How to Critique an Article (Psychology)

Participants

• Is the sample size adequate to find the effect? Are power analyses mentioned?
• Are the participants representative of the population?
  • Are there equal numbers of males and females?
  • Are there a range of socioeconomic strata and ethnicities?
  • For this class, is the diagnosis confirmed?
• Where were the participants obtained from, and are they a biased sample?
• If it is an experimental design, was true random assignment done (random number generator)?

Measures

• Are the measures widely used in the field?
• Are the measures reliable and valid?
• Are they appropriate for the group or age being studied (i.e. not too difficult or too easy)?
• Are all the measures explained adequately?
• Do the measures seem to have face validity -- that is, do they measure what the authors say the variable of interest is in an adequate fashion?