Activity: Dissecting a typical journal article.
In this activity you will learn how to
analyze a typical
journal article. You will provide an outline of the article based
on the criteria listed in the table below. First we will outline
an article together on-line and then you will outline
one on your own.
The following tutorials should be reviewed
before doing
this activity:
Phases of research
Understanding
Journal Articles
Conducting
on-line searches
Note: Students doing this activity must have
access to Wilson
Select Plus Full Text article for Part A but not for Part B.
I. Research Question(s) /
Purpose of the article
II. Hypothesis
III. Variables
A. Independent Variable
B. Dependent Variable
IV. Methodology
A. Who participated?
B. What did they do?
V. Major Findings |
Part A.
First let's find an article that is available on-line
and in full text.
1. Log in to your school's search program and enter into either
the Wilson Select Plus database or the Academic Search Elite database.
2. In the advanced search box type in:
gifted
and perfectionism (as keywords)
This will yield a handful of articles on
gifted children
and their perfectionistic tendencies.
3. Find the Carol Orange article titled "Gifted Students and
Perfectionism". Click on it.
4. This first page contains the article's abstract. You
may want to print it out.
5. Next, click on the 'full text' button which will take you
to a new screen that shows the full article. Read through the
article
with me as we fill out our outline.
6. The Outline:
I. Research Question(s) / Purpose of
the article
Every
article has a purpose or a main research question to guide it.
Sometimes
this is formally stated while other times the reader must glean this
information.
You can find this information in the article's Introduction and,
sometimes,
the abstract.
For the
Orange article, it begins by reviewing past research on the topic of
perfectionism
- generally and then specifically involving gifted students.
These
first few paragraphs provide a background for you to understand the
purpose
behind this research. In the 4th paragraph that begins with
"According
to...", the author states the purpose of the article. Did you
find
it? Filling out our outline we write for (I.):
The
purpose of the study is to give participants a Perfectionism Quiz in
order
to refine our understanding of the construct of perfectionism.
II. Hypothesis
You can usually find the hypothesis (or hypotheses) in the introduction
and, sometimes, the abstract. Sometimes the hypothesis is
formally
stated; other times it is phrased as "We believe such and such will
happen"
or "We think this will happen".
For the Orange article, the hypothesis is formally stated in the same
paragraph
as the purpose. Filling out our outline, we write for (II.):
It
was hypothesized that a significant number gifted students would score
high on the Perfectionism Quiz.
III. Variables
The answers to finding both the independent and dependent variables is
usually found in the introduction and method sections (and sometimes
the
abstract). You can also figure out these variables from the
hypothesis.
It is usually best to first figure out the main variables or constructs
of the study, and then choose which one is the IV and which one is the
DV. For the Orange article, the 2 main variables are "giftedness"
and "perfectionism". We know this from the hypothesis and from
the
method section. The IV influences the DV. Ask
yourself:
is giftedness influencing perfectionism? or is perfectionism
influencing
giftedness? Filling out our outline for part III:
A. Independent Variable
giftedness
B. Dependent Variable
perfectionism
Why? Because whether a student is gifted
influences their perfectionism,
not the other way around.
IV. Method
For this
part of the outline, you want to read through the Method section to see
who participated in the study and what did they have to do. Under
the who participated section, you'll want to briefly
state who did the study. Children? Ages?
Gender?
Parents? etc. Under part (B) you want to describe what the
participants were instructed to do.
For the
Orange article, the first paragraph in the method section describes the
participants. Two paragraphs later, what the participants had to
do is described under the "procedure" subheading. Filling out our
outline for part IV:
A. Who Participated?
109 students from 18 different highschools participated. Students
were
either
enrolled in Gifted and Talented
programs or taking honors classes.
B. What did they do?
Students completed the 30-item Perfectionism Quiz and then graded
their own results.
V. Major Findings
Did
the results of the experiment support their hypothesis? What were
the major findings of the article? What happened? The
research
article is a story of sorts. It starts by making a prediction and
ends with telling us if they were right. Usually, if it is a well
written article, this answer is at the beginning of the Discussion
section.
But you may have to look around the Discussion section for it.
For the
Orange article, did gifted students score high on the Perfectionism
Quiz?
The first sentence in the Discussion section answers this
question.
We may want to add more information when completing our outline.
Thus, filling out the outline for part V:
Gifted
students tended to score high on the Perfectionism Quiz, supporting the
author's hypothesis. Specifically, 89% of the sample scored high
in the 2 highest perfectionism categories. This contradicts
another
study that found only 15-20% of gifted students were perfectionistic.
Now that we've practiced with one article, it's time for
you to try
one on your own.
Part B.
In this section, you will outline an article on your
own.
There are 2 versions of this activity: a directed version where
you
outline a specific article and a free form version where you choose
your
own article to outline.
Directed Version
1. Log back in to Wilson Select Plus.
2. Do a keyword search for alcohol use
and drunk driving.
3. Find the article by Elena Parent & Denise Newman titled
"The Role of Sensation-seeking in Alcohol Use and Risk-taking Behavior
among College Women", from the Journal
of Alcohol and Drug Education, v. 44, no.2, 1999.
4. Complete the outline below for this article.
I. Research Question(s) / Purpose of
the article
II. Hypothesis
III. Variables
A. Independent Variable
B. Dependent Variable
IV. Methodology
A. Who participated?
B. What did they do?
V. Major Findings
Free Form Version
1. Log on to your school's search program and use the PsychINFO
database.
2. Search for a journal article that is in an area of interest
to you. Once you find the article, get it from your library or
see
if it is available on-line at Wilson Select Plus or Academic Search
Elite.
3. Outline the article:
I. Research Question(s) / Purpose of
the article
II. Hypothesis
III. Variables
A. Independent Variable
B. Dependent Variable
IV. Methodology
A. Who participated?
B. What did they do?
V. Major Findings
|
