TOURO COLLEGE Biological Psychology (GPS 351 CA) Monday FALL 2015 CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW (CAR) #2

TOURO COLLEGE
Biological Psychology (GPS 351 CA) Monday
FALL 2015
CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW (CAR) #2
WHAT IS A CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW?
A critical article review (CAR) of a scholarly journal article about research conducted in the field of biological psychology is an exercise that provides students with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the language and structure of research papers that are written by and for professionals and students in this field. CARs require students to think critically about the process of collecting data, weighing evidence, and drawing conclusions according to scientific methodology.
ARTICLE
 All three of the articles reviewed in this class will be primary sources. That is, write-ups of original psychological research and/or experiments that were conducted by the author(s) of the article.
 The first scholarly journal article to read and review will be chosen by the instructor and distributed—with these instructions—on the second day of class and posted on BlackBoard.
DUE: December 14
 Please bring a hardcopy of the CAR to class on the due date and upload it to SafeAssign.
 All CARs MUST be uploaded to SafeAssign to receive credit and a grade.
LENGTH: Essay format, approximately 2 pages, typed, doubled-spaced, font size 12.
 Please write concisely and avoid repetition. Most information is a CAR need not be mentioned more than once.
SUBMISSION
 Students MUST submit their assignments through SafeAssign on BlackBoard and bring a hard copy to class on the due date.
 It is the student’s responsibility to resolve any issues with BlackBoard before the assignment is due, and to be aware of their SafeAssign score.
 If the SafeAssign “Matching Score” for any CAR submitted exceeds 30%, please make the necessary revisions BEFORE class time on the due date.
 Please be sure to upload your CAR to SafeAssign leaving enough time to make any revisions necessary to reduce the “Matching Score.”
COLLEGE-LEVEL, ACADEMIC WRITING REQUIRED
An ‘A’-worthy paper MUST:
1) Satisfy the criteria outlined in the Psychology Department grading rubric for “Journal Articles Reviews”.
2) Discuss only information covered in the article. Do not import information from other sources or personal experiences, or make assumptions that are not supported by the data.
3) Be free of personal opinions that are not explicitly based on information in the article.
4) Never use 1st or 2nd person pronouns (I, me, we, you, “in my opinion”, etc.).
5) Not use quotes, information from the article MUST be correctly paraphrased.
6) Demonstrate an understanding of theoretical and methodological issues addressed in the research.
7) Briefly summarize the underlying theory, the hypotheses, methods, results, and the authors’ interpretation of their findings.
8) Never summarize the ABSTRACT.
9) Intelligently discuss the strengths and limitations of the research in discussed in the article.
10) Demonstrate college-level writing: clear, concise, grammatically correct, and error-free.
11) Be entirely in the students’ own words. Do not rewrite/rearrange sentences taken directly from the article. SafeAssign “Matching” percentage must not exceed 30%.
HOW TO WRITE A CRITICAL ARTICLE REVIEW (CAR) OF A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARTICLE
Please Read (Re-Read) And Follow These Instructions Carefully.
Before You Begin Writing…
 Read the article carefully and more than once. Take notes on the important points discussed below.
 Write up a detailed outline based on the important points you will cover in the CAR (see below).
 Organize a logical sequence for presenting these ideas based on the order of information described below.
 Do NOT be repetitive. Most information need only be mentioned once.
 Do NOT list information, or use headings or subheadings, use complete sentences.
Structuring & Writing Your CAR
1) At the top of your paper (after your name, date, etc.; before you start writing), write the reference for the article, in correct, APA-format. EXAMPLE:
Loeber, R., Farrington, D. P., Southamer-Loeber, M., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (1998). The development of male offending: Key findings from the first decade of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Studies on Crime and Crime Prevention, 7(2), 141–171.
2) Do NOT summarize the abstract.
3) From the introduction: What is the general theory on which this research is based? What has previous research on this or related topics demonstrated about the theory (may be found throughout article)?
4) What is the purpose of the research described in this paper? What is/are the author(s) specific hypothesis/hypotheses (prediction of their results)?
5) Briefly describe the methods the authors use to collect the data. Who are the participants? What do they have to do in this study? What are the measures used to collect the data?
6) In general, what are the results of the study? For example, does one group score differently than another group on the measures used? Is there a relationship between two or more variables? You do NOT have to describe the statistical methods used or correlation coefficients.
7) Do the results support the hypotheses? Was this—or any other aspect of the findings—unexpected?
8) What is/are the major conclusions(s) that the author(s) draw based on their findings? What are the implications of this study, both in terms of future psychological research and for understanding behavior in the “real world”?
9) Based on your analysis of the reading, what are the strengths of this research? How do they benefit the quality of the research? (Do not use 1st person.)
10) Based on your analysis of the reading, what are the limitations of this research? What could the researchers do
differently to avoid these limitations; or what studies could be done as follow-ups to this study to address these
limitations? Were the limitations part of the research design? (Do not use 1st person.)
11) Overall, what do you think about this research (remember: This is NOT a movie review.)? How does the
article enhance understanding of human behavior in a “real world” context?
Please PROOFREAD the final draft of each CAR thoroughly and carefully to ensure you have included all the information outlined by the questions above, and that your writing is college-level, and free of grammatical and spelling errors. If you are having difficulty, please schedule an appointment a Writing Tutor in the Learning Resource Center (212) 463-0400 ext. 5214, BEFORE the assignment is due.