For this assignment, your group will find and analyze an example of popular press coverage of psy- chological research. Each group member will find one example of psychological claims in advertising, magazines, and newspapers or on the Internet. Group members should start looking now for such examples, as it may take awhile to locate the perfect example. The popular source you choose has to include a psychological claim and must discuss it in some detail. You’ll have the most fun with a popular source that makes a causal claim, because you can then analyze whether the causal claim is warranted by actual experimental research. This assignment addresses the most fundamental goal of this classbecoming a better consumer of information. You will also practice your PsycINFO and APA style skills.

Each group member has to bring the popular source and the corresponding research article in hard copy to class on September 22. The group will evaluate each source and decide on the best one to use for Assignment 1. The assignment is to intelligently critique the claim of the popular press coverage by using a psychology research article. Your overall goal is to use your research methods skills to answer this larger question: Is this popular source’s claim an accurate representation of psychology as a science or is it misleading to people?

You will do a PsycINFO search to find a source that tests this hypothesis and report its findings. Choosing the right key words and descriptors will be a challenge here. It is also required that you find a journal article that is of HIGH SCIENTIFIC QUALITY. This means the psychological source you use must be in a reputable journal, report empirical research, be done by a psychologist, and be peer reviewed. See me for help if needed.

Once you decide on one topic out of three, every member of the group should read the original article on which the popular coverage is based, and evaluate the quality of the popular coverage.

• Did the journalist accurately describe the research? Did the journalist offer some advice on the basis of the study (e.g., Based on this study, you should go bungee jumping in the winter, not the summer! )?
• If so, is the advice correct or is it based on some misinterpretations of the study? For example, many journalists or advertisers may report a correlational study, but then give advice based upon the misinterpretation that correlation equals causation, which it does not (e.g., Kids who take piano lessons do better in school! So sign your kid up now!). Or they may not report that the study was based upon a very particular population and therefore may not be applicable for some of their readers.Your assignment will include three parts:

1. A scanned copy of the popular source.
2. An electronic copy of the psychological article you used.
3. A 4-5-page (excluding the title page), typed APA-style report that analyzes the claim. What does the journalist say, or imply, about the study, and is this appropriate?

You need to bring in basic analytical skills from this class, for instance, the difference between ex- perimentation and correlational studies, the requirements for making a causal claim, and the appro- priateness of generalizing results to the readership of the popular source. Your report must include a References section in which you cite your two source(s) in perfect APA style.

Quality work will:

1. Carefully examine the journalist’s claim is it a causal claim? An associative claim? A claim about frequency/level?
2. State whether or not the journalist and the researcher are making the same claim (for instance, is the journalist making a causal claim, whereas the researcher is only making an association claim?).
3. Address the four big validities (keeping your priorities straight).
4. Accurately summarize the article you found, without plagiarizing. You must demonstrate that you have read the entire article, not just the abstract.
5. Suggest a new, more appropriate version of the popular coverage (if applicable).
6. Be produced on time, meet the assignment’s requirements, and be in perfect APA style.
7. Describe the research in your group’s own words (we do not typically quote sources directly in psychology).