Seminar Discussion 2 Home Psychology homework help Seminar Discussion 2 Forum Assignment for the Week: 300 Words minimum For this week’s Forum, respond to the following: This week, we’ll share our annotated bibliography progress a little! In the forum, share your topic selection for the Annotated Bibliography assignment. · Discuss the reasons you choose the topic you selected and whether you have encountered this topic in prior courses? · Examine and explain how the topic is important to the larger field of psychology? · Wrap up the weekly forum by responding to three of your classmates posts and dialoguing with them about their selections for the assignment. General Instructions Applicable to All Forums: enlightened Forum post source citation is not required for forum posting in our class. This is because we are engaging in conversation that happens to be in writing form, not composing essays or research papers. You will, however, need to paraphrase (restate in your own words) any words of published authors in parts of your posts that are based on their work. Copying of published material, which is plagiarism, is prohibited and any instances of it, including forum posts, will result in a zero score without an option for re-submission to recoup lost points and a report sent to the Registrar’s Office per University policy. Discussion forum posts will be graded on verbal expression, critical thinking, making an effort to not just participate in but contribute to the dialog with initial and reply posts of a substantive nature commensurate with graduate level studies. Posts must have correct grammatical construction, spelling, and punctuation with no texting or other casual style language. WEEK 2 LESSON What Is Meant by Peer Reviewed and Scholarly Works? Peer Reviewed means that the scientific community, specifically other professionals in the discipline, have read, assessed and vetted the published work, deeming it credible, adhering to scientific principles and of contribution to the advancement of knowledge about the subject matter. When someone conducts a research study and has an article he/she writes about it published in a scholarly journal, other researchers and professionals in his/her field read the article and evaluate it. These are the “peers” in peer-review. In subsequent editions of the journal peers may publish their feedback on the articles they read. This serves two purposes. First, if an article is accepted for publication in one of these journals, one can be as sure as one can reasonably be (nothing is full-proof) of the integrity of the study published, because of the journal’s strong reputation; scholarly journals don’t survive without this. Second, scholarly journals are published by organizations serving dedicated academics and professionals in the field and when the peers (fellow professionals) of a person whose article was published in a particular edition of a journal read, evaluate and critique it, this sparks interest in future research and holds the author of the article to a high standard because his/her work is being reviewed, supported and/or challenged by other experts in his/her profession. Scholarly Works simply refers to articles that have been “peer reviewed”, as described above. What Is the Difference Between a Literature Review, Theory Paper, Meta-Analysis, Case Study and Empirical Study? A Literature Review is a critical analysis of a published work. According to APA (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010, p. 10) such reviews: Define and clarify the problem Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of the research Identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature Suggest the next step in solving the problem However in a Literature Review, no data collection by the authors writing the review is undertaken. Thus there will not be sections such as methods and results since the authors did not collect and analyze their own data. Theory Papers draw conclusions from the existing literature on a topic and either advance or challenge the internal consistency or external validity of the theory (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Theory papers do not involve original data collection by the authors of the article, so they also will not have methods and results sections. In Meta-Analyses, statistical procedures are used to combine the results from several studies into one set of findings that take into consideration the findings from all the synthesized studies (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Usually the words meta-analyses are listed in the title of the article or in the abstract of the article. Case Studies involve collection of detailed information about an individual, group or organization. Case studies are sometimes referred to as “qualitative” or “naturalistic” research in that they are a form of research that “focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences” in the applicable environment (Holloway, 1997, p. 2.) The data collected is not generalizable or replicable since it applies to the person, group or organization and no statistical procedures are used to interpret the findings. Empirical Studies are reports of original research or analyses of data, which were not initially processed and evaluated, such as in archival research (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Empirical studies usually contain a methods section that outlines the demographics of the subjects, the type of data collected and the data collection process that was used. Empirical studies also contain a Results section that outlines what analyses were used and what was found during them. A Discussion section and Implications for further studies outline the weaknesses and potential flaws of the study as well as the limitations to the generalizability of the findings and what future studies should add or do differently. Remember, Annotated Bibliography sources MUST BE Empirical Studies. That means NO pamphlets/booklets, books, magazines, websites or newspapers may be used as sources. What is an Annotated Bibliography? By the end of this week, you will need to submit a topic for your Annotated Bibliography in the discussion forum. You will be picking 6 peer reviewed articles on any topic of your choosing that falls under the psychology umbrella. Please read the Abstract on every article carefully. You may be more confused at this point and wondering, “What is an Annotated Bibliography, and how does it differ from a Literature Review?” The primary purpose of an Annotated Bibliography is to provide a brief synopsis of the important information obtained from peer reviewed (i.e., scholarly), empirical research articles. All authors of the studies used must have conducted the research themselves. Peer reviewed, empirical articles will cover who and how many subjects there were, when and where subjects were recruited, what data was collected from subjects, what the question(s) is/are that the researchers were trying to answer, what was found, what if any limitations there were in the study, and what future studies need to include. You will be expected to review at least 6 empirical research articles for the Annotated Bibliography. The goal is to summarize published authors’ work related to a particular topic in a way that guides the reader of your review paper and increases his/her knowledge of the topic. The reader should know more about the topic after reading the review than before reading it. A Literature Review, as explained previously, does NOT involve the authors of the review actually carrying out their own research by recruiting subjects, collecting and analyzing data and reporting the findings. The author of the article merely provides a synopsis of all kinds of studies (e.g., literature reviews, theory papers, meta-analyses, case studies, empirical studies, etc). By contrast, the Annotated Bibliography for this assignment should focus on original empirical research studies done by the authors of the article. The Annotated Bibliography requires that all writing based on or inspired by the published works of others be properly source credited. Guidance for how to do can be found in the APUS online library under Owl Purdue APA formatting resources, or in the APA Manual, 6th edition. If you plan to continue on to graduate school, you should strongly consider purchasing a copy of the APA Manual. The format for the Annotated Bibliography will be covered later in this lecture. Choosing A Topic To write an Annotated Bibliography, you first need to decide on a topic of interest. Next find the empirical articles that support the topic. If you cannot find the articles that you need, please revise your topic. Once you have your articles you may submit your topic for approval. Taking these steps will prevent you from having to change the topic later. Often students pick topics that are either too broad or too narrow. If the topic is too broad, it is hard to determine what the research questions are or how to answer the research questions in a cohesive manner. If the general topic is PTSD, for example, you won’t be able to focus your article search thematically, which is critical because the articles in this literature review can’t be disparate ones (i.e., meaning not related to each other by anything other than in some way being about the topic selected). PTSD articles would all have to be about the same aspect of PTSD. For instance, you would not select articles on PTSD in Iraq War Veterans, PTSD in Rape Survivors and PTSD in Pearl Harbor Survivors since the PTSD in these 3 groups is not likely to be the same since their origins are different. Articles selected must not just be on the same topic, they must also examine a similar research question. An example of a topic that is too broad would be: The Effects of Trauma on Children’s Development The reason this topic is too broad is because the types of trauma are many, so it is not clear what type of trauma will be the focus of the Annotated Bibliography. Also, which aspects of development and children of what ages will be used? These are all unclear in this topic. To fix it, these details would need to be added. If the topic is too narrow, you may have trouble finding at least 6 articles on the topic which are empirical. An example of a topic that is too narrow would be: The Effects of Sexual Trauma on Two Year Old Boys Language Development Here lots of specifics are provided. The problem is will there be enough empirical studies done combining sexual trauma, 2 year olds, boys and language development? The topic is too focused and thus it may be hard to find empirical articles that meet criteria. To fix it, you could broaden the age group of interest and include girls as well as boys. An example of an appropriate topic might be: The Effects of Foster Care Placement on Self Esteem Development in Elementary Aged Children This topic is not too broad and not too specific and provides enough detail for the reader to understand what the research focus will be in the article and the age range of children of interest. Another problem that you need to be aware of is selecting studies with findings which are not generalizable. You would need to explain this in your summary of the study. Conducting research using freshmen college students in a laboratory setting or only studying seniors in nursing homes, for example, may result in findings that have limited generalizability (that is, findings of the former study aren’t necessarily applicable to the population studied in the latter one) but the studies may not be flawed at all (sometimes laboratory studies are the best for a particular type of research and sometimes studying people where they live is best). Another example: If someone published a study on young adult women’s body image issues, we might say in the conclusion paragraph that additional research investigating men’s body image issues would expand the general knowledge base on body images issues, but we wouldn’t say that the women’s body issues study was flawed because it didn’t include male study participants. Once your topic is selected, and you have verified there is sufficient research for you to find at least 6 relevant empirical research articles on that topic, please submit it for approval in the week 2 forum. This is where your topic will be approved or where feedback for revision of the topic will be provided. You do NOT need to email it separately. The APUS online library is the best place for finding articles. It houses more than just scholarly publications, though, so be sure to check anything that captures your interest to the criteria described above. Pointers on Identifying Empirical Articles The Abstract should say this was a research study where “X’ number of subjects were recruited by the authors of the article, and “Y” data was collected by the article authors with “Z” results found. There are usually sections titled “Methods”, “Results” and sometimes “Discussion” in empirical articles that outline the stuff mentioned above. If these things are missing, please select another article. Here is a sample of how an Annotated Bibliography should look. Some of you will no doubt argue other professors have had you format an Annotated Bibliography differently. There is no one format for doing an Annotated Bibliography in 6th edition APA Style, so your instructors can modify it. Here is how an Annotated Bibliography should look when formatted correctly for this class: Things to Notice Did you note the spacing differences for the Annotated Bibliography? The reference information above each annotation follows conventional rules for APA style in regards to margins, spacing, indenting, inclusion of surnames and first and middle initials, absence of issue numbers, but inclusion of volume and page numbers. While there is double spacing of the lines in the reference information above the annotation description, there is single spacing in the actual annotation description. Did you make a mental note about the indentation differences for the reference information vs the start at the far left margin for the annotation description? Did you notice that the Annotation is one short, unbroken paragraph? Are you familiar with the rules for capitalization for formal and informal nouns in references, or which words get capitalized when there is a question mark or colon in the title of an article? Also notice that the important information such as the “who, what, when, where, why, how” and limitations and future directions of the study were provided in one short paragraph. Your annotation descriptions should be of similar length and in the same format. Remember, there is no reference list attached at the end of an Annotated bibliography since all of the reference information appears above each Annotation Description. Only volume and page numbers should be included, not issue numbers. The issue numbers are usually enclosed in parentheses in the source. You are now ready to find a topic, locate empirical articles and submit the topic for approval in this week’s forum! References Holloway, I.(1997) Basic concepts for qualitative research. Oxford, Blackwell Science. 4 Blog ArchiveCopyright © 2019 HomeworkMarket.com Read More Applied SciencesArchitecture and DesignBiologyBusiness & FinanceChemistryComputer ScienceGeographyGeologyEducationEngineeringEnglishEnvironmental scienceSpanishGovernmentHistoryHuman Resource ManagementInformation SystemsLawLiteratureMathematicsNursingPhysicsPolitical SciencePsychologyReadingScienceSocial Science

