EXPLORING THE LITERATURE IN PSYCHOLOGY

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EXPLORING THE LITERATURE IN PSYCHOLOGY
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HOW TO DO A LITERATURE SEARCH

• You will be conducting a "literature search" on
  your team's planned research topic.
• Search relevant published scientific articles on
  your topic, scan many abstracts, and read full
  text of some articles.
• This is the "preparatory" stage of developing a
  testable research hypothesis.

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• The hypothesis for a research proposal should
  emerge from the literature review, rather than
  the other way around.
• For example, an "intuitive" hypothesis is called
  "arm-chair" theorizing, since it is based on
  personal opinion or casual observations, rather
  than on systematically obtained empirical
  evidence (as discussed in Ch 2).
• I will be looking for the rationale underlying
  your hypothesis.
• The scientific "literature" is very different
  from other literature with specific rules for
  writing a research report, as well as specific
  terminology ("jargon").

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PARTS OF AN ARTICLE
Info specifically for readers in blueInfo
specifically for writers in green
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Title and Author (s)

• States independent and dependent variables.

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Abstract

• Short paragraph (120 words) that summarizes the
  key points of an article.
• Because abstracts are so short, critical details
  (e.g., operational definitions) are often not
  included so you will need to read the full-text
  article to get this information.
• Abstract should convey
• Main problem
• Procedure
• Results
• 1 sentence Conclusion

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Introduction

• Author's literature review, rationale, and
  hypotheses.
• Pay careful attention to the references that the
  author cites, then consider obtaining copies of
  those articles.
• A good introduction leads the reader through the
  a chain of reasoning explaining why the current
  experiment is the necessary next step in the
  progression of science.

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Method

• Describes in detail what was done.
• Should be sufficiently detailed so that another
  experimenter could replicate the study.
• This is one of the most valuable sections for
  designing your own proposed study!
• Look for standardized instruments and operational
  definitions of your variables (e.g., effective
  procedures in manipulating an independent
  variable.) In other words, there is no need to
  "reinvent the wheel".
• Subsections
• Participants
• Apparatus
• Materials
• Procedure

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Results

• Descriptive and inferential statistics presented.
• Read this section carefully, if you can't
  remember how to interpret a particular statistic,
  review your PSY 201 text.
• Take careful notes on the results presented,
  because these can be used as the basis/rationale
  for the predictions you make in your proposal.
• Results often reported in a Table or Figure.
• Table Issues
• IV DV
• Figure Issues
• IV DV, ordinate abscissa
• Bar vs. line
• Misleading figures.

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Discussion

• Restate the data
• Relate data to hypotheses and previous research
• Integrate results with literature cited in
  introduction.
• Were hypotheses supported or disconfirmed, and
  why?
• Are the author's results consistent with those
  reported by others, and if not, why?
• Implications Limitations
• Is a new theory required to explain current
  results?
• Any potential limitations of this study?
• Recommendations for future research
• this can be a source for your study!

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References

• Include only articles cited in text.
• Format provided in textbook.
• Do not ignore this section (in fact, it is
  frequently the first place I look after obtaining
  an article!).
• This is where you will find other articles
  related to the author's.
• This can save you a lot of time searching to find
  relevant articles.

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CHECKLIST FOR CRITICAL READERS
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Be a CRITICAL reader!!!!!!!

• Do not just read articles passively, nor should
  you just uncritically accept what the author
  says!
• Remember, even experts can overlook important
  confounding variables, use poor operational
  definitions, or even use flawed logic in
  developing/interpreting their hypotheses and
  result.
• Be an active reader.
• Always trying to think "one step ahead" of the
  writer (i.e., try to anticipate what the author
  is going to say next, and think of how you would
  say it before you read the author's).

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Introduction

• What is the author's goal?
• What hypothesis will be tested in the experiment?
  
• If I had to design and experiment to test this
  hypothesis, what would I do?

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Method

• Is my proposed method better than the author's?
• Does the author's method actually test the
  hypothesis?
• What are the independent, dependent, and control
  variables?
• Using the participants, apparatus, materials, and
  procedures described by the author, what results
  would predict for the experiment?

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Results

• Did the author get unexpected results?
• How would I interpret the results?
• What applications and implications would I draw
  from my interpretation of the results?

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Discussion

• Does my interpretation or the authors
  interpretation best represent the data?
• Do I or does the author present the most cogent
  discussion of the applications and implications
  of the results?

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Sample paper (Mozart Effect)

• Previous Experiment.
• What was previous finding?
• Previous IV?
• Previous DV?
• Previous Controls?
• Previous extraneous variables/ confounds?
• Current Experiment

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Homework 1-page paper review

• Title Authors
• Intro
• Main issue
• Authors goal
• hypotheses to-be-tested
• Exp 1 Purpose
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• Exp 2 Purpose
• Method
• Results
• Discussion
• General Discussion