Psychology 205 Article Report #2

Due Monday, 4/17

Article: Abwender, D.A. & Hough, K. (2001). Interactive Effects of Characteristics of Defendant and Mock Juror on U.S. Participants’ Judgment and Sentencing Recommendations. The Journal of Social Psychology, 14(5), 603-615.

For this assignment you are to carefully read the accompanying article, and then answer the questions below. The aim of this assignment is 1) to give you further exposure to the style and mechanics of writing a scientific article (as opposed to an essay or other types of writing you are familiar with) and 2) to review and apply several of the concepts we have discussed so far in this class.

  • Your answers must be typewritten and stapled together (if there is more than one page); otherwise they will not be accepted.
  • You may consult classmates regarding issues on which you need clarification, but all of yourwriting must be your own. Do NOT under any circumstances look at anyone else’s answers to these questions. Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, will result in failing the course and notification of the judicial review board.
  • Your work must be grammatically correct and free of spelling errors. Please be sure to proofread your work before handing it in.
  • Please note that if I ask you to use a brief sentence or a few simple words in your answer, that is what you should do – if you write an extensive paragraph, you will lose points for not being concise.

Questions (1 point each unless otherwise noted; total=22 points):

  1. In one brief sentence or a few simple words, describe what issue they raise in paragraph 1 (on page 603, starting after the Abstract).
  2. In one brief sentence or a few simple words, describe what issue they discuss in paragraphs 2-3,
  3. In one brief sentence or a few simple words, describe what issue they suggest needs more attention in paragraphs 4-5.
  4. What additional variable do they discuss in paragraph 7?
  5. In which part of the Introduction do they introduce their main hypotheses (beginning, middle, end)?
  6. In which part of the Method section do they describe the scenario/vignette that the participants read?
  7. In which part of the Method section do they describe the questionnaire the participants answered?
  8. In which part of the Method section do they describe how they administered the questionnaire to the participants?
  9. Identify the four independent variables andthe levels of each one. (Note that we are treating “participant” variables (like race, gender, etc.) as independent variables in this study.) (4 pts)
  10. Identify the two main dependent variables.
  11. Is this an independent (between) groups, within-groups, or mixed design?
  12. Describe the interaction (like we did in class) between juror gender and defendantattractiveness for the recommended sentence. You may copy bits from the paper to do this part.
  13. In the Results, “M” refers to the mean. For example, when it says “M=21.95 years” this means that the average sentence given to the defendant in that condition was 21.95 years. Using the means reported in the Results, create a graph of the interaction between juror gender and defendant attractiveness for the recommended sentence. (2 pts)
  14. In one brief sentence or a few simple words, describe the focus of paragraph 1 of the Discussion.
  15. In one brief sentence or a few simple words, describe the issue are they trying to address in paragraph 3 of the Discussion.
  16. Are limitations of the study discussed near the start of the Discussion or more towards the end?
  17. What are two concerns they raise about the generalizeabiltiy of their results?
  18. What are two specific future directions they suggest in the final paragraph?