Analyzing Methods Section

Words: 425
Pages: 2
Subject: Premium Writing

The second, very important part of a psychological research paper is the Methods Section. Part of developing your skills in becoming a consumer of psychological research is to learn to analyze/critique the methods used. This assignment is intended to help you be prepared to do that by critiquing an already existing article’s methods section.
Instructions for Analyzing Methods Sections Assignment:
RESOURCES: I answered the questions below for the Cheema & Kitsantis (2014) article as part of the recorded lecture. Now, you will do the same type of analysis of the methods section for the Brannan, White & Long (2016) article posted to Canvas.
Type it up as one single document in MS Word. Include a set of answers for questions 1-4 listed below.
Questions
1. What are the IV(s)? What are the DV(s)? Do they match what the stated purpose of the study from the Introduction section?
2. Read through their participants section. How many participants did they have? Is this enough? What type of people would be appropriate for their study (e.g., it doesn’t matter, college students, working adults, etc.)? How were the participants selected (e.g., random sample, convenience sample). Do you think their participants represent the population they are supposed to represent (in terms of demographics, or geographically, etc.)?
3. Read through the instruments (measures) section. How many measures do they have? Do they seem to match with/adequately capture the description of the IV(s) and DV(s)? Do they provide reliability evidence and/or other evidence regarding the quality or appropriateness of their measures?
4. What method (design) did they use for this study and is it appropriate for their research questions? Did they adequately describe their procedure/provide enough detail (or too much detail) so that you could replicate the study on your own if you had to and so that you understood what they did? What was confusing about understanding their procedures used?
Include your name in the file (e.g., methods part 1 Lyerly).