28 May Seminar Discussion 2 Home Psychology homework help Seminar Discussion 2 Forum Assignment for the Week: 300 Words minimum For this week’s Forum, respond to the following: This week, we’ll share our annotated bibliography progress a little! In the forum, share your topic selection for the Annotated Bibliography assignment. · Discuss the reasons you choose the topic you selected and whether you have encountered this topic in prior courses? · Examine and explain how the topic is important to the larger field of psychology? · Wrap up the weekly forum by responding to three of your classmates posts and dialoguing with them about their selections for the assignment. General Instructions Applicable to All Forums: enlightened Forum post source citation is not required for forum posting in our class. This is because we are engaging in conversation that happens to be in writing form, not composing essays or research papers. You will, however, need to paraphrase (restate in your own words) any words of published authors in parts of your posts that are based on their work. Copying of published material, which is plagiarism, is prohibited and any instances of it, including forum posts, will result in a zero score without an option for re-submission to recoup lost points and a report sent to the Registrar’s Office per University policy. Discussion forum posts will be graded on verbal expression, critical thinking, making an effort to not just participate in but contribute to the dialog with initial and reply posts of a substantive nature commensurate with graduate level studies. Posts must have correct grammatical construction, spelling, and punctuation with no texting or other casual style language. WEEK 2 LESSON What Is Meant by Peer Reviewed and Scholarly Works? Peer Reviewed means that the scientific community, specifically other professionals in the discipline, have read, assessed and vetted the published work, deeming it credible, adhering to scientific principles and of contribution to the advancement of knowledge about the subject matter. When someone conducts a research study and has an article he/she writes about it published in a scholarly journal, other researchers and professionals in his/her field read the article and evaluate it. These are the “peers” in peer-review. In subsequent editions of the journal peers may publish their feedback on the articles they read. This serves two purposes. First, if an article is accepted for publication in one of these journals, one can be as sure as one can reasonably be (nothing is full-proof) of the integrity of the study published, because of the journal’s strong reputation; scholarly journals don’t survive without this. Second, scholarly journals are published by organizations serving dedicated academics and professionals in the field and when the peers (fellow professionals) of a person whose article was published in a particular edition of a journal read, evaluate and critique it, this sparks interest in future research and holds the author of the article to a high standard because his/her work is being reviewed, supported and/or challenged by other experts in his/her profession. Scholarly Works simply refers to articles that have been “peer reviewed”, as described above. What Is the Difference Between a Literature Review, Theory Paper, Meta-Analysis, Case Study and Empirical Study? A Literature Review is a critical analysis of a published work. According to APA (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010, p. 10) such reviews: Define and clarify the problem Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of the research Identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature Suggest the next step in solving the problem However in a Literature Review, no data collection by the authors writing the review is undertaken. Thus there will not be sections such as methods and results since the authors did not collect and analyze their own data. Theory Papers draw conclusions from the existing literature on a topic and either advance or challenge the internal consistency or external validity of the theory (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Theory papers do not involve original data collection by the authors of the article, so they also will not have methods and results sections. In Meta-Analyses, statistical procedures are used to combine the results from several studies into one set of findings that take into consideration the findings from all the synthesized studies (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Usually the words meta-analyses are listed in the title of the article or in the abstract of the article. Case Studies involve collection of detailed information about an individual, group or organization. Case studies are sometimes referred to as “qualitative” or “naturalistic” research in that they are a form of research that “focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences” in the applicable environment (Holloway, 1997, p. 2.) The data collected is not generalizable or replicable since it applies to the person, group or organization and no statistical procedures are used to interpret the findings. Empirical