Assessment Instructions

Preparation

For this assessment, you will submit the current draft of your literature review for feedback and grading.

Do not organize the paper by referencing each article in order one by one. Your task is to synthesize conceptual information pertinent to the research question; this is the information that you extract from the articles selected and thematically review and summarize.

Plan to identify articles and research that:

• Describe an area of research.
  • Describe the area of research chosen and justify the choice.
• Summarize sources applicable to the theoretical background of the chosen topic.
  • Provide information about theoretical underpinnings such as empirical or behavioral or constructivist and humanistic orientations of the literature reviewed.
• Summarize sources applicable to the history of the chosen topic.
  • Shed light on the historical context and dominant themes in the evolution of the topic; connect common themes and discuss counter opinions.
• Summarize sources applicable to best practices for engaging in research.
  • Describe data collection strategies, research procedures, and approaches for conducting and reporting research.
• Summarize sources that add significance and relevance to the knowledge base of psychology.
  • Indicate how the chosen sources help investigators identify topics that are well understood and other topics that represent gaps in the knowledge base and the need for further study.
  • Create a scenario that illustrates the need for new research.
• Identify practices and research guidelines that address respect for individual differences and diversity.
  • Address individual variation and diversity within and across groups.
• Organize and summarize sources thematically.

Your task is to present current considerations important to investigators and to indicate ramifications for stakeholders that rely on the current knowledge base. Use illustrative examples to explain and highlight key concepts. Good reviewers share with their audience evidence-based assessments of the current state of knowledge.

This assessment is one component of the integrative project. It is expected that you will continue to refine this literature review before submitting the final project.

Walkthrough: You may view the following walkthrough video to help you complete the Draft Chapter 2 Literature Review assessment:

• Draft Chapter 2 Literature Review Walkthrough.

Instructions

Use the appropriate template (qualitative or quantitative) to complete this assessment. You are required to use the entire template each time you submit your assessment, but only the sections identified in the assessment instructions will be graded for that submission. Anticipate multiple revisions of each chapter.

Please note: It is important to keep in mind that paragraphs are not comprised of two sentences and paragraphs should be indented. Additionally, refrain from quoting unless paraphrasing disrupts the integrity of the original quote. If direct quotation is used, it should be in the proper APA format.

Additional Requirements

• Font and spacing: Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced pages.
• Style and format: Follow the current APA guidelines for style and format.

Week 5 – Article Synthesis

A research paper describes original research that has been conducted in the study (i.e., the researchers are publishing their findings for the first time). For this project, you will be critiquing an original research article that utilizes behavioral ideas (e.g., treatment of autism with behavioral techniques, exposure therapy for social anxiety). Visit the Keiser University Library and find a scholarly research article in one of the Psychology Journals. Using the article you find in the library, complete a critical review of the article. Be sure to use APA format.

A good paper would start off with a brief introduction of the article (do not copy the abstract). Describe the researchers’ questions, how they attempted to answer them (i.e., study population, their methods, and any unique features of the study), and their findings. Then critique the article with the following questions:

1. Do you have confidence in the researchers’ findings (i.e., were there critical flaws in the study design, questions of confounds that might have occurred in the study)?
2. Does the study generalize to other people that were not the subject of the research (e.g., college student study generalizing to everyone, study in the US applying to other cultures)?
3. What does the study mean in the big picture and how does it apply to society in general (i.e., how does it impact society in general)?