Lifespan Development in the News
STEP 1: Find a popular news article from within the past five years that reports on the results of a research study related to lifespan development. This should not be a blog entry, but a published article from a news source such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, CNN, Fox News, etc. A great place to look is the APA’s Psychology news portal. Read through the article and ensure that it is descriptive and sufficiently long enough in order to draw conclusions from the original research mentioned.
STEP 2: Go find the psychological study or studies that are mentioned in the news report. Sometimes those are not freely available online, so you may have to track down the original study through the library’s website. The study should have been performed within the past five years.
STEP 3: Write a paper between 500-750 words that:
- describes and summarizes both articles
- describes the research method, research design, hypothesis, independent and dependent variables (if applicable), and any reliability or validity concerns
- compares and contrasts the key points, style, and purpose of the news article with that of the research article
- examines if the news article accurately describes the research
- includes correct APA citations (both in-text and in a reference page) for both of the articles (See Purdue Online Writting Lab APA guidelines for reference).
| Criteria | Proficient | Developing | Not Evident | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finds an appropriate news article and writes a summary | Finds a detailed and relevant news article on a topic related to lifespan development, and provides a coherent summary of the article | Does not provide enough detail in the summary or does not find an appropriate news article | Poor choice of news article, incomplete summary, or difficult to understand | __/4 |
| Finds appropriate research article and writes a summary | Finds a detailed and relevant peer-reviewed article on a psychological topic, and provides a coherent summary of the article. | Does not provide enough detail in the summary or does not find an appropriate journal article | Poor choice of research article, incomplete summary, or difficult to understand. | __/4 |
| Describes the research | Describes the research method, research design, hypothesis, independent and dependent variables (if applicable), and any reliability or validity concerns | Does not fully describe the research method, design, hypothesis, variables, and reliability and validity concerns | Does not describe the research method, design, hypothesis, variables, and reliability and validity concerns | __/4 |
| Compares and contrasts the news and research article and examines the accuracy of the news article | Compares and contrasts the key points, style, and purpose of the news article with that of the research article | Does not fully compare and contrast the key points, style, and purpose of the news article with that of the research article | Does not compare and contrast the key points, style, and purpose of the news article with that of the research article | __/4 |
| Includes correct APA citations | Provides accurate in-text citations AND a reference page for the articles used | Does not fully provide accurate in-text citations AND a reference page for the articles used | Does not provide accurate in-text citations AND a reference page for the articles used | __/4 |
| Total: | __/20 | |||