1. What is the name of your journal?
Answer:- American Psychological Association.
2. For whom does it seem to have been written? For example, is it directed toward a special kind of psychologist? Does it include articles that would be of interest to educators or others outside the field of academic psychology? If so, list several titles.
Answers:-The article seems to have been written for educators who are psychologists too.
3. Choose a representative research article whose title interests you. Write the name of its title and briefly explain why it interests you.
Answer: -Effects of Acute Caffeine Administration on Adolescents. I am interested in this article because it targets adolescents and a popular drinking culture.
4. How long is the article?
Answer: - The article is 10 pages long.
5. List the major sections of the article as defined by the heads.
Answer:- (a) Introduction; (b) Method; (c) Telephone Screening; (d) general experimental procedures; (e); Caffeine and beverage preparation (f) Salivary caffeine measurement; (g) cardio vascular responses; (h) Measurements; (i) Analytic Plan; (j) Results; (k) Caffeine sources and reasons for consumption; (l) Blood Pressure and Heart Rate; (m) Caffeine consumption and Laboratory snack food rate; (n) Caffeine consumption and usual nutrient intake;(o) Discussion ( Temple, 2010)
6. Does the author state the hypothesis of the research study. Write the hypothesis in the author's words.
Answer: - Yes! Acute caffeine administration has psychological; behavioral and subjective effects.
7. Write the hypothesis in your own words.
Answer: - There are immense effects of acute caffeine administration.
8. Who made up the study population?
Answer: Adolescent boys and girls between the ages of 12-17 years old.
9. Does the article contain a section on the method used in conducting the study? Describe the method.
Answer: - Yes! The researcher recruited participants through telephone screening after widespread advertisement of the study. Upon answering some questions to make them eligible via a telephone survey, adolescents with their parents’ consent were invited to participate in the study.
10. Which of the methods of scientific research described in Chapter 1 is used?
Answer: - The method was a combination of case study and survey.
11. Is there a discussion of the significance of results?
Answer: - Yes! A thorough discussion of results was undertaken.
12. Summarize the significance of the results in your own words.
Answer:-The significance of these results is that caffeine levels in the blood could be related to consumption rate, blood pressure and heart rate; sources form which caffeine was derived; reasons for consumption and nutrient intake.
13. What conclusions are reached in your article?
Answer: Conclusions reached: - (a) There are gender differences in psychological effects among adolescence as it relates to caffeine consumption; (b) Gender differences were also discovered in relation to caffeine sources and motivation for utilizing it as well; (c) An association between caffeine and macronutrition and energy intake was also established.(Temple, 2010)
14. What is your reaction to the research article? For example, were there sections that you found difficult to understand? Were there section that seemed very "scientific"? Are you convinced of the conclusions? Why or why not?
Answer:-This is a very impressive, highly scientific, academic piece of literature. Several parts were beyond my human comprehension. For example, the diagrammatic display of data is somewhat difficult to grasp at my level. However, I respect the researchers’ conclusions and can accept them based on the methodological applications.
15. Summarize the article in your own words. How did it benefit you and how might it benefit us if we were to read it?
Answer: - This article relates research findings pertaining to studies conducted on a sample of adolescents between the ages of 12-17. They were evaluated over a period specified by the researchers for caffeine levels in the saliva.
There were some acceptable deceptions in the actual procedure since researchers did not want to alert teenagers that the study was actually about caffeine and not other substances found in sodas. Had this been revealed it is believed that some measure of subjectivity would have infiltrated conclusions.
Display of data was somewhat complicated, but the overall picture was presented to validate usage of sound scientific research methodology in arriving at conclusions. Ultimately, the investigation has implications for parents who offer caffeine to young children as well as psychologists in advising on appropriate usage of caffeine if any in adolescents. I found it very beneficial.
References
Temple, Jenifer. Dewey, Amber. Bariatico, Laura. (2010). Effects of Acute Caffeine
Administration on Adolescents. American Psychological Association, 18(6), 510-520.
