correlational study or experiment) and findings.
Second: Read the popular press article (NY Post) paying close attention to how the findings of the research article are interpreted and described.
Third: Write your paper. The final paper must be 2-3 pages long , double -spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font, 1” margins.
Use the following outline :
Summarize the research article. Make sure to identify the hypotheses, subject variable(s), the design of the study, and the outcome. You will need to explain whether and how the outcome of the study supports the researchers’ hypothesis (should be about 1 page).
Summarize the popular press article.Provide a discussion of key similarities that you see between the research article and the reports description of the research.
Be sure to discuss any big differences between the research that was run and the way that the research was described in the popular press article. Be sure to note any statements or conclusions that imply causality.
Evaluate whether the press article provided an accurate report of the research study. In evaluating this, consider whether the author used any language that implied a causal relationship between the variables that were studied.
Describe if these were justified based on the study design (why or why not). Provide an alternative explanation about why phubbing may result in lower relationship satisfaction.
