Experimental Psychology PSY 433 Chapter 5 Literature Review

Reading is Essential It is difficult to write about a topic without knowing what you want to say about it. Reading other articles helps you formulate your ideas. Reading other articles gives you terminology and references to support your own work. Reading other articles allows you to give proper credit to people who originated ideas. After reading, be sure to allow time to digest (think about) what you’ve read.

Library Research Shonn Haren (Reference Librarian) can help you find more sources – smharen@cpp.edu. http://www.cpp.edu/~library/books-articles/index.shtml PsycInfo is the main database in psychology. Many articles can be downloaded as pdf or text files. Look at the references for relevant articles – they will lead you to more sources. Check the citations for relevant articles – they will lead you to more current work. Authors working in a field frequently have copies of their articles on their websites.

More Ways to Find Articles Use a key theorist’s name as a search term. Adding it together with your topic will limit the number of articles when there are too many. Use “definition” or “review” as a keyword. Often this doesn’t help but occasionally a really good reference is found this way. Once you have found a good article, use an “exact phrase match” using an important phrase to find similar papers.

Using the Internet In general, the internet (including Wikipedia) is NOT a peer-reviewed source of information. Journals online are peer-reviewed and are treated the same as their published editions. Just because something is published doesn’t make it correct: Do not use articles as models of APA format. Be critical of the content of articles. Be VERY critical of anything on a webpage.

Be Careful on the Internet! Martin Luther King: http://martinlutherking.org/ Scientology info on psychology/psychiatry: http://www.vice.com/read/scientologists-really-really-hate-psychiatrists Dr. Laura: http://www.drlaura.com/ Neurolinguistic programming: http://www.nlpu.com/NewDesign/NLPU_WhatIsNLP.html

Hints for Finding Good Sources Look at the extension of the website in your list of search results: .gov, .edu give better results than .org, .com, or .net If you click on the cached link the search terms will appear in a different color, making them easier to locate. When you find a good website, the links are often reliable too – a reliable website usually provides links to other reliable sites.

Reading Articles Use peer-reviewed sources. PsycInfo tells you whether a journal is peer-reviewed or not. The abstract will tell you whether the article is relevant to your question. Good abstracts help you choose sources. As you read abstracts notice what was helpful to you as a researcher for when you write your own abstract. The first paragraph of the Introduction should tell you what the article is about. The last paragraph of the Introduction should give the research hypothesis and predictions.

Reading (Cont.) The Introduction section is like a mini-tutorial on your topic – read it before you finalize plans for your own experiment. It should describe the controversies in the field. It will define unfamiliar terms. It will explain the major theoretical approaches to a topic. It will summarize previous findings and describe the current state of understanding.

Reading (cont.) Skim the methods to see what subjects did, but no need to read the details unless you are planning to replicate the experiment. The first paragraph of the Discussion summarizes the findings. No need to read the Results section unless you want more detail. The last paragraph of the Discussion gives the author’s conclusions and significance of the findings. Read the rest only for specific information.

What is a Literature Review A summary and analysis of what has been done previously on a topic: Introduce the topic (research question) and key terms. Provide an overview of the amount of available literature and its types. Point out gaps in the literature, if any (your study may address such a gap). Describe and reconcile discrepancies in the literature (discuss controversies & debates).

Avoiding Plagiarism Articles in your literature review should be analyzed and summarized, not described in detail. Write what you think about the articles, not just what the authors said or did. Borrowed phrases from other articles can be used if quoted: Use quotation marks (“…“) Give page number Cite source in text and in references Do this very sparingly – only when needed.

Avoiding Plagiarism (cont.) Methods and results cannot be copied from your group members. The numbers and methods may be the same, but what you say about them must be individually written. Graphs and tables may be the same. Do not use a group member’s paper as a template – write yours from scratch. Do NOT string together words or phrases from other articles and present them as your own writing. Cite sources for important ideas, not just text.