Research Awareness Program in Psychology: Analysis of Two Journal Articles

This program involves analysis of two journal articles in psychology - one on parental co-construction of self-esteem in children and the other on genomic imprinting in music psychology. The first article aimed to investigate the role of parent-child co-construction on the development of global self-esteem by reminiscing about significant past events and conversations, with children aged 5 to 13 years. The second article aimed to characterize the musical phenotype present in individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome, by measuring engagement response, relaxation response, and tone deafness.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Research Awareness Program
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Research Awareness Program
Research ReadingTask 20%
FIRST ARTICLE
Unit Code PSYC200
Unit Name Lifespan Development
Student Name
Student ID
You are to choose a research article from the following journal(s): Child Development,
Developmental Psychology or Developmental Science.
After reading the journal article complete the tasks below.
Full marks will be awarded for students that have accurately and clearly addressed all questions.
Please note: Submissions that are in violation of academic Integrity (e.g., plagiarism, collusion,
recycling etc) will receive a mark of 0 and the student will be reported for academic misconduct (for
more information, please refer to the Academic Integrity and Referencing information on the
Academic Skills Unit site on LEO).
APA reference of
the journal article
chosen.
Harris, M. A., Donnellan, M. B., Guo, J., McAdams, D. P., Garnier Villarreal,‐
M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2017). Parental Co Construction of 5 to‐ ‐
13 Year Olds' Global Self Esteem Through Reminiscing About Past‐ ‐ ‐
Events. Child development, 88(6), 1810-1822.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12944
What was the aim of the study? (50-100 words)
The aim of this study was to investigate developmental antecedents that are related to self
esteem, during periods of early and middle childhood. The authors tried to evaluate role of
parent-child co-construction on the development of global self esteem by reminiscing about
significant past events and conversations, with children aged 5 to 13 years.
What was the methodology used in the study? (50-100 words)
The methodology comprised of one to one interviews with the children, from February 2014-
December 2015 in a laboratory. The children were aged 5 to 13 years and had parents belonging
to different races such as, White, Asian, Latino, or other race. The measures were evaluated on
the basis of lifespan self esteem scale, self esteem consistency, kern’s security scale and domain
specific self esteem scale. Parent questionnaires for also used to observe their parenting
behaviour and life narratives. The interaction between a parent and the child was observed by
parent-child reminiscing tasks that included discussions on 5 emotional events such as,
misbehavior, stress, proud, positive, and embarrassment. This was followed by conduction of a
statistical analysis with the use of raw correlations and bayesian model testing.
What were the findings of the study? (50-100 words)

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Several associations were found between different aspects of reminiscence style and parent
narrative identities. No significant results were obtained that could support the hypothesis of the
relation between child self esteem and parent reminiscence style. The reminiscent style was also
found related to child attachment security, thereby showing consistency with previous findings.
No relation was found between the two parenting behaviours of reminiscing and narrative
emotional explanations. Parents who were found involved in detailed explanation of the
emotions, while writing about lowest point in the lives, showed an increased likelihood to discuss
about emotional explanations that were experienced in past events with their child. This in turn
was related to child attachment security.
Provide your evaluation of the study (50-100 words)
Thus, it can be suggested that the small sample size recruited for the study and the multi-method
design had severe limitations, owing to the less diverse population that had been enrolled. There
is a need to replicate a similar study with more diverse parents, by lowering the number of
biological mothers, present in dual parent homes. Taking into account reminiscence of
conversations with individuals such as, peers, other than both the parents would also help in
evaluating outcomes of child self esteem.
Research Awareness Program
SECOND ARTICLE
Unit Code
Unit Name
Student Name
Student ID
You are to choose a research article from the following journal(s): Psychological Science
After reading the journal article complete the tasks below.
Full marks will be awarded for students that have accurately and clearly addressed all questions.
Please note: Submissions that are in violation of academic Integrity (e.g., plagiarism, collusion,
recycling etc) will receive a mark of 0 and the student will be reported for academic misconduct (for

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more information, please refer to the Academic Integrity and Referencing information on the
Academic Skills Unit site on LEO).
APA reference of
the journal article
chosen.
Mehr, S. A., Kotler, J., Howard, R. M., Haig, D., & Krasnow, M. M. (2017).
Genomic imprinting is implicated in the psychology of
music. Psychological science, 28(10), 1455-1467.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617711456
What was the aim of the study? (50-100 words)
The aim of the study was to characterize the musical phenotype present in individuals with
Prader-Willi syndrome, by measuring 3 different variables namely, 1) an increase in motion while
listening to music that represents engagement response, 2) a reduction in heart rate after hearing
music, thereby demonstrating a relaxation response, and 3) tone deafness that represents ability
of speech perception
What was the methodology used in the study? (50-100 words)
39 people suffering from Prader-Willi syndrome were studied and compared with different
cohorts that were comprised of developing adults and children. The children and adults with
Prader-Willi syndrome were tested for the musical phenotype by collection of data from the
cohort, in two different sessions held 6 months apart. First session comprised of pilot testing of
picture perception and reading session. Cognitive tests and new pitch tests were conducted in the
second session. The musical content comprised of 12 songs namely, 4 folk songs and 8 lullabies.
Wrist mounted physiological monitor was used to assess the heart rate of the recruited sample.
Stata was utilised for the statistical analysis of heart rate, pitch perception skills, and motion.
What were the findings of the study? (50-100 words)
The result findings suggested that individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome demonstrated an
increased engagement and great emotions, while listening to music and a lower heart rate that
signifies improved relaxation after music listening session. Pitch perception ability was found to
reduce after music listening. Similar amounts of songs were found to produce increased effects in
individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome, compared to the normal developing subjects. Differences
within subject during motion, between speech recordings and songs were also found to differ
between the cohort with Prader-Willi syndrome and the typically developing ones. The Prader-
Willi syndrome cohort demonstrated a substantial reduction in mean proportion of appropriate
answers, related to pitch test, when compared to adults. Raw scores for the sample cohort were
also found to be less than those for the adults, belonging to the cohort that contained typically
developing individuals.
Provide your evaluation of the study (50-100 words)
The findings confirm the theoretical predictions that have been made regarding evolution of
infant directed songs. A reduction in pitch perception ability can be associated with the fact that
infants demonstrating less sensitivity to pitch might be less selective about the singing quality that
is required for eliciting a calming response, thereby reducing their demands for investment from
the parents. There is a need to conduct future research by characterizing music perception deficits

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among people with Prader-Willi syndrome based on rhythm perception tests.

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References
Harris, M. A., Donnellan, M. B., Guo, J., McAdams, D. P., Garnier Villarreal, M., & Trzesniewski, K. H.‐
(2017). Parental Co Construction of 5 to 13 Year Olds' Global Self Esteem Through‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
Reminiscing About Past Events. Child development, 88(6), 1810-1822.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12944
Mehr, S. A., Kotler, J., Howard, R. M., Haig, D., & Krasnow, M. M. (2017). Genomic imprinting is
implicated in the psychology of music. Psychological science, 28(10), 1455-1467.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617711456