Week 6 Assignment: Contributing to Theory: Independent, Mediating, Moderating and Dependent Variables

Examine the literature in your topic area and identify five articles published within the past five years that investigate mediating, moderating, or independent variables in an attempt to contribute to theory in the topic area. Write a paper in which for each article, you:

1. Describes the theory the researchers explore. What are the key constructs in the theory? How are they related? Identify which ones are cause, effect, mediating, or moderating constructs. How are the constructs operationalized?
2. Briefly describe the study, including the number of participants and research methods.
3. Briefly describe the statistical analyses used
4. Briefly described the findings and how the researchers interpreted them and their contribution to theory.

Using some or all of the five articles, argue for a gap in the knowledge in the topic area and briefly describe a study involving mediator and or moderator variables that can contribute to theory. Support your paper with a minimum of 5 resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.