Cross-Cultural Article Assignments: Abnormal Psychology
The purpose of the cross-cultural article assignments is twofold. First, it will provide you the opportunity
to read some of the current research in abnormal psychology. Second, it will introduce you to the study of
abnormal psychology from a cross-cultural perspective.
First, you are to obtain two journal articles from refereed journal to review. Both articles must be relevant
to abnormal psychology and either consist of a cross-cultural analysis (comparing two or more cultures)
or focus on the study of a particular form of mental illness in another country. Note that "review" articles
are not appropriate but rather each article must consist of report of empirical research.
For each article, you should use the following format:
1. Your name
2. American Psychological Association format citation for the article
3. Discussion of the rationale behind the study
a. What were the primary questions or hypotheses of this research project?
b. Are they appropriate for the cultures studied?
4. Discussion of the methods used in the research. Some of the methods you may include:
a. What are the independent and dependent variables (or predictor and outcome variables)?
Summarize the methods used to test the hypotheses.
b. How are the variables operationalized?
c. What method is used (e.g. experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, etc).
d. Who were the participants? How generalizable are these data to other persons?
e. Did the researchers employ good cross-cultural methodology (e.g., translation and back
translation, etc.)?
f. If measures or paper-and-pencil instruments were used, were they appropriate for the
samples? How was equivalence of the measures or treatments determined?
5. Overview of the results
a. How did the author(s) summarize the findings of the study?
b. Did the findings turn out as expected? Why or why not?
c. Were there any surprising findings?
6. Discussion of the author's conclusions
a. What questions are left unanswered by this study?
b. Was there anything particularly interesting about this study to you?
7. Critique of the study (this should be a major section of your paper)
a. How might one improve on this study?
b. Did you see evidence of cultural bias in this study? If so, where? How could it have been
avoided?
c. Analysis of the implications of this study based on your understanding of abnormal
psychology.
d. Does the information support or refute research presented in your text?
Deadline for both written assignments is April 28. Assignments must be submitted electronically
in Word format to woolflm@webster.edu ,