There are two parts to this assignment: a reference section and an article summary.

1) Now that you have been oriented to the library, it is time to pick a topic for your final project. Once you have a general idea of the variables you are interested in studying, use PSYCHINFO to find at least five recent studies that are relevant to your topic (you will have to cite at least five references in your final paper, but those five don't necessarily have to come from the five you choose for this assignment). These sources must be from journals, or from books on psychology, not popular magazines or general sources. At least three of the five sources you pick for this assignment must be empirical journal articles (described below). In addition, the sources must be pertainent to the topic you wish to study. For example, if you are interested in the coping strategies of college students under stress, an article entitled "Stressing writing skills in the college classroom" is probably not relevant, even though "stress" and "college" both appear in the title. Either print out the citations you find, or copy down all the information that you need to include the source in your reference section.

2) Once you have identified the articles on PSYCHINFO, and established that they are available in the Knight Library, go find the actual articles and photocopy ones that look good (you will need them later for your project). Type up an APA style reference section for at least five of the references you found (if you save the wordprocessing file, you can use it for later assignments). Follow the handout you received in class and the APA Publication Manual. If you use a reference that does not fit into one of the categories on the handout, it is your responsibility to look up how to reference it in the APA Publication Manual.

3) Pick one of the three empirical articles to summarize. An empirical article is one in which the authors set out to test a hypothesis using data that they have either collected or analyzed. Review articles, such as those found in Psychological Review or Psychological Bulletin are almost never empirical articles--they may describe data that has been collected or analyzed by the authors, but the focus of the article is to present a new theory or to review a field rather than reporting new data. Chapters in books are not empirical articles either (although they may describe data that authors have collected or analyzed). If you have any questions about the appropriateness of your article, it is better to ask me than to risk failing the assignment.

4) Concisely summarize your article, answering the following questions in your summary: