Cultural psychology

Individual assignment: Research paper review.
Rationale: This assignment is to help you develop an understanding of how cultural psychology can be researched and how that research can contribute to further understanding in the field.
Step 1. You will search for and select a paper from the list in the ‘papers to review folder’ in ‘course documents’. Some of the papers are directly relevant to cultural psychology, others will require you to think about the cultural implications of a piece of research. Each paper has a short description to help you in your choice. Read the paper in full at least two times to ensure you have understood the existing research on which the paper was based, the specific research question, the methodology and data analysis, the findings and the conclusions the authors came to. Use the template in this folder as a basis
Step 2. Write a 2-3 page summary of the paper. Remember that in doing so you should assume your reader does not know the paper and you are explaining to them why it was done (existing research, the specific research question), what was done, (the methodology and data analysis), and what was found (results and conclusions).
Step 3. Write 200-300 words on the meaning or implications of this study’s conclusions for a culture that you are familiar with. State clearly which culture you are addressing, and the inferences you draw from the paper’s conclusions for understanding that culture.
Write you work in APA format; double spaced, 1” margins. Refer to any relevant references and cite them in APA format on the next page. See this example of the APA guidelines as a guide on which to base your writing.
Template; Use the following template as a structure for your review.
1. Paper citation – cite the paper you selected in APA format
2. Summary of the paper. You can use the following as paragraph headings, I have included notes on the structure in brackets.
2.1. existing research ( outline what the authors of the paper describe as existing research they are basing their work on)
2.2. specific research question (the research question is often explicitly stated, but you may need to read more carefully to define it. It is usually in the first 1-
2 paragraphs, typically after the literature review)
2.3. methodology (describe how participants were selected and what they experienced, and any controls on how the question was addressed)
2.4. data analysis (in summary form, how was the data analyzed. E.g. simple averages, regression analysis or similar. This is not a full description of the statistical or other methods used but give your reader a broad idea of how the numbers or other data, were analysed)
2.5. results (what are the main findings and significant were they. Use selected relevant numbers to show the strength of any effects. E.g. Say something like:
“ A significant minority of the participants (38%) …..” – if you just say “a minority’ …..” your reader has no information of the effect size.
2.6. conclusions. (What conclusions did the authors come to from their research)
3. Implications of this research for one culture. (in 200-300 words state which culture you have selected that you are familiar with. Then give your reader your deductions about the implications of the conclusions of the paper for people in that culture.)