Critical review of an online article (85 marks)
Use theoretical and empirical evidence to support your arguments in critically reviewing the following online article: Watching birds near your home is good for your mental health https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170225102113.htm
Relevant textbook chapters: Psychological Research and Psychological Disorders
In your review (critical analysis) you should address the following areas/questions:
a) Key assumption and claims: Identify the key assumption put forth by the article and state the claims that support or form the bases of this assumption.
b) Viability of the claims: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the claims?
c) Modifications: Are there any other explanations for the phenomenon?
Tips on how to approach this assignment
Important note: There is no need to access the original source(s) that the online article is reporting on. Your task is not to critique the original source itself. Instead, your task is to critique the way the online article reports the findings of the source(s) concerned and draws its conclusions.
Reminder: Read widely and use theoretical and empirical evidence to support your arguments. Remember to reference any sources you have cited in your review and apply the APA format.
a) Key assumption and claims: First of all, identify the key assumption made by the author of the online news article. Then list the claims presented by the author to support the key assumption. For example, consider an article that appears to assume that boys are smarter than girls (key assumption) based on research studies conducted in co-educational secondary schools in Singapore where boys were found to outperform girls in Maths (claims).
b) Viability of the claims: Critically think about the bases for the (key) assumption made. You can do this by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the claims made by the author of the online news article. For example, the research study mentioned was conducted in co-educational secondary schools in Singapore. A strength could be that the data used is official and reliable. However, a weakness is that not all secondary schools in Singapore are co-educational so it may not be representative of all teenage boys and girls in Singapore.
c) Modifications: You may want to consider alternative explanations for the phenomenon but in order to do this, you need to read widely on the topic concerned so that sufficient knowledge is gained to present a meaningful discussion. For example, are there similar studies that were conducted in single-sex secondary schools in Singapore? Did girls from single-sex schools not perform as well in Maths as their male counterparts in single-sex schools? Consider also that not all girls in co-educational secondary schools come from co- educational primary schools. Could there be other theoretical or empirical explanations for the inferior performance of girls in Maths compared to their male counterparts in co- educational schools? You will also need to back up your argument with supporting theoretical or empirical evidence based on your readings. For example, Attribution Theory
SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 6 of 9
PSY108 Tutor-Marked Assignment 02 July 2021 Semester
and the principles of Locus of Control may better explain the phenomenon described earlier where teenage boys outperform teenage girls in Maths in co-educational secondary schools in Singapore.
