Understanding a Research Article Assignment 

Find a Scholarly Article.  A scholarly (or professional) psychology research article usually contains the following:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion 
• References

Writing your Paper - Formatting Guidelines:

• 3 Page Minimum
• Typed
• Double-spaced
• 1" margins
• 12-point Times New Roman font

Please address the following bullets:

• What do you know about the authors of this article?  Why do you think so little information is given about the researcher(s)?
•  In your own words, summarize the study's predictions and why the authors think it's important to study this topic (for example, no one else has tested this idea, or it would be good for businesses to know this information, etc.) 
• Describe the typical person who was in the study (e.g., a newly married man, a female college student) and then describe the procedures of the study from beginning to end as though you were a participant in one of the conditions.  What would you read or hear or do from the time you began the study until the time you were done?
• Discuss which 2-3 topics from class or chapters in your text best relate to the research topic and why you think so.
• Discuss your reactions to or questions about this research or the article itself.

Finding a Professional(Scholarly) Journal Article

As you have learned previously, popular magazine articles are written for the general public who are not experts in the field of Psychology. The language in these articles understandable to a large population of readers.

A scholarly, or professional journal, article is written for other experts in the field. Specific vocabulary is used in these articles that is understandable to the other professionals, but might not be readily understandable to the general public. These articles serve many different functions. Your assignment is focusing on finding an article that explains a research study that professionals have conducted and are communicating the methods, results etc. to other peers in their field. The articles you are looking for will list a method in which the study was conducted, along with data collected from the study, as well as results and conclusions made from the study. Charts and graphs will usually accompany this type of article.

Here is an example:

There are recommended databases listed below that are relevant to finding a professional psychology research journal article. Sometimes it helps to add "research" or "study" along with your topic keywords in the search box in order to narrow down the results to a research article.

• Gale OneFile Psychology Collection: You will look through the search results in the "Academic Journal" section.
• EBSCO Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection: If you perform a keyword search in this database, make sure you select the box that says “Peer Reviewed” before pressing the search button. You will get results only from professional/scholarly journals. (see screen shot below)
• APA PsychInfo (please note, not all of the articles in the database have the full-text of the article. If you find an article in this database and need assistance finding the full-text, please contact me.)
• Open Access (freely available content) journals from the publisher Elsevier: Professional Peer Reviewed Journals

In order to share the article with your instructor, you can copy and paste the permalink in an email. Or if it is a PDF file, you can download it and send it as an attachment.

Learn the differences between Popular, Scholarly & Substantive Resources!