Submit your assignment electronically in the assignment dropbox located in
the ‘Module 3’ section. Make sure you follow the dropbox instructions as
outlined in the course syllabus. Please be advised that the document needs to
be in a format that can be opened with Microsoft Word in order to be marked.
We are using track‐changes to provide feedback and this cannot be done with
a pdf document. Please label your assignment in the following way:
Instructions:
You are to write a short research paper (5‐6 double spaced pages).
You should pick a research topic by selecting one of the four assignment
readings provided in the assignment folder. You will then research that topic by
finding three recent empirical journal articles from different authors. The three
journal articles you find will give information to support, refute, or qualify the ideas
presented in the course reading. These journal articles must be from Psychology or
related scientific journals and must be reporting empirical findings (empirical
journal articles will have a method section and a results section).
Write a statement paragraph for your paper. Take a position supporting,
refuting, or qualifying the ideas presented in the assignment reading, and then
support your position. This statement does not need to be complicated or entirely
novel, but it should be stated very clearly and explicitly. This paragraph should
include an explicit statement of a thesis, and a concise overview of the argument you
are making about the idea (including citations for all four articles you use, probably
in parentheses).
In the body of your paper you should summarize each of the four articles’
findings (in a separate paragraph or two) in your own words (no quotations). Focus
your summary on how the articles relate to the topic you are researching. Do not
simply copy the abstract. Clearly state how the article relates to what is said in your
statement. Then report the method used (what was done), the results (what was
found), and the conclusions. Each summary should be approximately half a page to
a page in length.
Write a concluding paragraph. Your conclusion will be very similar and style
and content to your statement paragraph. Include the citations for the 4 sources
again.
This assignment should be between 5 and 6 double spaced pages. The
assignment will include the following:
1. An APA format title page.
2. A clear description of the developmental phenomenon you are discussing.
3. A statement paragraph indicating your position regarding the topic and
outlining how your position is supported by other scientific developmental
psychology research. (However, DO NOT write in the 1st person.)
4. Descriptions of the 4 journal articles (the original reading and the three
articles you found) on the topic you are researching.
5. A concluding paragraph.
6. APA style reference page with all 4 sources.
Notes on APA format:
All pages typed in Times New Roman 12 pt font, double spaced (everything,
including references). (Go to Format – Paragraph – choose “double” from line
spacing pull down)
All pages have 1 inch (2.54cm) margin on all four sides. (Go to File – Page setup –
Margins tab – change all margins to 1” or 2.54cm)
All pages (including title page) have a header on the right (1/2 inch from the top)
consisting of the page number. (You don’t need an APA format header for this
assignment)
Title Page
• Title (not the name of the article you read but the name of your paper,
something different, be creative), Your Name and ID number, the instructor’s
name and the course, the university, and the date centered in the middle of the
page.
• See sample next page.
Body
Citations within your assignment:
• Never refer to the articles you read by the title or by the phrases the article, the
first article, the journal article by! etc. Instead, refer to them by the authors
names as follows:
• Referring to another work in the text (within a sentence), use author(s)’
name(s) followed by publication year in brackets. Use the word and if there is
more than one author.
Example: Aguiar and Baillargeon (1999) found that …
• Citing or paraphrasing another work, put author(s)’ name(s) and publication
date in brackets at the end of the sentence. Use the symbol & if there is more
than one author.
Example: Researchers have found that infants can reason about numbers
(Aguiar & Baillargeon, 1999).
• If you cite more than one work, list citations alphabetically by first author.
Example: (Anglin, Sullivan, & Malloy, 1998; Irvine, Sullivan, & Anglin, 2000).
• When an article has more than one author do not rearrange their names
alphabetically. The order of the names is an indication of the amount of work
each person contributed or the order of importance.
Example: Anglin & Sullivan means Anglin did most of the work, Sullivan &
Anglin means that Sullivan did most of the work.
• For papers with more than one author, use all of the authors’ names the first
time you refer to them unless there are more than 5 authors. Use the first
author followed by et al. for the next time you refer to 3 or more authors (or the
first time for 6 or more authors). For two authors, always use both names.
Example: (Anglin et al., 1998; Irvine et al., 2000)
• Citing someone’s work that you have not read, refer to the work by the author
or authors as you would above (without the date), for in text citation or
paraphrasing, but indicate the work that you have read and found it cited in.