Studies are reports of original research or analyses of data, which were not initially processed and evaluated, such as in archival research (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Empirical studies usually contain a methods section that outlines the demographics of the subjects, the type of data collected and the data collection process that was used. Empirical studies also contain a Results section that outlines what analyses were used and what was found during them. A Discussion section and Implications for further studies outline the weaknesses and potential flaws of the study as well as the limitations to the generalizability of the findings and what future studies should add or do differently. Remember, Annotated Bibliography sources MUST BE Empirical Studies. That means NO pamphlets/booklets, books, magazines, websites or newspapers may be used as sources. What is an Annotated Bibliography? By the end of this week, you will need to submit a topic for your Annotated Bibliography in the discussion forum. You will be picking 6 peer reviewed articles on any topic of your choosing that falls under the psychology umbrella. Please read the Abstract on every article carefully. You may be more confused at this point and wondering, “What is an Annotated Bibliography, and how does it differ from a Literature Review?” The primary purpose of an Annotated Bibliography is to provide a brief synopsis of the important information obtained from peer reviewed (i.e., scholarly), empirical research articles. All authors of the studies used must have conducted the research themselves. Peer reviewed, empirical articles will cover who and how many subjects there were, when and where subjects were recruited, what data was collected from subjects, what the question(s) is/are that the researchers were trying to answer, what was found, what if any limitations there were in the study, and what future studies need to include. You will be expected to review at least 6 empirical research articles for the Annotated Bibliography. The goal is to summarize published authors’ work related to a particular topic in a way that guides the reader of your review paper and increases his/her knowledge of the topic. The reader should know more about the topic after reading the review than before reading it. A Literature Review, as explained previously, does NOT involve the authors of the review actually carrying out their own research by recruiting subjects, collecting and analyzing data and reporting the findings. The author of the article merely provides a synopsis of all kinds of studies (e.g., literature reviews, theory papers, meta-analyses, case studies, empirical studies, etc). By contrast, the Annotated Bibliography for this assignment should focus on original empirical research studies done by the authors of the article. The Annotated Bibliography requires that all writing based on or inspired by the published works of others be properly source credited. Guidance for how to do can be found in the APUS online library under Owl Purdue APA formatting resources, or in the APA Manual, 6th edition. If you plan to continue on to graduate school, you should strongly consider purchasing a copy of the APA Manual. The format for the Annotated Bibliography will be covered later in this lecture. Choosing A Topic To write an Annotated Bibliography, you first need to decide on a topic of interest. Next find the empirical articles that support the topic. If you cannot find the articles that you need, please revise your topic. Once you have your articles you may submit your topic for approval. Taking these steps will prevent you from having to change the topic later. Often students pick topics that are either too broad or too narrow. If the topic is too broad, it is hard to determine what the research questions are or how to answer the research questions in a cohesive manner. If the general topic is PTSD, for example, you won’t be able to focus your article search thematically, which is critical because the articles in this literature review can’t be disparate ones (i.e., meaning not related to each other by anything other than in some way being about the topic selected). PTSD articles would all have to be about the same aspect of PTSD. For instance, you would not select articles on PTSD in Iraq War Veterans, PTSD in Rape Survivors and PTSD in Pearl Harbor Survivors since the PTSD in these 3 groups is not likely to be the same since their origins are different. Articles selected must not just be on the same topic, they must also examine a similar research question. An example of a topic that is too broad would be: The Effects of Trauma on Children’s Development The reason this topic is too broad is because the types of trauma are many, so it is not clear what type of trauma will be the focus of the Annotated Bibliography. Also, which aspects of development and children of what ages will be used? These are all unclear in this topic. To fix it, these details would need to be added. If the topic is too narrow, you may have trouble finding at least 6 articles on the topic which are empirical. An example of a topic that is too narrow would be: The Effects of Sexual Trauma