PSY 260 Topic 4 Assignment (Article Summary)

PSY 260 Topic 4 Assignment: Article Summary

You will select the two best articles from your Topic 2 articles (using instructor feedback). Read each article carefully and write a summary of each article. If an article has more than one study, you should pick the one study that you understand the best and summarize only that one. In your summary, state which study you are summarizing (e.g., "This article reported five studies, but I am summarizing only Study 2.") Write about the articles in everyday language, explaining the theory each was testing, the method used, the most important results, and the main points in the discussion. Be very careful not to plagiarize at this stage (please reread the course materials on academic integrity (plagiarism) and the APA guide on paraphrasing).

Use 500-600-words for each summary (a total of 1,000-words minimum), following this organizational structure:

1. A description of the article's purpose and main hypotheses
2. A clear statement of the study's design: Experimental or correlational? What were the main IVs or PVs? What was the main DV? Who participated?
3. A methods paragraph in which you mention each key variable in turn, followed by how it was operationalized. (e.g., "The study measured the variable self-compassion using a self-report questionnaire developed by Neff; it had 25 items that were rated on five-point scales.")
4. A paragraph in which you describe the main results. If they used regression, you must describe the main relationship as well as what it was controlling for (e.g., "Self-compassion predicted well-being, even when controlling for self-esteem and emotionality"). If it was a factorial design, describe the main effects and interactions.
5. A short paragraph about the authors' conclusions.
6. Turn in one document with both summaries; make sure to distinguish which summary belongs to which article.