Risk Factors that Predict the Future Occurrence of Eating Disorders

Name: Research Summaries
Description: Find and read an experimental paper on a topic of interest to you in Psychology. Summarize the paper in your own words and tell me how you went about finding the article.

PSY 101, Introduction to Psychology

Paper Requirement

Overview: Find and read an experimental paper on a topic of interest to you in Psychology. Summarize the paper in your own words and tell me how you went about finding the article.

Specific Instructions:

• Find an article:
  
  
  
  • Use library resources to find an experimental paper on a topic of interest to you in Psychology. The paper MUST come from a peer reviewed journal (see below).
  
  
  • You must select the paper from one of the following journals or have the journal approved by me ahead of time. Journals will only be approved if they are peer reviewed. (Preapproved Journals: Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Cognition, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, or Behavioral Neuroscience) Failure to meet this requirement will result in receipt of a grade of 0.
  
  
  • The paper must be an empirical article, not a literature review or a meta-analysis. If you are not sure of the difference, check the article to see if the authors collected new data and analyzed results. If you are still unsure, check with your instructor before completing the assignment. Failure to meet this requirement will result in receipt of a grade of 0.
  
  
  
  


• You will need to write a short description of how you went about finding the paper. This should include which search engines and terms you used.


• Demonstrate Your Understanding of the Article:
  
  
  
  • Read the article carefully so that you understand the points that the author(s) are trying to make. You do not have to understand the statistics, but you need to understand what they were testing and what they found.
  
  
  • Write a brief summary of the article to demonstrate your understanding. This summary should be at least one page and no more than 2, double spaced, Times New Roman 11 point font with 1 inch margins. Please use your OWN words to describe the paper. The point here is that I want to know you understood the paper and can explain it simply. If you use a vocab word or talk about a topic in psychology be sure to define it to show me you know what it means. This summary should be very simple. This should be written using proper grammar, but also in such a way as a friend with no background in psychology (or your grandmother) would understand it. Do NOT use quotes – this must be in your own words or you will lose points.
  
  
  • Describe what the authors wanted to test (What are they talking about and why?), how they operationalized their independent and dependent variables How did they do what they did?), and what they found (Were they right? Why do we care?).
  
  
  • Cite the article using APA format at the end of your paper. Failure to meet this requirement may result in receipt of a grade of 0.
  
  
  
  

Grading (see detailed rubric attached to assignment):

Description of how the article was found                                                               1 point

Summary of the article                                                                                             2points

Mostly correct grammar and references                                                                   1 point

Appropriate length (1-2 pages double-spaced, 12 point Time New Roman)                      1 point