Psychology - Differentiate between fact and opinion

Psychology Question

Overview

Articles are written to inform, misinform, influence, or misdirect,  among other reasons. Sometimes they serve as nothing more than a vehicle  for an author to achieve fame, notoriety, and wealth. You should never  take at face value the elements of any article you read, but you should  be able to:

Differentiate between fact and opinion

Recognize and evaluate author bias and rhetoric

Determine cause-and-effect relationships

• Determine accuracy and completeness of information presented

Recognize logical fallacies and faulty reasoning

• Compare and contrast information and points of view

Develop inferential skills

• Make judgments and draw logical conclusions

When writing an article critique, you will need to summarize,  evaluate, and offer critical comment on the ideas and information that  the author(s) presents in the article.

• Starting in Module Two,  you are assigned two articles to read, which are located in Module  Resources for that specific module. You have to select one of the two  articles and write a critique of it. In your paper, cite any and all  information taken from the article or any other references used. Your  goal should be to read and understand the article, analyze the findings  or arguments, and evaluate and comment on the article.

Reading the Article

• Allow enough time to understand it.

Read the article without taking notes to gain an overall picture of its main idea.

• Read the article again analytically highlighting important ideas and making brief notes of the main ideas and main topic.

Main Elements

• Be sure to address the following within your article critique:

What is the issue that the article is specifically addressing? Is  this a significant problem or issue related to the concepts and theory  in this course? Why or why not?

• What references did the author use in this article?

Did the article contain research? What data was used? What instruments, if any, were used to collect data?

What were some of the conclusions, if any, to the research in this article?

Was the article reliable and valid? Explain.

Was this article well written? Thoughtful and reflective?

What were the limitations in this article? Any variables?

Any other thoughts, comments?