on Two Year Old Boys Language Development Here lots of specifics are provided. The problem is will there be enough empirical studies done combining sexual trauma, 2 year olds, boys and language development? The topic is too focused and thus it may be hard to find empirical articles that meet criteria. To fix it, you could broaden the age group of interest and include girls as well as boys. An example of an appropriate topic might be: The Effects of Foster Care Placement on Self Esteem Development in Elementary Aged Children This topic is not too broad and not too specific and provides enough detail for the reader to understand what the research focus will be in the article and the age range of children of interest. Another problem that you need to be aware of is selecting studies with findings which are not generalizable. You would need to explain this in your summary of the study. Conducting research using freshmen college students in a laboratory setting or only studying seniors in nursing homes, for example, may result in findings that have limited generalizability (that is, findings of the former study aren’t necessarily applicable to the population studied in the latter one) but the studies may not be flawed at all (sometimes laboratory studies are the best for a particular type of research and sometimes studying people where they live is best). Another example: If someone published a study on young adult women’s body image issues, we might say in the conclusion paragraph that additional research investigating men’s body image issues would expand the general knowledge base on body images issues, but we wouldn’t say that the women’s body issues study was flawed because it didn’t include male study participants. Once your topic is selected, and you have verified there is sufficient research for you to find at least 6 relevant empirical research articles on that topic, please submit it for approval in the week 2 forum. This is where your topic will be approved or where feedback for revision of the topic will be provided. You do NOT need to email it separately. The APUS online library is the best place for finding articles. It houses more than just scholarly publications, though, so be sure to check anything that captures your interest to the criteria described above. Pointers on Identifying Empirical Articles The Abstract should say this was a research study where “X’ number of subjects were recruited by the authors of the article, and “Y” data was collected by the article authors with “Z” results found. There are usually sections titled “Methods”, “Results” and sometimes “Discussion” in empirical articles that outline the stuff mentioned above. If these things are missing, please select another article. Here is a sample of how an Annotated Bibliography should look. Some of you will no doubt argue other professors have had you format an Annotated Bibliography differently. There is no one format for doing an Annotated Bibliography in 6th edition APA Style, so your instructors can modify it. Here is how an Annotated Bibliography should look when formatted correctly for this class: Things to Notice Did you note the spacing differences for the Annotated Bibliography? The reference information above each annotation follows conventional rules for APA style in regards to margins, spacing, indenting, inclusion of surnames and first and middle initials, absence of issue numbers, but inclusion of volume and page numbers. While there is double spacing of the lines in the reference information above the annotation description, there is single spacing in the actual annotation description. Did you make a mental note about the indentation differences for the reference information vs the start at the far left margin for the annotation description? Did you notice that the Annotation is one short, unbroken paragraph? Are you familiar with the rules for capitalization for formal and informal nouns in references, or which words get capitalized when there is a question mark or colon in the title of an article? Also notice that the important information such as the “who, what, when, where, why, how” and limitations and future directions of the study were provided in one short paragraph. Your annotation descriptions should be of similar length and in the same format. Remember, there is no reference list attached at the end of an Annotated bibliography since all of the reference information appears above each Annotation Description. Only volume and page numbers should be included, not issue numbers. The issue numbers are usually enclosed in parentheses in the source. You are now ready to find a topic, locate empirical articles and submit the topic for approval in this week’s forum! References Holloway, I.(1997) Basic concepts for qualitative research. Oxford, Blackwell Science. 4 Blog ArchiveCopyright © 2019 HomeworkMarket.com Read More Applied SciencesArchitecture and DesignBiologyBusiness & FinanceChemistryComputer ScienceGeographyGeologyEducationEngineeringEnglishEnvironmental scienceSpanishGovernmentHistoryHuman Resource ManagementInformation SystemsLawLiteratureMathematicsNursingPhysicsPolitical SciencePsychologyReadingScienceSocial Science

