Option 2 – Alternative Assignment (Instructions Here)
Option 2: For ethical reasons, the University and I neither can force you to participate in research studies, nor would we wish for you to be uncomfortable participating in studies. For this reason, there is an alternative assignment that you can choose to do instead that involves reading psychology research articles and writing an essay about them. There is also a ½ hour tutorial you can complete, so that doing two of the articles reading session plus the tutorial will equal the same 4.5 hours of time as participating in studies.
Here are full INSTRUCTIONS for how to complete â³Option 2â³ alternative assignment for research participation credits:
Browse the list of articles that are included as part of this Module (topics include âPower,â âGuns,â âExperience and Wellbeing,â and so on).
Choose TWO of the articles that interest you (you can choose any two â if you choose Guns 1 you do not have to choose Guns 2 for your second â choose any of the two articles hosted here).
Once you have picked two research articles, read them carefully. You will be asked to summarize, compare and contrast these two original research articles for this assignment.
To do this task, please compose an essay with three major parts:
PART 1. For each article: Summarize IN YOUR OWN WORDS the research questions and/or hypotheses, the logic behind them, the methods used, results, and the authorsâ² interpretation of the results. Here is more detail on what is expected (each of these components should have their own paragraph in your essay):
a) Research Questions
What is/are the research questions? What are the researchers trying to answer? What are the specific hypothesis?
b) Logic and Background Literature
How do these questions relate to what we already know? How will they help to further scientific understanding?
c) Methods
What methods did they use? For example, surveys? Behavioral tasks? Neuroimaging?
d) Results
What were the results of the tests?
e) Interpretation
How did they interpret the findings? How do the results relate to their original research questions?
f) Future Directions
Have ideas for future directions this line of research could go in? Include original ideas.
**Do this process again for the second article**
PART 2. After BOTH articles have been summarized, spend the next portion of your essay comparing and contrasting the two articles. Do they have similar research questions, are their methods and results similar or different? How and why is their methodology different, and what does that tell you? What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each?
**These first two steps are designed to take around 90 minutes**
PART 3. Once you have finished Parts 1 and 2, spend the rest of the time writing about what you learned from both articles. This could include portions that you thought were particularly interesting or problematic, or it could connect to something that youâ²ve learned in this class. You could write about what you think might be an interesting next step for them to take, or you could explain why the article might be applicable to everyday life. Any of those options would be acceptable to conclude your essay.
Once you are done with your essay, submit your assignment through canvas in the âAlternate Research Assignmentâ module. The task is supposed to take you 2 hours to complete – you must spend the full time on the task.
For students who wish to complete more than 2 credits using this Option, you may follow the instructions above and summarize 3 articles (spending 3 hours for 3 credits