Social Psychology Spring 2017 -Details for Paper 2
How to Submit: Follow link on LATTE and upload your document (Microsoft word
or PDF format).
Length: 3 – 4 double -spaced pages.
Topic: Find a popular science news article covering social psychology research and
discuss whether the actual research paper really shows what the popular science
headline is stating.
Background: Social Psychology is inherently interesting to many people because
social psychologists study phenomena that are relevant to people’s day-to-day
experiences. In recent years, social psychology research has gained media attention
and new studies are often reported in the news and online. But reporting is often
done quickly and superficially, and the researchers are seldom consulted. In this
assignment we want to take a closer look at the reporting of social psychology
findings in the media. The goal is to read the actual original research paper in order
to gain a thorough understanding of the research design and results, and then to
assess whether the claims made in the popular science article are valid and
represent the actual research accurately. In the process, you will get to read original
literature and apply what you have learned about social psych methods. You will
also learn how to critically engage with research reports helping you to be a more
informed and critical consumer of science.
Your Task: Find a popular science news article covering social psychology research.
A good source is the social psychology section of the science daily social psychology
news website but you can use any news article you like.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/social_psychology/
Once you found your article, find the original paper. If the article is about several
research papers, select one. Read the paper to see whether it is fairly represented in
the popular science article. Write a 3-4 page (double spaced) long paper answering
the following question: Does the actual paper really show what the popular
science headline is stating? Below I provide a list of the essential content of the
paper followed by some more detailed guidelines on what a great paper could
include. There may be good reasons for you not to follow these more detailed
guidelines and that is absolutely fine, just make sure you clearly address the must
haves and keep an eye on the grading criteria.
Must haves:
• State which popular science article you chose (provide the link).
• State what the main claim of the popular science article is (often that would
be the headline)
• Provide citation of the original research paper
• Give and overview of the actual study. This needs to be detailed enough so
that someone who hasn’t read the paper will understand the goal of the
research, the hypotheses, the basic design, methods, results, and conclusions
of the study.
• Conclusion: Discuss whether the actual paper really shows what the popular
science headline is stating.
Points you may like to address
• Which popular science article did you choose? What’s the main claim?
• Why did you choose it – why was it interesting to you?
• Brief description of actual study:
• Primary research question – goal of research?
• Main hypotheses tested – limit to the ones relevant to the popular
science article.
• Method
• Sample (who were the participants?)
• Main Independent and Dependent variables used to test the
main hypothesis you outlined earlier.
• Design of study: What kind of study was it? An experiment, a
correlational study, an archival study, etc. ?
• Results
• Summarize main results for the main DVs you described
• Conclusions made by authors?
• Evaluation of research
• Do you think that the methods really addressed the primary research
question?
• Limitations of the study / Ideas on how it could have been done
better?
• Conclusion: Does the actual paper really show what the popular science
headline is stating?
• Example question to address: Why, why not? How would you change
the research in order to really test what the headline is stating? How
would you change the headline to be better in line with the actual
research findings? What was particularly well done in the popular
science article to accurately represent the research? What could be
potential consequences of the good or bad representation of the
science?…
Grading Criteria: Grading is based on the following factors:
• Choice of popular science article – Did it describe a social psychological
study?
• Clear statement of the main claim(s) of the popular science article.
• Research overview – Detailed and informative but concise and to the point
description of the actual research – Did you clearly describe the main
hypotheses, the methods, results, and conclusions of the actual paper in
enough detail so that the reader has a clear understanding of the most
important aspects of the study? At the same time, did you identify the core
research question and relevant results, not getting lost in irrelevant details?
• Understanding – Do you demonstrate a good understanding of the research
and the conclusions that can be drawn?
• Analysis – Do you provide convincing and valid arguments for why the
popular science article does or does not represent the research accurately?
• Depth of thought – Are the ideas described in sufficient and relevant detail?
Do you raise interesting questions and demonstrate critical thinking?
• Clarity and quality of writing – Does the writing show cohesion and clarity?
Are there any grammatical errors?
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