2 Research critique assignment. One about (personality) and the other about (prenatal development)

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3. Research critique assignment (15% of final grade). You will be required to write two critical research reviews and submit the completed assignment online in the labeled assignment folder . You may choose articles from a topic(s) in the field of psychology. Example topics would include prenatal development, personality, intelligence, Schizophrenia, Mood disorders, and/or treatment approaches for mental disorders. In summarizing research articles, provide a BRIEF (approximately 1½- 2 pages double spaced per article) typed critique of the article in the example format below including a description of the rationale, methods, results, discussion and reference (see below). APA (7th edition) style and citation guides can be accessed through the WCU library website: Additional videos, rubrics and example student papers will be posted on the course home page. An example format for this assignment is presented below: Title and Author of Research Article at top of document Rationale: Three sentences stating the background, purpose of the experiment and hypotheses/predictions. Method: Brief description of the subjects (animals, people), tools (special tests or assays), experimental and control groups, descriptions of the independent and dependent variables. For example, what did the researchers manipulate and what types of behaviors were measured? How were data analyzed? Results: What did the researchers find? What was the relationship between the independent and dependent variables? Did the researchers predict these results, or were they surprised? Discussion: What did the researchers conclude from the experiment? What other questions remain unanswered? What is your reaction? Reference: Complete Reference in APA format with active hyperlink. This assignment is scheduled for you below. You will receive formal instruction on how to search for appropriate sources and how to access the APA manual online. Your critiques should be double-spaced, one inch margins and in a font no larger than 12. Include your overall reaction, i.e, was it a good study, what would you propose as a future experiment? Please use studies from scientific/scholarly journals published within the last 10 years. The two critiques with sources should be submitted in the labeled assignment folder as a single file in a format compatible with Microsoft Word. DO NOT USE MAGAZINE/NEWS ARTICLES OR WEBSITES AS REQUIRED SOURCES. EXAMPLES OF UNACCEPTABLE SOURCES INCLUDE THE NEW YORK TIMES, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, NEWSWEEK OR WEBSITES SUCH AS WIKEPEDIA OR WEBMD. LATE CRITIQUES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. FAILURE TO SUBMIT THIS ASSIGNMENT ONLINE BY THE DUE DATE WILL RESULT IN A LOSS OF 10% OFF YOUR FINAL GRADE AVERAGES This is an example Research Critique 1. “Come Rain or Shine: Individual Differences in How Weather Affects Mood” Klimstra, Theo A., et al. (2011) Rationale: The authors’ initial and primary intent in performing this experiment was to determine whether the traditional idea that weather can affect one’s mood could be reconciled with prior research which seemingly suggests this idea false. By proposing that there are subgroups of people whose moods are affected by the weather in adverse ways and thus may cancel each other out, the article shifts its focus to whether or not this is indeed the case. Additionally, the authors express some interest in the idea that possessing a specific tendency for weather-mood correlation might not be somewhat hereditary. Method: Using internet based questionnaires, the researchers required participating adolescent subjects and their mothers to answer questions pertaining to their mood for five days running, at six independent times. The final sample included “415 adolescents and 418 mothers who had completed at least 12 days (40%) of measurements”. The subjects were not aware that their answers were being compared to the weather reports of the day, thus omitting the chance of preconceived notions influencing the validity of the outcome. The dependent variable was mood, categorized by levels of happiness, anxiety, and anger. The independent variable was weather, measured in terms of percentage of sunshine, average temperature, and hours of precipitation per day. Results: The researchers found that their adolescent subjects could be divided by results into four categories: Summer Lovers, Unaffected, Summer Haters, and Rain Haters. These terms are somewhat self-explanatory, Summer Lovers being happier for example when temperatures and percentage of sunshine were higher. “Summer Haters were more numerous that Summer Lovers” and were happier with lower levels of fear and anger when there was more rain. Rain Haters were “angrier and less happy on days with more precipitation”. The largest group though was those “Unaffected”, constituting half the entire sample. These classifications were determined to be “successfully replicable among the adolescents’ mothers”. Additionally, it was seen that children with Summer Loving or Rain Hating mothers were more likely than would be expected purely based on chance to share their mothers’ predilections for weather, suggesting that intergenerational patterns of weather-mood association might be a viable field for further research. Discussion: The authors concluded that their theory was supported; folklore on this subject, as well as prior scientific research can be reconciled. Half of the sample population indeed shows no correlation between mood and weather (classified as the “Unaffected” category), yet the existence of the other half (which would be cancelled out if the four categories were to be averaged together), proves that one cannot generalize this. Also, they hypothesized that the subjects found to be influenced by weather might be those at risk for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). An interesting study, it strikes the reader as fairly competent, given that the results held true with both the adolescents and their mothers. The study leaves one interested as to the intergenerational question posed, its extent, significance, and the basis of existence. One would also be very interested to know why Summer Haters were more numerous than their Summagner Loving counterparts overall.