Forum Assignment for the Week: 300 Words minimum For this week’s Forum, respond to the following:  

This week, we’ll share our annotated bibliography progress a little! In the forum, share your topic selection for the Annotated Bibliography assignment.

· Discuss the reasons you choose the topic you selected and whether you have encountered this topic in prior courses?

· Examine and explain how the topic is important to the larger field of psychology?

· Wrap up the weekly forum by responding to three of your classmates posts and dialoguing with them about their selections for the assignment.

General Instructions Applicable to All Forums:

 Forum post source citation is not required for forum posting in our class.  This is because we are engaging in conversation that happens to be in writing form, not composing essays or research papers. You will, however, need to paraphrase (restate in your own words) any words of published authors in parts of your posts that are based on their work.  Copying of published material, which is plagiarism, is prohibited and any instances of it, including forum posts, will result in a zero score without an option for re-submission to recoup lost points and a report sent to the Registrar’s Office per University policy.

 

Discussion forum posts will be graded on verbal expression, critical thinking, making an effort to not just participate in but contribute to the dialog with initial and reply posts of a substantive nature commensurate with graduate level studies. Posts must have correct grammatical construction, spelling, and punctuation with no texting or other casual style language.

WEEK 2 LESSON

What Is Meant by Peer Reviewed and Scholarly Works?

Peer Reviewed means that the scientific community, specifically other professionals in the discipline, have read, assessed and vetted the published work, deeming it credible, adhering to scientific principles and of contribution to the advancement of knowledge about the subject matter. When someone conducts a research study and has an article he/she writes about it published in a scholarly journal, other researchers and professionals in his/her field read the article and evaluate it. These are the “peers” in peer-review. In subsequent editions of the journal peers may publish their feedback on the articles they read. This serves two purposes. First, if an article is accepted for publication in one of these journals, one can be as sure as one can reasonably be (nothing is full-proof) of the integrity of the study published, because of the journal’s strong reputation; scholarly journals don’t survive without this. Second, scholarly journals are published by organizations serving dedicated academics and professionals in the field and when the peers (fellow professionals) of a person whose article was published in a particular edition of a journal read, evaluate and critique it, this sparks interest in future research and holds the author of the article to a high standard because his/her work is being reviewed, supported and/or challenged by other experts in his/her profession.

Scholarly Works simply refers to articles that have been “peer reviewed”, as described above.

What Is the Difference Between a Literature Review, Theory Paper, Meta-Analysis, Case Study and Empirical Study?

