Discussion -General Understanding of Research
Forensic psychology covers a very broad body of knowledge and has many branches. Forensic psychology professionals often choose an area of interest, such as criminal forensic psychology or custody evaluations, and specialize in that area in their clinical practice. Research is relevant to forensic psychology for a variety of reasons. As a forensic psychology professional, you will need to know what the research literature says about your area of practice in order to effectively conduct your work. For example, you may need to administer psychological tests or conduct other evaluations, and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of these tests or evaluation tools will inform your practice.
Different types of research and research approaches are presented in this week's Learning Resources. And, while you may not ever conduct research as a forensic psychology professional, it is important for you to be able to critically review such research and understand its impact on your practice.
To prepare for this Discussion:
• Review this week's DVD program, "Introduction to Psychological Research." Think about the role and benefits of research within forensic psychology.
• Review Chapter 1 in your course text, Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. Pay particular attention to reasons for conducting research and how research is applied.
• Think about how basic and applied research, as well as research designs, could be used in forensic psychology research.
• Consider the three basic research designs (e.g., descriptive, correlational, and experimental) for studying behavior.
• Think about the strengths and weaknesses of each research design as it relates to forensic psychology research.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 4 your understanding of the relevance of research within forensic psychology. Describe how the three basic research designs could be used in forensic psychology research. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of each design as it applies to forensic psychology research.
Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.
Application: Beginning Your Research
Perhaps more than any other area of psychology, forensic psychology has at its base, an empirical foundation. This is not to say that all forensic psychology professionals are researchers; they are not. However, forensic psychology professionals need to have a good understanding of statistical terminology, research design, and the contemporary empirical findings in their practice areas.
It has often been said that one can use statistics to support any hypothesis. Although this may have some truth to it, forensic psychology professionals need to understand what the empirical findings really do support or refute in their areas of interest. Eye-witness testimony research is an excellent example.
As a forensic psychology professional testifying on the accuracy of eye-witness testimony, you would need to know the many findings in this area of research. You also would need to know competing theories, the amount of evidence for any single area, and even the limitations of individual research articles regarding eye-witness testimony. The tool that a forensic psychology professional uses to understand research in any area of study is the literature review.
This week, you begin the process of learning how to conduct a literature review, starting with perhaps one of the least accurate sources, the popular news media. By the time a research study is broken down by the media and presented to the general public many of the weaknesses are often left out. You will get a better feel for this issue throughout this course, but for this week, you start with this area of information dissemination.
To prepare for this assignment:
• Review Chapter 2 in your course text, Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. Focus on the guidelines for conducting an effective literature search.
• Think about how to search and locate research articles applicable to forensic psychology.
• Select a single topic that exemplifies the application of psychological research in forensic psychology.
• Research this topic and review three news articles you found related to the application of research in forensic psychology.
• Think about any possible flaws in the articles and why you believe they are flaws.
The assignment (2-3 pages):
• Briefly describe three news articles you selected (past or current) on a single topic in forensic psychology that you find most interesting.
• Briefly explain the search terms (keywords) you used.
• Describe any flaws you discovered in the articles.
• Then, explain your reasons for identifying the flaws you discovered.
Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list only for those resources not included in the Learning Resources for this course.
Final Project
Final Project Guidelines
In the Final Project, due by Day 7 of Week 11, you are asked to demonstrate your ability to conduct an abbreviated literature review on a forensic psychology topic of your choosing and report your findings from the literature review.
Your Final Project should include 12-15 research articles on your chosen topic and should be empirically based. The articles also should represent contemporary findings on your topic and come from peer-reviewed journals. Your Final Project should end with a summary of the major findings from your literature review and your recommendation of possible future directions that research on your chosen topic may cover.
A superior Final Project demonstrates breadth and depth of knowledge and critical thinking appropriate for graduate-level scholarship. The paper must follow APA Publication Manual guidelines and be free of typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. The paper should be 10-12 pages, not counting the title page, abstract, or references. Please note that quantity does not always correspond to quality, and a well-written Final Project that includes all of the necessary information can be accomplished in fewer than the maximum number of pages. The Final Project for this course will be evaluated according to all four indicators in the Application Assignment and Final Project Writing Rubric located in the Course Information area.
References
Please note that you must use primary sources. Peer-reviewed journal articles should make up the bulk of your references (80% or more). In other words, you may use non-peer reviewed and non-empirically based material in addition to your 12-15 peer-reviewed, empirically-based journal articles. If referring to a book as one of your non-peer reviewed, non-empirically based sources, be sure to include all information in APA style, including specific page numbers.
Note that an article referred to in a book is a secondary source and does not count as one of your peer-reviewed, empirically-based articles. You must go directly to the original source for your 12-15 peer-reviewed, empirically based articles. Additional information about secondary sources is available in the APA Publication Manual and in the Walden Writing Center
https://inside.waldenu.edu/c/student_faculty/studentfaculty_562.htm).
Also see "Policies on Academic Honesty" in the Guidelines and Policies, Walden University Policies and Information.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o9iyk5ez8t2frxw/wal_fpsy6115_01_a_en-cc.zip?dl=0