Examining a research study on gestures. Psychology Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Your paper will consist of two parts, a research summary and an interrogation of the research using the four big validities.
Research summary
Read the article carefully and write a summary of the article.
If the article has more than one study, you should pick the one you understand the best and summarize only that one. In your summary, tell me which study you are summarizing (e.g., “this article reported five studies, but only Study 2 will be summarized here.”) Write about the article in everyday language, explaining the theory it was testing, the method used, the most important results, and the main points in the discussion. Be very careful not to plagiarize in your summary. Include APA-style citations.
Your summary should be about 2 double-spaced pages and follow this organizational structure:
 A description of the study’s purpose and main hypotheses
 A clear statement of the study’s design. Experimental or correlational? What were the main IVs or Q-IVs? What was the main DV? Who participated?
 A methods paragraph in which you mention each key variable in turn, followed by how it was operationalized (e.g., The study measured the variable self-compassion using a self-report questionnaire; it had 25 items that were rated on five-point scales.”)
 A paragraph in which you describe the main results. If they used multiple regression, you must describe the main relationship as well as what it was controlling for (e.g., “Self-compassion predicted well-being, even when controlling for self-esteem and emotionality.”) If it was a factorial design, describe the main effects and interactions.
 A short paragraph about the author’s conclusions
Interrogation of the research
Interrogate the research article using the four big validities. Work through each of the four big validities in turn, indicating whether the study does a good or bad job establishing each validity. As you write, keep in mind that you are demonstrating your mastery of this course material. Show me that you know how to ask questions about each of the four validities, that you know how to find the answers, and that you know what the answers to these questions mean. Finally, show me that you understand what it means to prioritize validities as you interrogate a study. The interrogation should be about 2-3double-spaced pages and follow these guidelines:
Construct validity: Evaluate the measures and manipulations
Foreach measure or manipulation, indicate any reliability and validity information provided in the article (consult Figure 5.7 in your textbook). Do they give Cronbach’s alphas; if so, what are they? Are they strong or weak? Do they give inter-rater reliabilities; if so, what are they? Do they give any evidence for measurement validity (e.g., face, content, criterion, convergent, discriminant validity)? Using this information, give your assessment—is each measure reliable and valid? If such information is not included, then evaluate that—what would you like to see? For manipulated variables, do the manipulations have construct validity, in your opinion? (see Ch. 10, p. 296-297). If it’s a manipulated variable, do they do any manipulation checks to show you that their manipulation did what they intended it to do? Does the manipulation have face validity?
Statistical validity: Evaluate how strongly the results support their argument.