Example: Anglin (as cited in Anglin et al. 1998) found that …. OR Previous
researcher has focused on aggression in males (Olweus as cited in Owens, Shute,
& Slee, 2000).
References
• Use initials for first and middle names not full names.
• Use hanging indents for each reference.
• Capitalize only the first word of the article title (and the first word after a
colon if there is a colon).
• Start each word of the journal name with a capital letter. Italicize the title of
the journal and the volume number. Do not italicize the name of the article.
• Do not use V. or Vol. for volume, just the number. Do not use pp. or pgs. for
pages, just the page numbers.
Example of a Journal Article:
Nelson, D. G. K., Hirsh‐Pasek, K., Jusczyk, P.W., & Cassidy, K.W. (1989). How
prosodic cues in motherese might assist language learning. Journal of
Child Language, 16, 55‐68.
Example of an Article in an Edited Book:
Cooper, C. R. (1977). Holistic evaluation of writing. In C. R. Cooper & L.
Odell (Eds.), Evaluating Writing: Describing, Measuring, Judging.
Buffalo, NY: State University of New York at Buffalo, 3‐31.
For More APA Guidelines for writing reports in psychology, see the Psychology
department APA guidelines.
Sample Title Page, Thesis Paragraph, and Article Summary.
Below you will find a sample title page, statement paragraph, and article summary.
The citations and statements are completely fictional. The journal articles cited do
not exist. This is for demonstration purposed only.
Sample Title Page and Statement Paragraph
(Do not use this title; use a title that describes your topic.)
by
Ronald B. MacDonald
200304921
An assignment
presented to Dr. P, Hauf
in Psychology 355:66 Distance
Lifespan Developmental Psychology for Health Sciences II
Department of Psychology
St. Francis Xavier University
Month Year
(Information in this sample is fictional; this is for demonstration purposes
only. The first paragraph is a sample of a statement paragraph. The second
paragraph is a sample description of an empirical psychology journal article.)
Trojansek (2007) states that attending daycare provides an educational
advantage for children compared to children who do not attend daycare. Kelsoe and
Sabel (1998) found that children who attended daycare had better pre‐literacy skills
such as knowledge of the alphabet in Kindergarten but did not differ in reading
ability in Grade 1 when compared to children who did not go to daycare before
Kindergarten. Jacobs, Melbourne, and Howe (2004) found that children who had
attended daycare before starting elementary school were not significantly different
from those who did not attend daycare in their reading or math scores in Grade 2.
Also, children who attended Head Start daycare programs did not differ from
children who were not in Head Start in overall academic achievement at the end of
elementary school (Auburn & Dearborn, 2001). Overall, this research suggest that
there may be some differences between those who attend daycare and those who do
not when they start elementary school but this academic advantage does not
continue past primary school.
Kelsoe and Sabel (1998) directly investigated how the experience of
attending daycare might affect pre‐school children’s pre‐literacy skills. They
compared two groups of 10 children when they were in Kindergarten and again
when they were in Grade 1. One group attended daycare regularly for an average of
23.6 hours per week for at least one year prior to Kindergarten. The other group did
not attend daycare at all prior to Kindergarten. In Kinderarten they measured their
knowledge of the alphabet, their ability to detect rhyming words (cake – bake), and
their ability to detect words that start with the same letter (mop – mat). In Grade 1,
they gave them the Woodcock Test of Reading (Kline as cited in Kelsoe & Sabel,
1998). Kelsoe and Sabel (1998) found that, in Kindergarten, the children who had
been enrolled in daycare performed significantly better on the tests of alphabet
knowledge and rhyme detection than the children who did not go to daycare. There
was no difference in their ability to detect words that start with the same letter.
These findings suggest that there may be some advantage for children who go to
daycare. However, in Grade 1, there was no difference between the groups in
reading ability. The authors suggest that the daycare educational advantage does
not have a lasting effect on reading ability (Kelsoe & Sabel, 1998).
Important Notes
1. Trojansek (2007) is my course reading (fictional).
2. I always refer to the studies by the author(s)’ name(s). I don’t say “the
article” or “the study.”
3. In the statement paragraph example, the four sets of authors are from my
articles. (I have cited all four in this paragraph.) My statement is my last
sentence.
4. In the article summary, I described the method and results of the study in a
brief but clear way. I include information that is relevant to the results of the
study but not irrelevant details like recruitment information or detailed
description of the participants.