A Literature Review is a critical analysis of a published work. According to APA (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010, p. 10) such reviews:

Define and clarify the problem

Summarize previous investigations to inform the reader of the state of the research

Identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature

Suggest the next step in solving the problem

However in a Literature Review, no data collection by the authors writing the review is undertaken. Thus there will not be sections such as methods and results since the authors did not collect and analyze their own data.

Theory Papers draw conclusions from the existing literature on a topic and either advance or challenge the internal consistency or external validity of the theory (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Theory papers do not involve original data collection by the authors of the article, so they also will not have methods and results sections.

In Meta-Analyses, statistical procedures are used to combine the results from several studies into one set of findings that take into consideration the findings from all the synthesized studies (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010). Usually the words meta-analyses are listed in the title of the article or in the abstract of the article.

Case Studies involve collection of detailed information about an individual, group or organization. Case studies are sometimes referred to as “qualitative” or “naturalistic” research in that they are a form of research that “focuses on the way people interpret and make sense of their experiences” in the applicable environment (Holloway, 1997, p. 2.) The data collected is not generalizable or replicable since it applies to the person, group or organization and no statistical procedures are used to interpret the findings.

Empirical Studies are reports of original research or analyses of data, which were not initially processed and evaluated, such as in archival research (APA Manual, Sixth Edition, 2010).  Empirical studies usually contain a methods section that outlines the demographics of the subjects, the type of data collected and the data collection process that was used. Empirical studies also contain a Results section that outlines what analyses were used and what was found during them. A Discussion section and Implications for further studies outline the weaknesses and potential flaws of the study as well as the limitations to the generalizability of the findings and what future studies should add or do differently. Remember, Annotated Bibliography sources MUST BE Empirical Studies. That means NO pamphlets/booklets, books, magazines, websites or newspapers may be used as sources.

What is an Annotated Bibliography? By the end of this week, you will need to submit a topic for your Annotated Bibliography in the discussion forum. You will be picking 6 peer reviewed articles on any topic of your choosing that falls under the psychology umbrella. Please read the Abstract on every article carefully.

You may be more confused at this point and wondering, “What is an Annotated Bibliography, and how does it differ from a Literature Review?”

The primary purpose of an Annotated Bibliography is to provide a brief synopsis of the important information obtained from peer reviewed (i.e., scholarly), empirical research articles. All authors of the studies used must have conducted the research themselves. Peer reviewed, empirical articles will cover who and how many subjects there were, when and where subjects were recruited, what data was collected from subjects, what the question(s) is/are that the researchers were trying to answer, what was found, what if any limitations there were in the study, and what future studies need to include. You will be expected to review at least 6 empirical research articles for the Annotated Bibliography. The goal is to summarize published authors’ work related to a particular topic in a way that guides the reader of your review paper and increases his/her knowledge of the topic. The reader should know more about the topic after reading the review than before reading it.

A Literature Review, as explained previously, does NOT involve the authors of the review actually carrying out their own research by recruiting subjects, collecting and analyzing data and reporting the findings. The author of the article merely provides a synopsis of all kinds of studies (e.g., literature reviews, theory papers, meta-analyses, case studies, empirical studies, etc). By contrast, the Annotated Bibliography for this assignment should focus on original empirical research studies done by the authors of the article.

The Annotated Bibliography requires that all writing based on or inspired by the published works of others be properly source credited. Guidance for how to do can be found in the APUS online library under Owl Purdue APA formatting resources, or in the APA Manual, 6th edition. If you plan to continue on to graduate school, you should strongly consider purchasing a copy of the APA Manual. The format for the Annotated Bibliography will be covered later in this lecture.

Choosing A Topic To write an Annotated Bibliography, you first need to decide on a topic of interest. Next find the   empirical articles that support the topic. If you cannot find the articles that you need, please revise your topic. Once you have your articles you may submit your topic for approval. Taking these steps will prevent you from having to change the topic later.

Often students pick topics that are either too broad or too narrow. If the topic is too broad, it is hard to determine what the research questions are or how to answer the research questions in a cohesive manner. If the general topic is PTSD, for example, you won’t be able to focus your article search thematically, which is critical because the articles in this literature review can’t be disparate ones (i.e., meaning not related to each other by anything other than in some way being about the topic selected). PTSD articles would all have to be about the same aspect of PTSD. For instance, you would not select articles on PTSD in Iraq War Veterans, PTSD in Rape Survivors and PTSD in Pearl Harbor Survivors since the PTSD in these 3 groups is not likely to be the same since their origins are different. Articles selected must not just be on the same topic, they must also examine a similar research question.

