Individual Article Critique

PSY3405 Peer Reviewed Journal Article Critique

Your task is to identify a primary source of psychological literature/journal article (primary source) on the topic of your chosen illness and racial minority individuals.   Your response should be no longer than 5 pages typed.

Using PsychInfo, the purpose of this activity is to provide critical thinking approaches to applied health psychology topics.

ARTICLE CRITERIA:

  1. Peer reviewed
  2. From PsychInfo
  3. Approved by me
  4. Research conducted on U.S. minorities (NOT lit review or concept paper)
  5. Topic must be on physical illness (Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, or any Chronic/Pain condition)

INSTRUCTIONS:

  • First, you will apply your knowledge of research methods to critique a peer-reviewed journal article.
  • Then, you will then describe the space (context) in which the research was conducted. (You will want to consult US Census Data found Using their QuickFact search, you can enter the state/region where your research was conducted and select the fact/stat that you need from the drop-down menu.)
  • Finally, you will write a brief personal reaction to the article.

Paper Components:

A: Critique Summary

B: Context/Space Description

C: Personal Reaction

A- Critique Summary: This is where you will summarize the journal article.  Describe the research and include the following:

  1. What research questions were addressed? What were the hypotheses?
  2. Who were the participants in the sample (ages, gender, ethnicity, etc.)?
  3. What was/were the dependent and independent variables?
  4. What procedures did the study follow?  How was the study conducted?
  5. Describe the results. What did the author discover? (Was the hypothesis confirmed, revised, or rejected?)
  6. How can this information to be applied to health psychology? (i.e., How can health psychologists use this information?)
  7. Discuss the implications of the study. Do the findings correspond with one of the health behaviors theories covered in class? Which one? Which components of the theory are emphasized? (use KEY TERMS from the course in this section).
  8. Suggest at least TWO research questions of your own that ought to be considered for future studies AND generate ONE hypothesis you would like to see tested.

B- Context/Space Description:  Here you describe a bit about where the research was conducted.

  1. Where (geographically) was this research conducted?
  2. What university/medical center housed this research?
  3. Describe the goals/mission statement of the institution where the research was conducted. (this info will be found online, at the University/College/Hospital/Medical Center website.
  4. Provide the demographic information— that is, what is the percentage of the population sampled in the space where the research was conducted? (e.g., research conducted on Latinos in Utah—tell me what percentage of Utah residents are Hispanic).

C- Personal Reaction: This is where you give your personal reaction to and opinion of the article.  The following points should be considered when writing your personal response.

  1. Provide an explanation of what interested you in the article.
  2. Describe what you liked or disliked about the article.
  3. Describe anything you did not understand.
  4. Discuss your thoughts about the results and conclusions.
  5. Explain what you would do differently if it were your research project.
  6. Discuss any cautions/limitations you would use about the results of the research.