Research Reaction Paper
***Attached is the article from my class empirical selection we have been given. I personally like Albert Bandura as my choice of psychologist. The “personal part I can fill in after the necessary research part is complete. I think that the first 4 to 5 pages should be sufficient for the research part but am open to any suggestions.
In order to help you relate theories of personality to current research in the field, you will complete a research reaction paper. For this reaction paper, you will select an empirical research article from the empirical articles found in “Doc Sharing” in the empirical articles folder (once you click on the doc sharing file, you will need to use the drop-down menu to select the empirical articles folder).
Your research reaction paper should include a summary and discussion of the research article including the following areas: 1) topic area; 2) hypotheses; 3) method; and 4) major results and findings. Finally, reaction papers should include a thoughtful commentary by the student. Specifically, not only should you provide a general summary, but you should include a critique of the research question and design, as well as a discussion of how the research relates to other theories of personality. In addition, you should include a commentary about the relationship of the research findings to your own life and personality development. Your comments, critique, and discussion should form the majority of the paper.
Use the following guidelines and section headers to organize your paper:
1) Summary (the entire summary section as described below should only take two to three pages):
• Topic area: In one or two sentences, identify the general topic area of your paper.
• Hypothesis: You may use the verbatim hypothesis directly from the study you are critiquing. The hypothesis is generally only a couple of sentences long
• Method: Provide a summary of the research method utilized in your study; this summary should be several sentences in length. Identify the type of research, the subject population, number of subjects, methods or tests used and other relevant information.
• Results and Discussion: Summarize (in less than 10 sentences) the findings of the research study. You do not have to go into great detail, just report the conclusions drawn by the study.
2) Critique (should take approximately two to three pages):
• This is your opportunity to critically evaluate the research study. You will want to discuss the appropriateness of the research methods utilized, the applicability of the subject population, the utility of the assessment measures, conclusions drawn, etc.
• Basically, you are evaluating the quality of the research design and the conclusions. Your task it to demonstrate that you are a critical consumer of psychological information.
3) Relationship of the study to personality theory (approximately two to three pages):
• Discuss the relationship of this study to theories identified in class. Often, the research study will not directly address its relationship to theory; it is your task to draw these types of conclusions.
• Critically evaluate what the results of this study contribute to the field of personality theory.
4) Relationship of the study to your own life and personality development (approximately two pages):
• Discuss the relevance of the study to your own life and personality; highlight areas that it either particularly applies or is not relevant.
Paper Criteria:
• 10 pages (not including a title and reference page)
• all papers must be typed and use correct grammar/spelling/punctuation
• APA format (i.e., cite your reference using APA guidelines, double-space, 12-point font, 1-inch margins) – see Landmarks Citation Machine for assistance in converting your references into APA style