PSY 101: General Psychology
Spring 2020
Instructor: Dylan Campbell
Final Paper Instructions
Due Friday, May 1st @ 11:59pm
For this assignment, you will write up a summary and critical analysis of a piece of recent research from the
field of experimental psychology, connecting it to theories and findings we’ve discussed in class.
Finding and selecting an article:
• The article you select to summarize/discuss must:
o Come from one of the following 3 journals:
§ Psychological Science (https://journals.sagepub.com/loi/pssa)
§ Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge)
§ Journal of Applied Psychology (https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl)
o Have been published within the last year (so anything from April 2019-April 2020)
• Though you may find articles by browsing recent issues using the links provided above, you can also use
Google Scholar to search for articles (http://www.scholar.google.com) – click the 3 horizontal lines in
the top left corner to access ‘Advanced Search’ which will allow you to search within specific journals
and by specific years.
• You should be able to download the article you end up selecting through Google Scholar – if not, email
me and I will track down the article and send it to you (do this ASAP – if you wait until the night before
this is due then it won’t end up happening).
Requirements for the paper:
• Length and formatting: The paper should be between 700-1200 words (~2-4 pages, double-spaced).
You do not need to format this in APA style – I care more about correct grammar and spelling than the
paper being formatted following a particular style. If the article you selected reports more than one
study, you may focus your paper on just one of the reported studies.
• Content: Your paper will be graded on the extent to which it includes thoughtful and thorough answers
to the following questions:
o What is the purpose of the study/studies reported in the article (i.e., what predictions or
hypotheses are the researchers investigating?)
o What are the independent and dependent variables in the experiment (or, if the study is
correlational instead of experimental, what variables are being investigated via correlation)?
o Briefly describe the methods and results of the study in your own words.
o Are the results important? Why or why not?
o How do the results relate to theories and ideas we have discussed in class?
o Identify what you think are key strengths and weaknesses in the design of the study. Provide
suggestions for how you would change the study in order to improve it.
o What is your overall evaluation of the research reported in the article? What would you have
done differently and why?
Submission: You will submit (1) a .pdf of the research article you’re writing about and (2) your paper as a
word document in a similar manner to the homework assignments (through the submission portal on Canvas by
attaching these files) before the due date noted above.
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