journal article evaluation and critique

First, you must read the article posted on the Canvas website on “Reading a Journal Article in

Social Psychology”. Then, you must select ONE research article in social psychology from among

those listed on the course website (Articles for Exercise 1).

GUIDELINES

Pay attention (!) to the point values indicated in [brackets] in preparing your responses.

100 points total. The finished product should be about 5-6 pages.

1. Specify the title, author, and citation (name, year, volume, and pages of the

journal). [6] What is the research problem (what issue is addressed)? [6]

2. Theoretical Foundation: What theory is being tested (or created)? What are the main

concepts? [9] Which of the theoretical perspectives in social psychology is the author using? [12]

This you will have to figure out based on the overall approach and the literature cited.

Remember that the perspectives are very general, and most (middle-range) theories used to

develop a workable model are a more specific (derived from the perspective concerning a

particular topic). Most importantly, you must describe the perspective, and be explicit about why

you think the theoretical model used in the paper is drawn from this general perspectives.

3. Research Design: Briefly describe the research design and sample. [6] What hypothesis is

being tested (or developed)? What are the independent and dependent variables? [6] What were

the major findings? [6]

4. Evaluation: What do YOU think of the quality of the research reported? That is:

2

Does the data collected in the study seem sufficient/appropriate for answering the research

question; why or why not? [3] Do you think the author’s reported theoretical findings (in the

Discussion section of the article) are a valid interpretation of the data? [3] What does it contribute

to your understanding of the social psychology/self and society? [9]

5. Finally, you are to consider how the application of other social psychological perspectives might

provide additional or complementary information. Describe each of the 5 other perspectives (not

included in your answer to question 1) [28]. Choose one and briefly speculate on how that

perspective might contribute to understanding the issue [6]