PSY 110: Article Summary Paper

Assignment Summary

Find a popular magazine article that reports research in psychology. Choose a full-length article that reviews a psychological topic from a recent issue (last 5 years).

A popular magazine has content that is created for the general public, not for experts in the field of Psychology. The way the article is written uses language that is more understandable for the reader who may not be familiar with specific scientific vocabulary used by professionals. Please review the video on the difference between a popular and scholarly source should you need more details.

If you need assistance finding a popular magazine article in the Gateway Library Databases, please continue reading for instructions, or contact the library.

Assignment Directions (summary):

Read the article and write a minimum 3 page paper (typed, double-spaced, 1" margins, 12-point Times New Roman font) that addresses the following points:
 

• What is the main point(s) of the article?
• What are the main research methods and results of the study (or studies) reported in this article?  (Make sure that you put this information in your own words to avoid plagiarism - changing a word here or there is still plagiarism.  If you must, use no more than 1-2 short, direct quotes with quotation marks and page references.)
• Why is the research reported here relevant or important?
• What topics from class or chapters in your text best relate to the research in your article?
• What questions or comments do you have about the research or the article?

How to find a popular magazine article

• First, you will need to decide what topic you want to search. Your instructor gives some examples: memory, sleep, emotions, persuasion, motivation, learning, mental disorders, psychotropic medication, etc.

• Then you will use the keywords of your topic (and maybe a few more related terms) to search for a popular magazine article in the library databases.

• Your instructor gives you some examples of popular magazine titles: Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, Science, Discover, Psychology Today, Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, etc.

• The best place to start searching for a popular magazine article is in the database EBSCO Academic Search Complete or Gale Psychology Collection.

To get to the library databases, click on this link. Or access databases specific to Psychology at this link.

• This will bring you to a list of databases, Academic Search Complete is the second one on the list.
• You will click on that link to get into the database.
• For more assistance, watch the videos below to see how to conduct a Publication Search in EBSCO and Gale.

Search Results

• The results are sorted by relevance, but you can resort them by new to older since you need an article that is 5 years old or newer. You can also use the date slider on the left that will let you change the date range to whatever fits your needs.
• Then from there, if you are happy with the results, you can begin browsing for an article that sounds interesting to you. You will click on the link that says “PDF Full Text” or “HTML Full Text” in order to read the entire article. You can change your search results, by changing or adding to your keywords at the top of the screen.

How to Share the Article with your Instructor

• There is a special link in the record of each article in the database called a "Permalink". This will direct you or other back to the article in the database. Take a look at the screen shot below to see where this is located.
• 
• Once you click on the Permalink link, a special url will populate at the top of the article record. 
• Copy and Paste that url into an email to your instructor.
  • Note: If there is a PDF Full Text version of the article, you can download the article and attach it into an email instead of sending the permalink.

Please note, these videos do not have sound.

Learn the differences between Popular, Scholarly & Substantive Resources!