Name __________________________________________ Analysis and Critique of: _______________________ Read the assigned article and answer the following questions. Be thorough and accurate in your re

Read the assigned article and answer the following questions.  Be thorough and accurate in your responses.  Create full sentences and support your answers, and remember that “brief” means more than one sentence but less than one-half page.

Variables

1.            What is (are) the independent variables/predictor variables?

2.            What is (are) the dependent variables/outcome variables?

3.            Are there any important variables that might have been included but were not?  If so, list them and label them as to type. (Slow down and think about this question – rarely is a piece of research perfectly created.)

Hypotheses

1.            Citethe hypotheses, if any, tested in this study, or the research question or focus/purpose. 

2.            Rewrite the hypotheses in your own words.  (If there is no explicit hypothesis in the study, write what it should have been.) Rewrite the research question in your words.

3.            For each hypothesis/research question, answer the following:

Is it supported by sufficient literature or argument?  (If not, offer specific suggestions.)

Supportive Material

1.            In a sentence or two, what is the context of the problem (social phenomenon) discussed in the literature?

2.            Literature review

a)     What is the magnitude (i.e., how thorough is the literature, did the author successfully describe the problem, what has been studied in the past, the discrepancies/confounding findings of past research – in essence do you know why this study had to take place) of the literature review?

b)     How empirical and up-to-date is it?

c)     Is the literature section well organized (introduction, subheadings, summary)?

d)     Try to summarize the literature section in a sentence or two.

Operational Definitions

1.            How did the author operationalize each of the independent variables/predictor?

2.            How did the author operationalize each of the dependent variables/outcome variable?

Research Design

1.            What type of research design was used? (i.e., true experimental, quasi-experimental, correlation, etc.) This was an experimental study

2.            Discuss the internal reliability/validity of the design.

3.            How externally valid does the design appear?

4.            Statistical analyses. What statistical tests were used (e.g., T-Tests, ANOVAS, Regression/Chi Square/etc.)?

Discussion/Conclusion

1.            Briefly, precisely, and accurately describe the findings of the study.

2.            Does the article include an adequate and clear summary of the results?

Briefly state a conclusion that could be drawn from the study and a recommendation you would make based on that conclusion(hint:you are not critiquing or correcting the decision here you are answering this basic question – If they found what they said they were looking for, how should they use it – what are the affected audiences/clients/populat