Reading peer-reviewed research is absolutely essential! In today's attempted shift in focusing on evidence-based practice in many fields, we may need to read research to help us in our careers! Whether you want to be a therapist, researcher, police officer, executive, broadcaster, podcaster, chef, medical professional, business owner, investigator, stay-at-home parent, etc., understanding peer-reviewed research is important to help you make good decisions and spread correct information! While there may be much higher level statistics than you will ever use in your own work, it's still important to try and understand the findings, the limitations of the study, and whether the information is trustworthy. For this discussion, you will find a research article and focus on what we've learned and how you find this information in your articles!

For this discussion, I want you to do the following:

1. Using either scholar.google.com or the university library website, find a peer-reviewed research article related to your major (and interests you!) that is either a meta-analysis or a normal study testing hypotheses. The article MUST be a peer-reviewed article that has been published in an academic journal. Make sure that you can get the pdf of the article to share; this is a MUST. Note: if you have trouble finding an article related to your major, you're welcome to find an article that interests you outside of your major.
2. Read the article--making sure to take extra time to read the methods and results sections.
3. For your initial discussion post, include the following:
   • Upload the article.
   • Give us a brief summary of the article. Let us know if this is a meta-analysis or a regular study. How do you know?
   • Was normality checked? What measures were included? Were there any issues with normality?
   • What were the research hypotheses of the article? What statistical tests were performed to test the hypothesis? *You don't need to understand these! There are often high-level statistical tests used in peer-reviewed literature. You can focus on one of the hypotheses in the article rather than all of them if you wish.
   • What measures of central tendency and variability were reported?
   • Was the null hypothesis rejected or did researchers fail to reject the null? How do you know?
   • What were the p-values and how do they coincide with the hypotheses being rejected or not?
   • Were effect sizes mentioned? What type of effect size was used (e.g., Cohen's d, correlation, etc.)?
   • Are there any other concepts that you've learned in this course so far that helped you read the article? If so, tell us what they are. Are there any areas of the course that still confuse you as you read the article? If so, tell us what they are.