Complete a worksheet that distills critical information in a scholarly article and compares it to information in a popular press article. This assessment is designed to help you describe scientific research methods as presented in scholarly psychological literature. It will also help you learn to differentiate between scholarly and non-scholarly sources. By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria: Competency 2: Describe scientific research methods presented in scholarly psychology literature. Describe the hypothesis and purpose of a research study from a scholarly research article. Describe the study design (including observations, programs, population, etcetera) used in a scholarly research article. Describe the participants from a scholarly research article. Describe the measures used in a scholarly research article. Competency 3: Apply research findings from scholarly literature to current issues in the field of psychology. Summarize psychology research findings. Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for professionals in the field of psychology. Summarize the main points from a popular press article. Write coherently to support a central idea with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics, as expected of a psychology professional. Use current APA format and style. Psychology is often viewed as a career in which the professionals become therapists in order to treat mental health issues. In fact, psychology is a broad and diverse science that offers a wide variety of career options and opportunities. Because psychology is considered a science, learners must understand the concept of systematic behavioral observation and the scientific process.The goals of psychology are to describe, understand, predict, and change or control behavior. Part of psychology is helping people, families, groups, and social situations make changes for the better. If you think about it, control is essential to functioning in a social and cultural world. Imagine cities with no traffic signals or children being permitted to wander aimlessly around streets. This would be a chaotic and scary world. Thus, we want to be able to manage human behavior in ways that are productive and helpful without being exploitive or damaging. Because human behavior is so remarkable, psychologists also get to choose to study from a wide variety of specialties. For example, psychologists can specialize in childhood or adult development; learning; biopsychology; clinical, organizational, or health psychology; or many other areas. You name it, psychologists study it. This is both the joy and challenge of our field. The scientific method consists of six steps: Observing, which we do all the time. Defining a problem that we perceive from our observations. Proposing a hypothesis or an educate ...

1. Complete a worksheet that distills critical information in a
scholarly article and compares it to information in a popular
press article.
This assessment is designed to help you describe scientific
research methods as presented in scholarly psychological
literature. It will also help you learn to differentiate between
scholarly and non-scholarly sources. By successfully
completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your
proficiency in the following course competencies and
assessment criteria:
Competency 2:
Describe scientific research methods presented in scholarly
psychology literature.
Describe the hypothesis and purpose of a research study from a
scholarly research article.
Describe the study design (including observations, programs,
population, etcetera) used in a scholarly research article.
Describe the participants from a scholarly research article.
Describe the measures used in a scholarly research article.
Competency 3:
Apply research findings from scholarly literature to current
issues in the field of psychology.

2. Summarize psychology research findings.
Competency 5:
Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and
consistent with expectations for professionals in the field of
psychology.
Summarize the main points from a popular press article.
Write coherently to support a central idea with correct grammar,
usage, and mechanics, as expected of a psychology professional.
Use current APA format and style.
Psychology is often viewed as a career in which the
professionals become therapists in order to treat mental health
issues. In fact, psychology is a broad and diverse science that
offers a wide variety of career options and opportunities.
Because psychology is considered a science, learners must
understand the concept of systematic behavioral observation and
the scientific process.The goals of psychology are to describe,
understand, predict, and change or control behavior. Part of
psychology is helping people, families, groups, and social
situations make changes for the better. If you think about it,
control is essential to functioning in a social and cultural world.
Imagine cities with no traffic signals or children being
permitted to wander aimlessly around streets. This would be a
chaotic and scary world. Thus, we want to be able to manage
human behavior in ways that are productive and helpful without
being exploitive or damaging.

3. Because human behavior is so remarkable, psychologists also
get to choose to study from a wide variety of specialties. For
example, psychologists can specialize in childhood or adult
development; learning; biopsychology; clinical, organizational,
or health psychology; or many other areas. You name it,
psychologists study it. This is both the joy and challenge of our
field.
The scientific method consists of six steps:
Observing, which we do all the time.
Defining a problem that we perceive from our observations.
Proposing a hypothesis or an educated guess about why the
problem exists.
Gathering evidence to test our hypotheses.
Developing or evaluating theories about behavior based on the
research results.
Publishing the results of our research.
Required Resources
The following resource is required to complete the assessment.
Source Analysis Worksheet
.

