Library Assignment – PSYC-101-502 2025FA General Psychology

Library Assignment

Review these APA resources before doing this library assignment:

APA – Example Reference Page

Citing in text in APA style 

How to Locate Links: https://howardcc.libguides.com/locatelinks-video

Links to an external site.

Click on the link below to open the word document for the Library Assignment:

PSYC-101.IL.Library Assign.F24.docx

Download PSYC-101.IL.Library Assign.F24.docx

Make sure to upload the APA style reference page and the summary for you article. Your Reference page must have an active link to your article.  Your link must work and go directly to the article itself, not just to the library database page. Double check it before handing in. If I cannot open your articles you will lose many points on the assignment!

PSYC-101 Library Assignment – 70 points

This library assignment will be used to assess students learning on the following course objectives:

• Apply appropriate strategies of inquiry and exploration in order to find, evaluate, and use information ethically in the study of an issue in psychology.

 Assignment Prompt

This Library assignment provides an opportunity for students to gain insights into the differences between Primary and Secondary sources and citing APA style. During the library orientation class you will be shown how to find a primary source and a secondary source through the library web-site and shown how to cite sources (both Primary and Secondary) in APA format. The written assignment must be done on a word processor, no hand written assignments will be accepted.

The steps for completing the Library assignment

1. After orientation to the Library web-site, choose an article on a topic that interests you. Make sure that the article is considered a PRIMARY SOURCE. This would be found in an academic journal ONLY. The author(s) must be the researcher(s) reporting on a specific study and its results. A Primary Source would include the following: a review of the literature, a description of methodology including the sample selection process, a description of the statistical analysis, and a discussion of the results.

PLEASE NOTE: (3 pts)

You cannot use any reference with the words “A review” in the title!

You may not use an abstract instead of the complete article for either source.

Your Primary Source cannot be older than 6 years, and must be at least 5 pages long!

You cannot use someone’s Doctoral or Master’s Thesis for this assignment.

2. Then either using the library website or another internet site, find a Secondary source article which is on the same topic as your primary source. (3 pts)

PLEASE NOTE:

You CANNOT use your textbook as the secondary source

Your Secondary Source cannot be older than 6 years, and must be at least 2 pages long.

Your Secondary Source must come from Psychology Today, a National magazine (Time, Newsweek) or an established paper (NY Times, Washington Post).

Having both a Primary source and a Secondary source is worth 10 points of this assignment.

3. The Written library Assignment consists of 4 parts:
4. Provide a summary of both your primary and secondary sources, including why the topic of your 2 sources are appropriate for psychology. Make sure you cite both sources in your answer using APA referencing style. You should have 1 paragraph on the primary source and one paragraph on the secondary source. Each paragraph must be a minimum 120 words; include word count please (20 pts)
5. In the first paragraph COMPARE: do a compare summary paragraph of how your Primary and Secondary sources are alike. You must discuss 2 ways the 2 sources are alike (Things like “they are both on the same topic”, “both articles” or “both have authors”, etc. are NOT appropriate). Paragraph must be minimum 120 words; include word count please! You will receive 4 points for each correct similarity. (Total 8 points)
6. In the second paragraph CONTRAST: do a contrast summary paragraph of how your Primary and Secondary sources are different. You must discuss 3 ways the 2 sources are different (Things like “one is longer”, “one has more references”, or “one is primary the other is secondary” etc. are NOT appropriate!). Paragraph must be minimum 120 words, Include word count please ! You will receive 4 points for each correct difference. (Total 12 pts)
7. On a separate page include your references. The REFERENCE PAGE should contain citations for both your Primary and secondary sources in APA format. Your References must include live links to your Primary and Secondary sources. If the links are not live, your paper cannot be graded. You will receive 8-points for APA reference page.
8. You will be graded on APA citation within your assignment too. (Total 6 pts)

Library assignment Submission:

This document must be submitted in Canvas as either a Microsoft Word Document or an rtf. If you are creating it in Google Docs, please use “Download As…” and choose doc or docx to save it in that format.

A note to students regarding Grading/Scoring of this library assignment:

This library assignments is used by the college to assess the course’s teaching of Information Literacy. Within the rubric, there are 3 ungraded criteria (GE.IL.1, GE.IL.2, and GE.IL.3). Scores for these criteria are derived from grades on your paper for specific questions and will not factor into your overall assignment grade.