Psychology 4180C
Project 3
Task: Write a critical analysis of a set of related Psychology articles. The set should include three or
more articles, at least one of which should be academic articles. The relation among the articles should
be in terms of the issue they address.
Locating appropriate articles: The assignment does not require you to follow any particular process to
locate the articles, only that they be related to a common issue. The strategies and databases
recommended for previous projects would all be relevant for this project.
Content of the critical analysis: The nature of your analysis will depend to a considerable extent on the
articles and issue you choose. However, here are a few examples of questions following from our course
material that you might consider in your analysis:
What claims are made in the articles? Are they backed with appropriate evidence?
Have alternative conceptions of the issue and research been considered?
Are the articles’ conclusions consistent? If not, is the argument in one of them more persuasive
than in the others? Why?
Do the articles’ authors avoid common obstacles to good argument - confirmation bias, wishful
thinking, cherry picking, ideological bias, …, for example?
What role does emotion about the issue play in the articles?
How is social construction relevant to the articles and the issues they discuss?
Format: Be sure that your name is included on the document you submit. Also include a full reference to
the article discussed. There is no required minimum or maximum length. In the past most students
wrote about 500 words.
Submission: Submit your analysis by email to both rsheese@yorku.ca and tony2017@yorku.ca.
Due: February 25, 2021, 7:00pm