Differences of scholarly writing

• Reference citations are always provided. You can check the source of

facts or claims they make.

• Mention alternative explanations or other evidence for or against the conclusions presented. (not one-sided)

Strategy to find other sources• 1. Find a relevant research article

– (consult the reference section of textbooks or other books or tracking down an article using a periodical index or computerized database.

• 2. Use the reference section of the article you found to locate other articles – Use terminology used to locate other articles

– Search by researchers of that topic.

• 3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each relevant article

• 4. Use a variety of indexes

American Psychological Assoc. Style - Books

• Author -- last name, first initial. (Year). Title of book, Location of

publisher: Publisher.

• Allen, H. (1982). The betrayal of Liliuokalani, last queen of

Hawaii, 1838-1917. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing.

Book - Multiple authors

• Hudson, J., Morris, A., Maxwell, G., & Galaway, B. (1996). Family

group conferences: Perspectives on policy & practice. Leichhardt, NSW, Australia: The Federation Press.

Chapter in book

• Altshuler, S. (1999). The well-being of children in kinship foster care.

In J. Gleeson & C. Finney Hairston (Eds.), Kinship care. Improving practice through research (pp.117-143). Washington, D.C.: Child Welfare League of America.

APA Style - Journal articles • Author. (Year). Title of article, Title of

Journal volume (issue number), page numbers.

• Berrick, J. D. (1997). Assessing quality of care in kinship and foster family care. Family Relations, 46(3), 273-280.

• Gleeson, J., O’Donnell, J. & Bonecutter, F. J. (1997). Understanding the complexity of practice in kinship foster care. Child Welfare, 76(6), 801-827.

Journal article retrieved from web database

• Maggs-Rapport, F. (2000). Combining methodological approaches in research: ethnography and interpretive phenomenology. Journal of Advanced Nursing 31(1), 219-226. Retrieved September 21, 2002, from EBSCOhost database.

•

Website

• Klicka, C. (2000). Practical ways to reform the child welfare system. National

Center for Home Education, Home School Legal Defense Association. Retrieved October 22, 2002 from http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000

/00000058.asp

• Review APA style!– Cozby– Manual in lab or library

• Publishing location of your book– (not London and Pennsylvania)

• No need to say World Wide Web

• Say Retrieved ___(date) from http://www.etc....

• If full text is on-line, say in the reference, for example, “Retrieved September 12, 2002 from PsycARTICLES database.”

• Difference between a citation and a reference?

Instructions for research proposal -- Part 1

• Part 1 Draft research project proposal Due: Jan. 30

• Research topic

• Brief description of the problem

• Possible research questions

What is the problem?

• Who is affected?

• How are they affected?

• What is problem related to?

• What causes the problem?...

• Other issues related to problem

Homework 3) Literature review: Summary of two articles (Part I)

• Due: Feb. 4 (Feb. 6 is OK)

• Each student - write short summary of 2 scholarly journal articles about a research study)

• This info will be used to develop intro section of your research proposal.

(See page 260 of Cozby).

• Each group member should use different articles.

Each summary should include• Summarize main message, key

information or finding, or recommendation from the article

(a few sentences to 2 paragraphs)

• . Describe how this info justifies the importance of your project

(a few sentences to 2 paragraphs)

• and/or Describe how this article helps you develop research hypotheses, measures, or procedures for your group project.

Part II: Practice evaluating literature

• For both articles, write (or summarize if long)

• 1) the study’s research questions,

• 2) hypotheses,

• 3) the problems that their research study addresses.

• 4) Describe how the authors justified the need and importance of their study.

• Find the above in the introduction section of the article.

• Attach your articles to the assignment.

Reflect about the article...

• What was important for you about the article?• How does it relate to your project?• Strengths and weaknesses?

– What you liked and problems you noted.

• What might you do differently if you were going to repeat that research?

• How might it help you improve your research?

Anatomy of a research article

• Abstract

• Introduction– problem– hypotheses

• Method

• Results

• Discussion

• References

Introduction

• Purpose of study and research question(s)

• Problems related to study topic

• Literature review

• Rationale (justification) for the study

• Hypotheses

Methods

• Description of how study carried out

• Participants – (age, gender, number, ethnicity)

• Research design

• Measures (survey, questionnaires, etc.)

• Procedures

Results

• Presents summary of data

• Presents statistical significance of findings, size of differences, statistics used,

• may be displayed in text, tables & figures

• Relationships among variables

Discussion section• Author’s interpretation of results

• Discussion of findings compared with previous research and theory

• Limitations of study

• May discuss their speculations about why they found the results and about other things that may have influenced the findings

• Suggestions for further research

Confirmation bias

• We seek evidence that confirms our view of the world

• and we may not look for conflicting results

Guidelines for evaluating reports• Don’t confuse pseudoscience or nonscience

with science

• Be skeptical

• Be aware that scientists may disagree

• Keep in mind that research is about averages

• Whenever possible, go to the original source.

• Find out who sponsored the research

• Zechmeister, J., Zechmeister, E. & Shaughnessy, J. (2001)

Intro to measurement

Reality

Reality can be known only indirectly

Research uses a measure to know reality

Measure

Conceptualization Operationalization

Idea

Conceptualization

Operationalization

Clarificatio

n

What do I mean by ____?

How will I measure ___?

Measureable & Observable

Operationalization

• Re-define a variable in terms of steps to measure

• What the researcher must do to measure it

Operational definition

• A definition used to measure the concept

•

• Breakdown the concept into specific, objective, measurable components

• Specific and clear

-- any two people

measuring the same phenomenon

would get the same result

Examples

Conceptual Definition Operational Definition

Amount of Sunshine The number of hours exposed to sun

Growth of Plant Daily growth of plants in height

Happiness Choice from “Very happy – Happy – Neutral – Unhappy – Very Unhappy”

EXAMPLES

• Weight • Weight in street clothes and stocking feet rounded to the nearest full ounce as measured by the Zabutron 2000 electronic personal scale.

Operationalizing concepts -- how to measure concepts

• Complex human concepts / Multidimensional variables

• Goal: all on research project agree on same way to measure/collect data.

• Operationalize – how will you specifically measure…

– “knowledge of local culture”– “easy going”– Other examples (good student, patriotic…)

•

Types of measures

• Self-report

• Behavioral

• Physiological