Step 3 Overview
In Step 2, you chose one article and used the Three Claims, Four Validities framework from your text to determine what type of claim was made and to provide information about the different types of validity that support the claim. In this phase, Step 3, you will add two more articles to the paper following the same guidelines, creating one cohesive Literature Review of three somewhat related articles. Because this is an extension of Step 2, most of the instructions on this page are similar to what you were instructed to do last week.
Some things that will change for Step 3:
You will add two articles to the literature review, for a total of three articles and three sets of the following sections:
Article Summary
Construct Validity
External Validity
Statistical Validity
Internal Validity
and then repeat for Article 2… and then repeat for Article 3…
Your References page will be updated to include the two new articles you’re adding in at this phase
Revise the work completed in Step 2 based on feedback you’ve received from me and your own edits now that we are further along in our text and a little further in our understanding of these concepts.
I will say it again – it is very important that the articles you select for the literature review be original research studies. You can review Step 1 instructions and resources for clarification on this, but one major hint is that the article will likely have some form of the following sections: an abstract, a literature review/ introduction, Participants, Methods/ Measures, Results/ Analysis, and Discussion. It will also have a long References list at the end.
1. Briefly summarize the research study.
Article summaries flow best if they first discuss the reason the researchers sought to conduct their study (goals), briefly describe how they carried it out (methods/design), and then wrap up with what was discovered (findings/ conclusions). Scientific writing should be straightforward and concise. It isn’t easy to summarize a lot of information into few words, but that is your goal here. Summaries should be about a half-page.
Summary Checklist:
state researcher’s hypotheses/study’s purpose
concise description of the methodologies used
summary of findings/conclusions
discuss whether the main conclusion is a frequency, association, or causal claim (consider both the methods used and the conclusions made when trying to determine the type of claim); this will help guide you in discussing the four validities.
2. Address each validity for the study as it relates to the claim made.
Remember that you are being asked to scrutinize, not criticize, the research based on each of the four main validities described in Chapter 3. Demonstrate to me that you understand what aspects of participant recruitment and selection, research design and methodology, and analysis of statistical findings are contributing to and strengthening the study’s validities. You should also demonstrate your ability to PRIORITIZE these validities based on the type of claim being made. I highly recommend referencing Chapter 3 of the textbook, including the “Working It Through” section on page 81, to help you with this part of the assignment.
Discussion of the validities is the meat of your literature review. That is, you should spend more time on this section (and it should eventually be longer) than the article summary section.
Three goals in discussing each validity:
Demonstrate to me that you understand what that particular type of validity measures;
Discuss the methods/ aspects of the study’s design that address that particular type of validity;
Be straightforward in explaining why an aspect of the study addresses that particular validity AND why that particular validity is or isnt a priority based on the claims being made.
Remember that you can say something, anything!, about each of the validities even if they are not a priority or addressed in the design. Here are a few things that might be relevant to your study that you should include in each subsection:
Construct Validity
remind readers of each of the variables analyzed in the study; identify each variable as either independent and dependent, or predictor and criterion variables; describe how each variable is manipulated/ measured/ operationally defined
explain why the method of measurement used contributes to the study’s construct validity
state why construct validity is/is not a priority for this type of claim
External Validity
describe participant recruitment and the demographics of the sample
explain the population that the researcher(s) hope to generalize their findings to
share why you think the sampling method contributes to the external validity
state why external validity is/is not a priority for this type of claim
Statistical Validity
remind your reader of the research questions being tested and state the type of statistical analyses used to address each question
were the findings significant and well-supported by data?
describe effect sizes and other stats here (frequencies, correlation coefficients, means, p-values/significance, etc) and discuss why you think they strengthen or weaken the statistical validity of the study
state why statistical validity is/is not a priority for this type of claim (even if statistical validity is not a priority you should still describe the statistics used)
Did You Know? Pages 457 through 504 of your textbook provide you with a very comprehensive review of statistics? Check It Out!
Internal Validity
describe the design used correlational, quasi-experimental, experimental, repeated measures, pre-test/ post-test, etc.
state whether the three criteria for causality are established – 1. covariance, 2. temporal precedence, and 3. ruling out confounds (see Table 3.6 in text)
share why aspects of the design contribute (or don’t) to the study’s internal validity
state why internal validity is/is not a priority for this type of claim
Formatting Details & Writing Tips
A well-written paper is ORGANIZED! Since this may be the first APA-style research report you’ve worked on, I have uploaded a Step 2 template to assist you with required formatting. Use this template to add in the second and third article summaries/ analyses. You will need Microsoft Word to use this document, which is available for free to SWC students (please see Course Orientation module if you have not yet accessed this software).
Remember to separate different ideas using paragraphs to help your reader follow along. You may have multiple paragraphs per section – this is fine! You Must Include Citations!