The document provides tips for an assignment on summarizing a news clipping about a psychology study. It instructs students to: - Carefully read the highlighted phrases and words in the provided news clipping. - Follow the steps outlined in the slides to search for and find the original journal article described in the news clipping using the PsycINFO database. - Once found, provide a brief summary of the journal article and comment on how it compares to the information presented in the news clipping. The document guides students through searching PsycINFO and finding the source journal article to help complete their assignment.

1. PSYC 1110
Psychology in the Popular Media
Assignment Tips

2. Pay attention to the
highlighted phrases and words
in the news clipping that you
are given.
• READ YOUR ASSIGNMENT CAREFULLY!
• It lists all the steps to do well

3. Brain Damage for Easier Moral Choices
• Section:
• news SCAN
• NEUR0SCIENCE
• How long would you hesitate before pushing someone in front of a runaway train
to keep it from killing five other people? The answer may be no time at all, if you
have damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC)--a region in the
forebrain associated with emotional response. Researchers confronted volunteers
with such scenarios and found that those with VMPC injury were three times
more likely than healthy people to advocate throwing the person to certain
death for the good of the many. In a similar scenario, VMPC patients were five
times more likely to advocate smothering one's baby to save others. Senior
author Antonio Damasio of the University of Southern California says that the
patients are not amoral but seem to lack the natural conflict between emotion
and reason. The study, in the March 22 Nature, also shows that such decisions
result not from a single moral faculty but from two different processes that can
compete with each other.
• ~~~~~~~~
• By Nikhil Swaminathan

4. Choose Guides A-Z
• Each study is searchable through the PsycINFO datbase.
• Follow the steps in these slides to search PsycINFO…
• Start at the Mount Library: www.msvu.ca/library

5. Choose Psychology

6. Choose PsycINFO

7. Add the clues from
your news article.
• Use keywords, or other search fields if
available.
• If general keyword do not work, the
drop down menu under Select a Field
allows you to get more specific, such
as the journal name (i.e., SO
Publication Name), the institute
where the study took place (i.e., AF
Author Affiliation), or the name of
one or more of the authors (i.e., AU
Author).
• You may have to add or omit certain
search terms and alter the way results
are displayed (e.g., order by date vs.
relevance) to find your study.
Remember to take a screen shot of
your results page that includes
your search terms.

8. Click PDF full
Text, or if no
PDF, try
Check for full
text.

9. Confirm that the article is
the same as the one
described in the news
clipping
Next, you will provide a brief
summary of the journal article and
provide commentary on how the
information in the journal article
compares to the information
provided by the news clipping you
were given. Read your assignment
for more details.

10. WE ARE HERE TO HELP!
Thank you!
MSVU Library
http://www.msvu.ca/library
library@msvu.ca
902-457-6250