5 - California State University, Northridge



|CADV 380

Article Critique | |

Objective

The purpose of this assignment is to be able to critique a research study including critically examining its strengths and weaknesses, internal and external validity, and where appropriate, reliability and validity of measures.

Assignment 

• Review the literature search that you completed for your Research Question Assignment.

• Choose the most appropriate article to look up and read.

• Respond to the following questions by annotating the article and indicating directly on the article page where the information is found (or not). In addition, using the attached sheet (or some equivalent) analyze and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

• Turn in the annotated journal article and critique sheet. Also upload the critique to

Note: You must select an article from a scholarly journal.  Articles should meet the following criteria:

1) The articles should come from PRIMARY sources. Articles should NOT be a second printing of the research in a review article, a book, a text, or some other summary form (This would be termed a secondary source).

2) The articles must have been refereed. Students must NOT use information from popular press books or magazines (e.g., NO Psychology Today articles). If you are unsure of the acceptability of your article, double-check with the instructor.

Journal Article Annotation Questions:

1) In what ways does the study relate to other research on the topic? (How does it add to the research literature?)

2) Who participated in the study?

3) What are the operational definitions of the variables?

4) What were the measurements/methodology used for the study?

5) To what extent did the authors describe the reliability/validity of the measures?

6) Were the findings generalizable? To whom? How relevant is the study cross-culturally?

7) Were there important points that were left out that you think should have been given more attention?

8) Summarize your opinion of this article. Be sure to explain your opinion. (Don't just say you liked or disliked it; tell me why. You can write this on the article or turn it in on a separate sheet.)

• "How will the writing assignment help you to learn the course material?"

• This assignment highlights research design and methodology. It may also help to concretize some of your own research ideas and approaches. Ideally this assignment will help you to shape the methods and procedure section of your research proposal.

• "If I had to do this assignment myself, how would I do it?"

• I would probably select the article that I used for my summary assignment or one that directly related to my research topic. I would then read the questions and make sure that I understood what each was asking. I would also review the Integrating Research Concepts assignment

• "How does this writing assignment or topic relate to the work that specialists do in this field?"

• Reports of research related to Child and Adolescent development is common. The ability to understand and critique research findings makes us better professionals and consumers of information.

Journal Critique Form

1. Indicate three strengths and 3 weaknesses of this article.

This might include the characteristics and number of participants, how the variables were/were not operationalized, the design of the study (i.e., internal and external validity, and reliability and validity of measures/procedures), the strength or limitation of the measures used for the study.

2. For each strength, explain how it might be incorporated into your own work

3. For each weakness, explain how it might be avoided/improved in your own work

|Strength #1 |

| |

| |

|Incorporation |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Strength #2 |

| |

| |

|Incorporation |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Strength #3 |

| |

| |

|Incorporation |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Weakness #1 |

| |

| |

|Improvement |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Weakness #2 |

| |

| |

|Incorporation |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Weakness #3 |

| |

| |

|Incorporation |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download