Scientific Research
A key element of the scientific process is determining what research studies have already been completed, what the findings were, and what remains to be discovered. This process guides the formation of new hypotheses and the design of new experiments to test them. One (of many) online databases for searching the psychological literature is PsycINFO. In this assignment, you will spend some time learning about PsycINFO and using it to find research articles on a topic that interests you.
First, spend some time reading the examples and tips and watch the PsycINFO Video Tutorials on this psychology research guide about finding articles from the GGU Library. Then choose a topic that interests you (hint: in Forum 2 this week you described some phenomena or behaviors that would most interest you as a research psychologist—maybe go with one of those topics). Now search PsycINFO for several research studies on that topic. I’d like you to find three studies total, including one Empirical Study, one Clinical Case Study, and one Systematic Review (you’ll find these under the “Methodology” tab in PsychINFO). For each article, write up a brief description of the main findings and key takeaways and provide an APA style bibliographic reference for the article. Then compare and contrast the types of articles. What things do you notice that differ between them? Does the style of one appeal to you more than the others? What is the utility of each type of article (i.e., what role do they each play in the scientific literature)?
