Part A – Chapter 7 #2: Read two empirical articles. What could have gone wrong in these studies? Were any precautions taken against adverse consequences that were de- scribed in the research paper
The article we decided to choose is titled Children Who Witness Domestic Violence: A Review of Empirical Literature by Jerome R. Kolbo, Elearnor H. Blakely, and David Engleman. This article focused on how children who witness domestic violence establish impaired development. Many things could’ve gone wrong in this study, for example: the kind of violence that the children were observing, children hurting themselves because of the violence they see, cause-effect relationship, the environment and nature in which these domestic violence cases are taking place (e.g., siblings, school, home, family), and reliance of behavioral measures. Precautions like not only relying on parental reports of both the child’s exposure and behavioral functioning were described in this research paper. Also, children only being regarded as witnesses when in some cases they were also being abused. Precautions were taken against adverse consequences by questioning and reviewing the studies conducted that had no correlation between the relationship of children who witnessed domestic violence and cognitive functioning and social functioning.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/088626096011002010
In Impact of sexual abuse on children: A review and synthesis of recent empirical studies, researchers study the impact of sexual abuse on children and how it affected them. They recorded symptoms of the children and how often they came up. There was not a specific symptom that was the majority, although low self esteem was rated most frequently. A third of the children reported having no symptoms and were assumed to not have any lasting trauma. A thing that could have gone wrong was that the children may not have been fully honest or not willing to fully talk about their symptoms due to fear. While researchers did their best to get responses, it is difficult to get all the information from children that may not be ready to give the full story. Also, trauma can be remembered in pieces and children may not fully understand what they are feeling.
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0033-2909.113.1.164
Part B – Chapter 10 #1: Write a letter to a journal editor here. Have your lab mate or classmate review the letter.
Subject: Invitation to Review
April 4, 2019
Dear Dr. Shireen Kanakri,
We hope you are able to find the time to review our journal, “Biophilic Design Reducing Sensory Processing in Children with Autism.” We are submitting this paper to the Environment and Behavior Journal, a journal that you have had many successful papers featured in. Here we show the effect of biophilic design within classroom environments that impact the sensory processing behaviors of children aged 3-7 years old with autism. This contributes to our understanding of design and its potential impact on developmental disorders.
I believe you would be the ideal candidate to review our journal as you are a tenure-track assistant professor in the Interior Design Program and affiliate faculty with the Autism Center at Ball State University. Your interests in the psychology of design, architecture and behavior of children with autism would make you the ideal candidate to review our paper that takes all of these topics into consideration.
Please let us know as soon as possible if you are able to accept this invitation for review by responding to this email or contacting us at (516) XXX-XXXX. The abstract for the manuscript can be found at the end of this email.
If you decide to accept this review, we will provide you with the information needed to access the paper. We would like to receive your review within 6 weeks of accepting this invitation.
We understand that you have a busy schedule, so if you are unable to accept, we would sincerely appreciate any suggestions of people similarly qualified in your expertise and interests that would provide an informative review of my submission. We greatly value your input for this paper’s topic. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
Psychology 310 Students:
- Stephanie Hinck, Joanna Jedruszczuk, Maya Nasser, Diyala Mawad, and Yoleiry Quezad
Review of the letter: I think you did a great job writing this letter to the journal editor. I would possibly give a more detailed introduction to the journal more towards the beginning of the letter, to grab the editor’s attention and make them interested in the topic right away. Otherwise, I think the point comes of very clear, the writing is concise, and convincing.
Part C – Chapter 10 #2: Select and read a journal article. Pretend you are a reviewer for the journal. Write your response to the authors. You might even try this exercise for your own research papers.
Journal Article Chosen: Stress and Your Health by: Bruce McEwen and Robert Sapolsky
Link to article: https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/91/2/E2/2843213
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 91, Issue 2, 1 February 2006, Page E2, https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.91.2.9994
The article about health and stress was informative and had many interesting facts in it. I liked the organization of the article and how every idea was broken down into its own heading and paragraph. I also liked how the article asked its audience questions, and because of the questions asked, I was able to relate to what I was reading. However, I did feel as if the majority of the article was definitions of stress and what causes it and less on how stress affects our health. I would recommend the authors to maybe include a few examples on real life situations where one’s stress affected their health and in what way shape and form did it affect it. Other than that, it was a great article.
Research Methods in Developmental Psychology 