4. SHOW LESS
Suggested Resources
The resources provided here are optional and support the
assessment. They provide helpful information about the topics.
You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this
assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are
appropriate, credible, and valid. The
PSYC-FP1000 Library Guide
can help direct your research. The Supplemental Resources and
Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu
in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help
support you.
Introduction to Psychology
Major Theories and Key Ideas
|
Transcript
.
Neuromyths
Macdonald, K., Germine, L., Anderson, A., Christodoulou, J., &
McGrath, L. M. (2017).
Dispelling the myth: Training in education or neuroscience
decreases but does not eliminate beliefs in neuromyths
.
Frontiers in Psychology, 8.
Retrieved from
https://doaj.org/article/a8afd18a5aec491bbe71aa8546c50a1f

5. Bergland, C. (2017, August 10).
Debunking neuromyths: Eight common brain myths set straight
. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-
athletes-way/201708/debunking-neuromyths-eight-common-
brain-myths-set-straight
Betts, K., & Parr, T. L. (2017).
Debunking education's neuromyths
.
School Administrator, 74
(8), 30.
Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2016).
Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior
(14th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Available from the
bookstore
.
This resource will introduce the concepts and terms used to
discuss psychological research.
Chapter 1, "Psychology, Critical Thinking, and Science."
Understanding Scholarly Articles
Read
Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
as an example of how to locate the critical information in a
scholarly article. Understanding these strategies directly
applies to the assessment.

6. Strengths and Limitations of Research Design
.
Research Terminology
|
Transcript
.
Research Links
Getting Started With the Library
Library Research and Information Literacy Skills
.
Database Guide: PsycARTICLES
.
Find Scholarly and Peer Reviewed Sources
.
Automated Citations From the Library Databases
.
Using the Tools of Academia
|
Transcript
. Several additional resources to help you successfully complete
your assessment are housed in this multimedia piece
Preparation

7. Critical evaluation of a source requires locating the
thesis statement.
Note:
You may wish to review the Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
Campus page, linked in the Resources, which demonstrates
where to locate the critical information in a scholarly
article. The thesis statement will be the sentence or two that
describes what your paper or presentation intends to prove. This
differs from a hypothesis, which is used in experiments. For
example:
Thesis example:
Heads-up displays should not be used in cars because they
distract drivers from the road.
Note:
The thesis tells a reader what a paper or article will be about. It
lets the reader know right away what the conclusion will be.
Hypothesis example:
We predict heads-up displays in cars will distract drivers from
the road and cause more accidents.
Note:
The hypothesis provides a prediction (what will happen in the
future) that can be tested in an experiment.
In our daily lives, we often conduct little experiments to detect
cause-and-effect connections. If you are interested in gardening,
for example, you might try adding plant food to one bed of
flowers but not another, and then ask the question, "Does the
use of plant food (the independent variable) affect the size of
the flowers (the dependent variable)?" Your hypothesis might
be: flowers that receive plant food will have larger and more
blooms than flowers not receiving plant food. By comparing

8. unfed plants (the control group) to those receiving plant food
(the experimental group), you could then find out whether the
plant food is worth using. To understand your results, you
would also need to consider possible extraneous variables, such
as differences in how much light both groups of flowers were
exposed to, and how much water each group of flowers
received.
Instructions
The Source Analysis Worksheet is provided in Resources for
this assessment to help you successfully complete your work,
based on the following scenario.
Scenario
Suppose you work for a nonprofit agency, providing services
and support for people with intellectual disabilities. While
fundraising, your supervisor ran into a number of false beliefs
about the brain and psychology. She wants you to do some
research into the common
neuromyths
—common misconceptions about brain functions, particularly
associated with learning and education—and has asked you to
report on one research article and one credible popular press
article on neuromyths. She has asked you to evaluate the
sources and information from the two articles, based on
the following thesis:
Even professionals believe in neuromyths that harm the services
they offer.
In order to accurately report your evaluation of the sources,
your supervisor has asked you to complete a Source Analysis

9. Worksheet. In Section 1 of the form, you will record
information on the scholarly article. In Section 2 of the form,
you will record information based on the non-scholarly article.
Steps
Select two articles based on the given thesis to analyze for this
assessment. Consider using two articles from the Resources, or
select other current scholarly and popular press articles based
on the thesis.
Complete the Source Analysis Worksheet.
Follow the prompts and instructions on the worksheet.
The scholarly article should appear in the first section and the
popular press article should be addressed in the second section.
Provide the full reference for each article in the proper box. Use
proper citations throughout.
Identify how each article can be used in relation to the given
thesis. This should be a well-developed paragraph with proper
citations for each article.
Additional Requirements
Written communication:
Written communication should be free of errors that detract
from the overall message. Original work and critical thinki ng

10. are required in your assessment and scholarly writing.
Your quotations should include quotation marks and citations.
Your paraphrases should include citations.
APA formatting:
References and citations should be formatted according to
current APA style and formatting.
Font and font size:
Times New Roman, 12-point.