Assignment: Synthesizing psychological science
Assignment: Synthesizing psychological science
READING
For this part, you’ll be reading and writing simultaneously.
a. To learn why it’s important to synthesize psychological science and to learn how to synthesize psychological science, watch the following video, “How to Synthesize Psychological Science.” (A transcript of this video is available here.) Make sure you learn (from the lecture video):
1. the difference between synthesizing psychological science and Mad Libbing it;
2. why it’s preferred to place citations at the end of a sentence (in parentheses);
3. why you should almost always write about behavior and phenomena, not researchers and their studies; and
4. how to synthesize conflicting results (e.g., using “However, …”).
b. To practice synthesizing psychological science: 1. Read the abstract of Plester, Wood, and Joshi’s (2009) article, “Exploring
the Relationship Between Children’s Knowledge of Text Message Abbreviations and School Literacy Outcomes.”
▪ Identify and write down, using only one sentence, this article’s major finding.
2. Read the abstract of Plester’s (2008) article, “Txt Msg N School Literacy: Does Texting and Knowledge of Text Abbreviations Adversely Affect Children’s Literacy Attainment?”
▪ Identify and write down, using only one sentence, this article’s major finding.
3. Read the abstract of Kemp’s (2010) article, “Texting Versus Txtng: Reading and Writing Text Messages, and Links with Other Linguistic Skills.”
▪ Identify and write down, using only one sentence, this article’s major finding.
4. Download and save on your computer this fillable PDF. ▪ Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY430_
Synthesize_Fillable.pdf. In other words, add your last name to the beginning of the filename.
▪ On your computer, open a PDF writer, such as Preview, Adobe Reader, or the like. Be sure to open your PDF writer app before you open the unfilled PDF from your computer.
Part 1: How to synthesize psychological science
▪ From within your PDF writer app, open the unfilled PDF, which you have already saved onto your computer and re-named.
▪ Use your PDF writer app to fill in the PDF. 5. On the first page of the PDF, fill in the blank spaces with
▪ a first Supporting Sentence, which will be the sentence you created in Step b1 above;
▪ a second Supporting Sentence, which will be the sentence you created in Step b2 above;
▪ a third Supporting Sentence, which will be the sentence you created in Step b3 above; and
▪ a Conclusion Sentence, which you will need to write. ▪ For this assignment, you do not need to use any citations. We will
get to citations later in this unit.
▪ c. To get more practice synthesizing psychological science:
1. Read the abstract of Palmer and Schloss’s (2010) article, “An Ecological Valence Theory of Human Color Preference.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the article’s major finding.
2. Read the abstract of Schloss and Palmer’s (2014) article, “The Politics of Color: Preferences for Republican Red versus Democratic Blue.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the article’s major finding.
3. Read the abstract of Schloss and Palmer’s (2011) article, “Effects of University Affiliation and ‘School Spirit’ on Color Preferences: Berkeley Versus Stanford.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the article’s major finding.
4. On the second page of the fillable PDF, fill in the blank spaces with
▪ a first Supporting Sentence that you created in Step c1. above; ▪ a second Supporting Sentence that you created in Step c2. above; ▪ a third Supporting Sentence that you created in Step c3. above;
and ▪ a Conclusion Sentence. ▪ Again, you don’t need to use any citations; we’ll get to citations
later. d. To get even more practice synthesizing psychological science:
1. Read the abstract of Blom et al.’s (2010) article, “Effectiveness of an Internet Intervention for Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the article’s major finding.
2. Read the abstract of Bonnert et al.’s (2017) article, “Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Adolescents with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the article’s major finding.
3. Read the abstract of Kaldo et al.’s (2015) article, “Guided Internet Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Compared to a Control
Treatment – A Randomized Trial.” Identify and write down, using only one sentence, the arti
