Research on various aspects of human sexuality receives considerable attention in the popular press and media

You are required to write a research paper for this class.

The paper will be 3-4 pages of text, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins. Your paper must also be formatted in APA style and include a References page that lists all of your sources (references page does not count towards the minimum page count). Your paper must cite and incorporate one (1) popular media article and at least three sources from the scholarly literature. Scholarly literature for this paper must include at least three (3) peer-reviewed empirical articles published in academic journals. Paper Content Research on various aspects of human sexuality receives considerable attention in the popular press and media. Unfortunately, popular accounts sometimes do not effectively summarize information from scientific literature and thereby create misconceptions among the general public. For your paper, you are being asked to summarize and critically evaluate a recent popular article on human sexuality, using scholarly literature. You will independently research the topic in the popular press/media and in scholarly Psychology journals. The paper should be structured as follows: Introduction and summary of the popular account. Begin your paper by briefly discussing the relevance or importance of the topic, and them summarizing the major issues presented in the popular article.

The introduction must provide a clear thesis statement that summarizes the argument you will develop in your paper. Background Research. In this section you will synthesize and present the research information that you compiled from the scholarly literature. What do scholars have to say about the topic? What stances have they taken? You should cite and incorporate a minimum of three empirical research articles by summarizing the research in each article. Since this is a psychology course, your research should focus on psychological research. Assessment of the popular account. Based on your research articles, how well or how poorly did the popular account do in presenting the scientific information? Your assessment should strive to identify both the strengths and weaknesses of the popular account. Specific questions to include in your paper: What are the correct, incorrect, and potentially misleading pieces of information in the popular article? How well does the article reflect available evidence? Is the tone of the article appropriate? Does it accurately reflect the manner in which researchers have argued their points? If you were responsible for writing a similar popular press account of the same topic how would yours differ? What would you choose to emphasize or omit? Why? Implications and future directions. Discuss the broad scientific or societal implications. For scientific research, it would be useful to discuss potential future studies for resolving unanswered questions. You may also discuss possible solutions or interventions for the topic you selected. References In addition to the popular press article, you are required to have at least three scholarly references from the scientific literature. This includes peer-reviewed, empirical research articles published in psychological journals. You can use your textbook as a reference, but it does not count as an empirical research source. You are encouraged to take an in-person or online library workshops if you are not familiar with empirical research, or with the process of writing a research paper