Developed by: Meredith Martin, PhD for PSY 336
ARTICLE ANALYSIS GRADING RUBRIC
An essential skill, whether you enter the field of psychology or a related discipline, is to be able to
summarize and evaluate empirical research. Empirical research refers to research articles that
present novel research findings (as opposed to providing an opinion or review). Over the course
of the semester, you will read a number of empirical research articles in order for you to learn
more about how research is conducted in developmental psychology – in other words, how do we
know what we know about adolescence? These readings and your textbook provide an overview
of the breadth of the research on adolescent psychology.
By contrast, your group project is intended to give you an opportunity to delve deeper into the
psychological research on an area of adolescent development of interest to you. As a first step
towards completing a literature review for this project, you will need to: find an empirical
research article related to your group’s topic, read and summarize the introduction, methods,
results, and conclusions, and provide a critical analysis of the article and its relation to your topic.
STEP#1: Finding an article
You must find an EMPIRICAL (research) article related to your group’s topic. The article must
be relevant to adolescent development. You should choose an article published within the last five
years from one of the following journals:
● Journal of Research on Adolescence
● Journal of Early Adolescence
● Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
● Journal of Youth and Adolescence
● Journal of Adolescence
You have access to these journals through the Syracuse University Library
(https://library.syr.edu). Additional information about how to find an article is included in the
Powerpoint slides from the first day of class (on Blackboard). I encourage you to review this
information. If you continue to have difficulty, you should reach out to Bonnie Ryan
STEP#2: Reading your article
Information about how to effectively read an empirical research article is also located in the
Powerpoint slides from the first class. Remember, statistical analyses in the Results section are
always followed by a description of what the numbers mean in plain English. Don’t skip the
results!
STEP#3: Writing your summary and analysis
Your summary and analysis should not exceed 3 pages, double spaced, in 12pt. Times New
Roman font. Your paper should include your full first and last name, your group’s name, and your
group’s topic (framed as a question) along the top. Your paper should then include the following
information:
● Summary: What theoretical idea(s) or research questions inspired the study? What
methods were used to investigate the topic? What were the most notable results? What
implications do the results have for real life and/or for future research?
● Analysis: How do these findings relate to your group’s topic? How does this research help
to answer your question? What were the main strengths of the article? What did you think
the authors did especially well in describing or analyzing their results? What were the