A literature review is a descriptive summary, synthesis, and critical analysis of research on a topic that has previously been studied. The purpose of a literature review is to inform readers of the significant knowledge
and ideas that have been established on a topic. Its purpose is to compare, contrast and/or connect findings that were identified when reviewing researchers’ work. Oftentimes, literature reviews are written to ground a
study in a particular context of what is known about a subject in order to establish a foundation for the topic (or question) being researched.
Facilitate your abilities to research a topic of study so you can learn to (1)
identify and formulate an inquiry question that defines what you’d like to learn, (2) apply your knowledge on reading research that you’ve learned in class, (3) analyze information found in psychological/social
psychological journal articles, and (4) synthesize new knowledge into a written small-scale literature review.
Steps to complete your small-scale literature review:
Choose a psychological topic that you are interested in studying.
Formulate an inquiry question that specifically describes what would like to know about your topic.
Search for and locate journals that include your topic’s information (you can use the LBCC library database –
EBSCO and ProQuest are your best options for this Here is the direct link to the database search page:
https://lbcc.libguides.com/c.php?g=1050566&p=7626147 (Links to an external site.)
Find scholarly research articles, read the abstracts and skim the articles to determine if they correspond well to
your topic AND inquiry question.
Select at least 3 journal articles and save them for your project.
Read your articles, annotate, and highlight key ideas that you will use in your assignment; begin to sort and classify them according to their findings (i.e., group them by main ideas, themes, patterns, etc).
Sample Solution
