PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Chapter 3 Reading and Evaluating Research

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Overview l Understanding an article l Developing ideas from an article

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading for Understanding l Choosing an article l Reading the abstract l Reading the introduction l Reading the method section l Reading the results section l Reading the discussion

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Choosing an article l Selecting the right article may be the most important step l Approaches to finding an interesting article –Track down study that you heard about or read about –Look through table of contents of current journals looking for articles with interesting titles –Search the literature using either printed tools like Psychological Abstracts or computerized tools like PsycINFO

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading the Abstract l The abstract is a summary of the article l If you don’t like the article’s abstract, consider finding another article

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading the Introduction l May be difficult and time-consuming, but it tells you what hypotheses they are testing and why: Sets the stage for the rest of the article. l Don’t leave the introduction without knowing –What the hypothesis is –Why they are testing the hypothesis

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading the Method Section l Who the participants were (often in Participants subsection) l What happened to participants (often in Procedure subsection)

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading the Results Section l Know what the scores mean l Know whether the hypothesis was supported

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Reading the Discussion Section l Summarizes results relating to the hypothesis l Integrates/reconciles results with introduction l May suggest future research

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Developing Research Ideas from Existing Research l Direct replications l Systematic replications l Conceptual replications l Extending research

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley The Direct Replication l An “exact copy” done because of concerns about –Fraud –Type 1 errors –Type 2 errors

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley The Systematic Replication l A slight modification of the original study l Done for –All the reasons you would do a direct replication –To have more power than the original –To have more external validity than the original –To have more construct validity than the original

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley The Conceptual Replication l A replication that usually uses different measures and/or manipulations than the original l Failure to replicate casts doubt on the original study’s construct validity; successful replication boosts confidence in the validity of the original study’s conclusions

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Extending Research l Add moderating variables l Add/manipulate mediating variables l Look for the functional relationships l Do studies suggested by study’s authors l See other tips in Table 3-7 & Chapter 2

PowerPoint presentation to accompany Research Design Explained 5th edition ; ©2004 Mark Mitchell & Janina Jolley Concluding Remarks You now know how to –Read research –Criticize/Evaluate research –Get research ideas from published research