An example of a topic that is too broad would be: The Effects of Trauma on Children’s Development

The reason this topic is too broad is because the types of trauma are many, so it is not clear what type of trauma will be the focus of the Annotated Bibliography. Also, which aspects of development and children of what ages will be used? These are all unclear in this topic. To fix it, these details would need to be added.

If the topic is too narrow, you may have trouble finding at least 6 articles on the topic which are empirical.

An example of a topic that is too narrow would be: The Effects of Sexual Trauma on Two Year Old Boys Language Development

Here lots of specifics are provided. The problem is will there be enough empirical studies done combining sexual trauma, 2 year olds, boys and language development? The topic is too focused and thus it may be hard to find empirical articles that meet criteria. To fix it, you could broaden the age group of interest and include girls as well as boys.

An example of an appropriate topic might be:

The Effects of Foster Care Placement on Self Esteem Development in Elementary Aged Children

This topic is not too broad and not too specific and provides enough detail for the reader to understand what the research focus will be in the article and the age range of children of interest.

Another problem that you need to be aware of is selecting studies with findings which are not generalizable. You would need to explain this in your summary of the study. Conducting research using freshmen college students in a laboratory setting or only studying seniors in nursing homes, for example, may result in findings that have limited generalizability (that is, findings of the former study aren’t necessarily applicable to the population studied in the latter one) but the studies may not be flawed at all (sometimes laboratory studies are the best for a particular type of research and sometimes studying people where they live is best). Another example: If someone published a study on young adult women’s body image issues, we might say in the conclusion paragraph that additional research investigating men’s body image issues would expand the general knowledge base on body images issues, but we wouldn’t say that the women’s body issues study was flawed because it didn’t include male study participants.

Once your topic is selected, and you have verified there is sufficient research for you to find at least 6 relevant empirical research articles on that topic, please submit it for approval in the week 2 forum. This is where your topic will be approved or where feedback for revision of the topic will be provided. You do NOT need to email it separately.

The APUS online library is the best place for finding articles. It houses more than just scholarly publications, though, so be sure to check anything that captures your interest to the criteria described above.

Pointers on Identifying Empirical Articles

The Abstract should say this was a research study where “X’ number of subjects were recruited by the authors of the article, and “Y” data was collected by the article authors with “Z” results found.

There are usually sections titled “Methods”, “Results” and sometimes “Discussion” in empirical articles that outline the stuff mentioned above. If these things are missing, please select another article.

Here is a sample of how an Annotated Bibliography should look. Some of you will no doubt argue other professors have had you format an Annotated Bibliography differently. There is no one format for doing an Annotated Bibliography in 6th edition APA Style, so your instructors can modify it. Here is how an Annotated Bibliography should look when formatted correctly for this class:

Things to Notice

Did you note the spacing differences for the Annotated Bibliography? The reference information above each annotation follows conventional rules for APA style in regards to margins, spacing, indenting, inclusion of surnames and first and middle initials, absence of issue numbers, but inclusion of volume and page numbers. While there is double spacing of the lines in the reference information above the annotation description, there is single spacing in the actual annotation description. Did you make a mental note about the indentation differences for the reference information vs the start at the far left margin for the annotation description? Did you notice that the Annotation is one short, unbroken paragraph? Are you familiar with the rules for capitalization for formal and informal nouns in references, or which words get capitalized when there is a question mark or colon in the title of an article? Also notice that the important information such as the “who, what, when, where, why, how” and limitations and future directions of the study were provided in one short paragraph. Your annotation descriptions should be of similar length and in the same format. Remember, there is no reference list attached at the end of an Annotated bibliography since all of the reference information appears above each Annotation Description. Only volume and page numbers should be included, not issue numbers. The issue numbers are usually enclosed in parentheses in the source.

You are now ready to find a topic, locate empirical articles and submit the topic for approval in this week’s forum!

References

Holloway, I.(1997) Basic concepts for qualitative research. Oxford, Blackwell Science.

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