{"id":378,"date":"2013-03-06T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2013\/03\/06\/reviewing-the-literature\/"},"modified":"2018-07-18T21:29:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T21:29:21","slug":"reviewing-the-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2013\/03\/06\/reviewing-the-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviewing the Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
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These penguins are probably talking about the latest climate change research. (Photo credit: .::elekronaut::.<\/a>) <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


Have you ever tried to jump in on a conversation without knowing what anyone\u2019s talking about? It\u2019s awkward. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same thing when you\u2019re writing a research paper without checking to see what other people have said about your topic. You don\u2019t want to repeat the same idea someone else had. You want to make sure you\u2019re adding to the conversation. Give the topic a different point of view, or connect it to another topic or issue no one has thought of before. <\/p>\n

All this research is usually called a literature review, but the concept is similar to that of an annotated bibliography or a research paper. You\u2019re learning about a topic by reading the conversations experts are having. These experts \u201ctalk\u201d through their research, which they\u2019ve published in research journals. You can track these conversations by checking out their reference list. Their reference list is more than a list of sources; imagine all these authors standing around talking, building on what the person before them said:<\/p>\n

(The following conversation is adapted from the introduction\/literature review in: MacKillop, J., Amlung, M., Few, L., Ray, L., Sweet, L., and Munaf\u00f2, M. (2011). Delayed reward discounting and addictive behavior: a meta-analysis<\/a>. Psychopharmacology<\/i>, 216(3), 306.)
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\u201cHighly impulsive behavior is associated with pathological gambling,\u201d said Reynolds. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat may be true,\u201d said de Witt, Perry, and their friends, \u201cBut what kind of impulsive behavior? We\u2019ve found that there are three kinds: Personality-based, response inhibition and impulsive decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked at impulsive decision-making,\u201d said Green and Myerson, \u201cAnd found that the quicker a reward loses value to a person, the more impulsive the person is. We call it delayed reward discounting and –\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we butt in with an example?\u201d asked the American Psychological Association. Without waiting for a response, the Association added, \u201cFor example, drug dependence shows itself when a person would rather have the immediate effect of the drug, instead of the long-term benefits of not using the drug. That\u2019s delayed reward discounting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell wait \u2013 lots of addicts are motivated to go to rehab,\u201d said Hogue and friends. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes but many either drop out of treatment or relapse after completing treatment,\u201d said McKay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cDelayed reward discounting, definitely. It\u2019s hard to maintain the bigger, but delayed, reward of health by staying sober, when you could have an immediate, small reward of giving in to your drug addiction,\u201d said Ainslie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The \u201cconversation\u201d goes on for a quite a few pages in the literature review of the article, but once you\u2019ve heard what all the experts have to say, you might have questions they didn\u2019t answer. Maybe you want to know if age impacts impulsive decision-making, or maybe you want to investigate the other types of impulsive behavior, since that review focused on impulsive decision-making. You\u2019ve identified an area of research, and can support your research question by explaining how it relates to what the experts have been saying.<\/p>\n

For a short, easy-to-read literature review on a topic, the magazine Atlantic Monthly recently started a feature called \u201cA Study of Studies.” This month\u2019s topic is \u201cYou Can Be Too Beautiful<\/a>,\u201d about studies that examine beauty as a variable in different situations. The article cites its sources, so you can read any of the research mentioned. <\/p>\n

What topics have you done literature reviews or research papers on? What do you think is the most frustrating part about writing a literature review?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These penguins are probably talking about the latest climate change research. (Photo credit: .::elekronaut::.) Have you ever tried to jump in on a conversation without knowing what anyone\u2019s talking about? It\u2019s awkward. It\u2019s the same thing when you\u2019re writing a Continue reading Reviewing the Literature<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[470,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}