Writing Resources

Lesson Plan: Diagramming Sample Research Reviews

Psychology

Objective

The main paper assignment for students will be in the form of a research review in Developmental Psychology.  These articles are written in the form of research reviews of quite specific areas, always with an objective of not only bringing readers up to date on the area but also organizing the particular area so as to facilitate and motivate needed research.

In Class

In this in-class exercise, which will last from 45-60 minutes, we will diagram (or analyze) some sample reviews of research in areas relevant to the content of our course and discuss how these articles are good models for the students’ own review papers.  We will also discuss aspects of the articles that are especially well done or well written and aspects that might be improved upon.

  1. Students will be assigned to read two short research review articles before coming to class.
  2. The instructor will outline the parts of a good research review.
  3. The class will be broken into two groups, and each group will diagram and discuss one of the articles and then present its results to the entire class.
  4. The class will then have a general discussion of each article and conclude with some specific principles that have been learned from these examples.

The review articles that will likely be used are:

Ainsworth, M.D.S. (1979).  Infant-mother attachment. American Psychologist, 34, 932-937.

Hofer, M.A. (2006). Psychological roots of early attachment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 84-88.

 

Malcolm W. Watson & Michael J. Sheehan

Developed at Brandeis University through a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation