Developing a Research Question

Individual assignment; 50 points possible

In this assignment, you will practice some of the steps involved in developing a research question using previous research in an area. First you will follow step-by-step instructions for an assigned topic, and then you will choose a topic of your own to research. The topic you will research first is “the role of peer pressure on alcohol abuse on college campuses.” This is not a group project – each person must select his or her own topic and each person must do their own work. It is, however, acceptable (even desirable) for you to get help and ideas from others in the class. You must still do your own work and turn in the assignment individually, though, and you may not use the same topic as someone else for part C.

Part A. Research an assigned topic:

The role of peer pressure in college alcohol consumption

Begin by locating an appropriate textbook or handbook. If you still have your text from introductory psychology, that should do nicely. Look up the section on alcohol and see if the discussion mentions any research on the topic of peer pressure and alcohol. In the process, try to identify any other terms that might be useful in a literature search on this topic. Instead of “peer pressure,” for example, you may see the term “social norms” or something to that effect.

Searching with PsycInfo. After looking in a textbook or handbook, your next step will be to search for relevant journal articles and book chapters using the PsycInfo database. Go to the DePaul library’s web page, select “databases,” and then find the PsycInfo database. Run the searches specified below.

By default, the box “Map term to subject heading” will be checked. Leave it checked. When you click “Perform Search,” PsycInfo will display some subject headings your search term mapped onto. In this exercise, I will specify in italics which terms you should include. In Part C, when running your own search, you may choose to include or exclude any of the subject terms you like.

Searches to run:

keyword search for “alcohol”, limiting the results to sources written in English and dating from 1992 to 2000. Check both ALCOHOLS and “alcohol”.mp. and then click “Continue.”
keyword search for “social norms.” Just click “Continue.”
keyword search for “college student?” (the question mark means “optionally followed by any letter,” so this search will find “college student” and “college students”). ” Just click “Continue.”

(notice that my search #1 above for “alcohol” became result #2 in Psycinfo when the restrictions for language and date of publication were included in the search)

Find the articles that meet all 3 criteria (alcohol and social norms and college students) by:

1. clicking the “combine” button, then
2. checking the boxes for searches 2, 3, and 4, then

3. selecting “and” for “combine selections with” then

4. clicking “combine searches”

The results of this combination (#5) should be 12 articles. (Note: If the database has been updated since this assignment was written the number of articles could be more or less than 12.) Click on “Display” for result #5 and read through the articles. You should see among them an article by “Prentice, Deborah A; Miller, Dale T.” This is an important article on this subject (it may have been mentioned in the textbook you consulted). Email the results of this search (the citation and abstracts of these 12 articles) to yourself.

Searching with SSCI

(Note: The SSCI database is now available on the Library web site.)

Now you will use the Social Sciences Citation Index to find articles that cited the Prentice and Miller article. Go back to the DePaul library page, select databases, then find the SSCI database. In the “ISI Web of Knowledge” window, click on "Social Science Citation Index." In the "We of Science" page you then see, check "Social Sciences Citation Index" and uncheck "Science Citation Index" and "Arts & Humanities Citation Index." Select the "From" radio button and restrict your search to the years 1992 to 2000. Then click on "Cited Reference Search."

In the "Cited Author" box, enter "Prentice, D*". The "*" is a wildcard that will cause the search to match any name starting with "D." In the "Cited Years" box, enter "1993". Then click "Search". In the "Cited Reference Index" you should see the Prentice and Miller (1993) article in the list. Check the "select" box next to that article. Then click "Finish Search" to view the articles that cite the selected reference.

The "Search Results – Summary" page should then list "42 results found." This means there were 42 articles published between 1992 and 2000 that cited the Prentice and Miller (1993) article. (Note: If the database has been updated recently, there may be more or less than 42 articles in the list.) Read through the titles and see how many are relevant to your topic. There are also 3 articles listed in which Prentice followed up on the 1993 study. Check the box next to each of those three articles, and email them to yourself. After checking the 3 boxes, you can click on "3 articles marked" in the "Output Records" box, and then email them to yourself. (Note: The email function was not working properly the last time I checked it; you may have to cut and paste the three records in order to save them.)

List the 3 Prentice articles from your SSCI search in APA format. Then create a second list of references listing the 12 articles from the psycinfo search that you emailed to yourself. Turn these two lists in as “Part A” of this assignment - one alphabetized list entitled "PsycInfo Search Results" and a second alphabetized list entitled "Three Prentice Follow-up Articles from SSCI." Note that both lists are to be typed in APA format, not simply cut-and-pasted from the search results. The SSCI search does NOT return results in APA format! Consult your textbook, the APA Publication Manual, and future lecture outlines for help with APA style.

For “Part B” of this assignment, do a similar search on the internet. Using the google search engine, type in the following search term: peer pressure alcohol college. Then click “google search.” Follow the link for the first site that comes up in the list. Provide the following information in a short, well-written paragraph:

the URL of the site
How relevant is this site for the topic you are researching?
Who created this site?
Rate how much scholarly value you think this site has on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1=a random opinion or advertisement and 10=a Psychological Review article). Give your reasons for your rating.

Note that for part B you are to write a paragraph containing the above information - do not print out the web page and turn that in.

For “Part C” of the assignment, pick a topic of your own choosing and follow the same process to develop a research question. Begin with a textbook or handbook and identify either relevant search terms for PsycInfo, or an important article to use as a search term in SSCI. Then you should write a short, well-written paragraph describing the following:

Your research question
The search terms you used to search PsycInfo
The article you used as a search term for SSCI

Also include a list of the 5 journal articles you found in your search (from either PsycInfo or SSCI or both) that seem most likely to be useful for your research question. List them in APA format, (not cut-and-pasted from the search output) in a section entitled "References" following your paragraph in part C.

SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU SHOULD TURN IN FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT:

A "References" list for (1) the PsycInfo Search Results from part A of this assignment and
(2) the Three Prentice Follow-up Studies from SSCI from part A of this assignment.
Web Search. (A short, well-written paragraph describing the web page you found.)
My Own Research Topic. A short, well-written paragraph describing your research question and how you searched for articles in PsycInfo and SSCI, followed by a "References" list of the 5 most promising articles you found on the subject.

Remember that all of the search results you turn in must be reformatted in APA style, as they would appear in the References section of a paper. You will not receive credit for simply cutting and pasting the search results into your homework; you must format them in APA style.