Overview

This assignment will require you to practice scientific thinking and apply foundational concepts covered thus far in PSYC 510 to practical, real-world situations. This includes requiring you to use the Jerry Falwell Library through Liberty University to access articles for this assignment. You will develop scientific writing skills by summarizing, evaluating summaries from your peers, and formatting citations and Reference entries using professional conventions. PSYC510 Discussion – Reading Research

Please note that, as stated in Watch: Variables item from a previous module, independent variables that do not have random assignment to IV levels are characterized as “subject variables.” This more clearly differentiates a “true” independent variable from one that does not meet all the criteria. Please make sure you use this distinction in this and all future assignments within the course.

Thread Assignment Instructions

Use the APA Journals Article Spotlight discussion resource to find a recent summary of an original research article related to your professional interests on the APA website.

If you scroll down to “Browse Article Spotlight topics,” you can refine the topics shown to an area in psychology (e.g., “Developmental Psychology” or “Industrial / Organization Psychology and Management”). Find an article summary that has been published in the last 5 years. Also, it is essential that you select an article summary of an original research article – not a meta-analysis or systematic analysis. You can ensure the article summary is of an original research article by locating the reference to the original research article (sometimes it is a hyperlink within the summary, other times it is at the end of the article summary as a reference entry).

Use the Jerry Falwell Library to access the original research article. A link to the library is provided for you in this Discussion’s “Reading Research Resources” and is also found in Canvas and on Liberty’s website. Once on the library homepage, use the “Find Resources” to locate the original research article. To do so, select the “Articles” tab. Then, copy/paste the name of the article you want to find into the box and press “Search”. In most cases, this will bring up the article you’re looking for as the top search result. If the article is available through the library, you can click on the “Full Text Online” button in order to get the link to access a PDF of the article. You will need to download the original research article as a PDF as you will be posting it as part of your thread. Skim through the article. An original research article should have a Method section with participants (humans or animals) and Materials section (using previously validated measures / scales that have citations). If the article you selected is not available full-text and/or is not an original research article, you need to select a different article summary and article to complete this assignment.

Sources:

• You can find the APA Journals Article Spotlightlink under the Discussion: Reading Research Resources
• You can find a link to the Jerry Falwell Library under the Discussion: Reading Research Resources

Thread Content

The thread consists of two sections – a numbered answers section (#1-6) and then a paragraph summary. Please include the required information in the order specified below.

Section 1

Answer the following six questions, making sure to number them in your thread #1 – 6. You do not need to use complete sentences, nor do you need to include citations or references in this section.

1. Title of the article summary
2. Publication date of the article summary(month, day, and year)
3. Title of the research articleon which the article summary is based.
4. Name of the journal in which the research articleis published.
5. Year of publication for the research article.
6. The total number of participants in the original research article (if a numerical value is not clearly identified in the Method section of the article, it is most likely not an appropriate article and summary to use for this assignment).

**Make sure to upload a PDF of the original research article as part of your thread.

Approximately 5 short answers / incomplete sentences, numbered.

Section 2

Base this section on your reading of the article summary. Using complete sentences in your own words, state why the study needed to be done (provide a brief background). Next, discuss the methods and results as covered in the article summary. Finally, discuss the implications (why the study matters / how it can be used in the profession). Please note that this paragraph should not include any quotes. The goal of your summary here is to develop your ability to read and summarize scientific research using your own words, to give credit when credit is due, and to summarize without plagiarizing. One citation should be included in the first sentence referring to the source (it can be in narrative or parenthetical form). This helps to avoid overciting – see Section 8.1 in the Publication Manual for more details.

Approximately 5 – 7 sentences.

References

Provide a correctly formatted Reference entry for the article summary cited in Section 2 using current APA conventions. To reduce ambiguity, an example based on information from Section 10 of the APA Publication Manual (2020) is provided below.