I need to write an annotated bibliography using 3 articles and I
need to write a research paper. It is all on the same topic, just
counted as two seperate assignments. These are the instructions:
Research paper assignment: Research beyond the textbook
For this assignment, you will write a 4-5 page paper about three
research articles on a particular topic discussed in your
textbook. (Use 12 point font, double spacing, and 1- inch
margins – aim for at least about 1250-1500 words in the body of
the paper.) You will also post some of the preliminary planning
for this project on the class discussion boards. The project will
be a total of 100 points (20% of the final grade), with 80 points
for the paper, and 20 points for the discussion board
components. I describe the paper first, and then the earlier
components, so you know where you’re going with the
assignment.
Research in psychology is a constant process, and new work is
regularly being produced. In addition, textbook authors only
have so much space to write about a topic and therefore must
limit which research they choose to discuss. For this
assignment, you will find and summarize additional research
articles on a topic from the textbook.
Paper assignment
(1) Identify a major topic covered in the textbook, whether we
cover it in the course or not. For example, “Parents’ Discussion
of Emotion” (Chapter 10) or “Conversational Skills” (Chapter
6) are major topics. Check with me if you’re unsure you’ve got
a good topic.
(2) Briefly summarize in your own words what the text says
about the topic. What do we know? What research is
described? You don’t need to go into specific details about the

studies they describe in detail, but give a broad overview, as
best you can.
(3) Find three closely related
scholarly
research articles on your chosen topic.
How do you know if the articles you’ve chosen are “closely
related?” They discuss the same key issues, whether from a
similar perspective or a different one. Maybe they are by one or
more of the same researchers as a study that’s already cited in
your textbook. Maybe they each cite several of the same
articles or one article cites the other.
How do you know if the articles you’ve chosen are scholarly?
Find the articles via a search in PsycInfo, the main psychology
research database, and check the box to limit your search to
peer-reviewed articles. Don’t expect to find articles from a
typical web search, via Google or other search engines.
(4) Describe what each of these three articles tells us about the
chosen topic. For example, what
does Paper A tell you about parents’ discussion of emotion?
Briefly describe how the studies described are related to the
topic you’ve chosen, what happened in the studies, what the
major findings were, and how these findings modify or extend
(or even contradict) what the textbook tells us about the topic.
(5) Summarize what you learned, and tie together the discussion
in the text with the additional research you’ve found. Did the
new research add more evidence in a similar direction as the
information cited in the text, or did it change your
understanding of the topic in some more fundamental way? If
you were going to rewrite that section of the text, are there
different points you’d highlight than what was in the text? Why
or why not? I’m less interested in the conclusions you draw
than in the reasoning you use to draw them.
(6) In another paragraph or two, tell me one or two things you’d

like to know about the topic you chose, but that were not
covered in the textbook or the articles you read.
(7) Cite your articles in your main text (that is, list the authors’
last names and year of publication for each source). At the end
of your paper, include the full references for the articles you
cited. If you know it, use APA (American Psychological
Assocation) format. See
http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/Library/libaxn/libaxn_bibliographic
_citations_apa.pdf
Otherwise, use any standard format you know (MLA format,
Chicago style, etc.).
A few constraints
:
1. All articles must be located on PsycInfo. To use PsycInfo at
Hofstra,
go to the Hofstra Libraries website (accessible from the Hofstra
homepage, or Hofstra.edu/library). Go to the section marked
Research Resources (in light blue), then click on Research
Databases. Click Psychology. Scroll down until you find the
link for PsycInfo.
Also, note that PsycInfo is a database, which means it contains
research abstracts. It does not contain the articles themselves.
Some of the articles are linked there because Hofstra pays for
access to them through EBSCO, the same service through which
it pays for PsycInfo. However, Hofstra also pays for access to
many other journals. If the full text is not linked in PsycInfo,
you’ll see a link that says “Find Article.” Often if you click that
link, you’ll be taken to another link where you can see the
article directly, through Science Direct or another set of journal
resources. If Hofstra doesn’t have a copy you can also try to
request a copy through Interlibrary Loan – if the article is in
digital format, you can sometimes get it sent to you

electronically in a day or two.
A Hofstra reference librarian can also assist you with beginning
a search on PsycInfo. Articles from web postings or places like
The New York Times
are not acceptable.
2. Each article you discuss must report at least one study,
whether it’s an experiment (random assignment to condition,
manipulation of an independent variable) or a correlational
study. It can’t be a review paper or summary. One tip is to
scan the article to confirm there is a Method section and a
Results section, which would describe what was done in the
study, and what was found. If you are unsure if the articles
you’ve found fit these requirements, e-mail me to check.
3. The three articles you use
can’t already be mentioned
in the section you’re writing about (e.g., in “Parents’
Discussion of Emotion,” the authors already mention an article
by Eisenberg, et al from 1998, so you cannot use that article for
this assignment). The purpose here is to find research that
extends what’s summarized in the text.
4. However, beginning with some of the articles that are cited
in the text can be a good starting point for the assignment. You
can look in the back of the textbook for the full reference for
any article that’s cited in the text, and then you can search for
that specific article in PsycInfo. For many records, PsycInfo
includes as link that says “Times cited in this database”
followed by a number. For example, if it says an article has
been cited 5 times, if you click the link, it will show you a list
of five sources that cite that article in their reference list. That
alone doesn’t mean the article is on the same topic (or that it’s
an empirical article describing new research), but it’s a starting
point. Also, for each article, PsycInfo includes keywords, so

you can try to search using some of the same keywords that a
related article is tagged with
Some articles are:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=20&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=2014-25083-007
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=11b0
55d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1999-95023-108
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18805040
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=22&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=2014-33834-004
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=24&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1987-15150-001
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=26&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1999-95023-108
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=27&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1986-00913-001

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=32&sid=11b
055d1-5f5a-4bf7-9edf-
bfd92af424cb%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4201&bdata=JnNpdGU
9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=1991-04193-001