Journal articles review
Virginity testing: perceptions of adolescent girls in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Zolisa Swartbooi-Xabadiya & Mzikazi Nduna
New Voices in psychology Vol 10 (1) 2014
| question | rating | justification | |
| 1.1 | The title of the study is uncomplicated, unambiguous and concise | 3 | The topic is clearly stated (virginity testing)
Perceptions indicates subjective attitudes as is borne out in the study by using focus groups Adolescent Girls tells the reader who the population is that is being sampled. Adolescent suggests between 10 and 20 years of age. Girls delineates the gender. Eastern Cape, SA locates the study geographically
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| 1.2 | The title indicates a psychological study | 3 | The use of the word perceptions points to a psychological study |
| 2.1 | The research question is an uncomplicated, unambiguous and concise question | 2 | The research question is not framed as a question, but rather a statement of objective “to explore perceptions and attitudes regarding the practise of virginity testing” |
| 2.2 | The research question has a clear focus | 2 | The objectives have a clear focus “to explore perceptions and attitudes regarding the practise of virginity testing” and a clear reason for conducting the study is given “current discourse is opiniated and follow popular and baseless views” |
| 2.3 | The research question is psychological – belongs to discipline of psychology | 3 | Perceptions and attitudes are concepts that lend themselves to psychological study |
| 3.1 | The information required to address the research question is indicated | 3 | The participants are clearly described and adhere to the definition of adolescent girls. Justification for the choice of girls from a particular place, is given |
| 3.2 | The information is about psychological constructs and understandings | 3 | Perceptions and attitudes are concepts that lend themselves to psychological study |
| 3.3 | The information is presented in a logical and coherent manner | 3 | Use is made of clear subheadings and the article is divided into Method, Findings, Discussion, Limitations and Conclusion |
| 4.1 | The actions of information gathering are legitimate actions in psychology | 3 | The use of focus groups to obtain narratives on the topic is legitimate psychological practice.In addition the authors highlight their analyses as inductive and descriptive which is in keeping with an exploratory study. |
| 4.2 | The information gathering actions are practical | 3 | The description of how the focus group recruited participants and how the focus groups were conducted, is detailed and does show practicality |
| 4.3 | The actions can produce valid, reliable and sufficient information | 3 | As the aim was to acquire perceptions and attitudes, capturing the voices of the participants does lend itself to a methodology based on focus groups |
| 5.1 | The method of analysis is appropriate to analyse the gathered information | 3 | As the authors admit to using a social constructionist approach and give a detailed account of their own backgrounds and what they bring to the study, the method of analysis is appropriate. |
| 5.2 | The method produces a valid, reliable and sufficient reduction of information | 3 | The coding of themes by the authors is quite comprehensive and because the data handling methods and analysis are described in detail, the information they provide could be described as valid |
| 5.3 | The produced answer is relevant in light of the research question | 3 | The discussion section does address the perceptions and attitudes of the participants |
| 6.1 | All ethical issues relevant to the study are considered | 3 | The authors go to great lengths to stress their ethical approach to obtaining participants and provide detail and justification on how the focus groups were conducted |
| 6.2 | Ways to manage the ethical issues are suggested | 3 | The authors go to great lengths to stress their ethical approach to obtaining participants and provide detail and justification on how the focus groups were conducted |
| 6.3 | The suggested ways to manage the ethical issues are practical | 3 | The management of the ethical issues are practical in the sense that the authors have considered details such as, for example, the participants’ and facilitator’s shared socio-cultural backgrounds |
Exploring interpersonal relationships among young adults who were raised as only children in Cape Town
| question | rating | justification | |
| 1.1 | The title of the study is uncomplicated, unambiguous and concise | 3 | The topic is clearly stated (interpersonal relationships
Interpersonal relationships also indicates a psychological approach Young adults tells the reader who the population is that is being sampled. Cape Town locates the study geographically
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| 1.2 | The title indicates a psychological study | 3 | The use of the phrase interpersonal relationships points to a psychological study |
| 2.1 | The research question is an uncomplicated, unambiguous and concise question | 2 | The research question is not framed as a question, but rather a statement of objective “understand whether young adults who grew up as only children felt that this contributed…to their ability to form relationships” |
| 2.2 | The research question has a clear focus | 2 | The objectives have a clear focus “understand whether young adults who grew up as only children felt that this contributed…to their ability to form relationships” |
| 2.3 | The research question is psychological – belongs to discipline of psychology | 3 | The formation of personal relationships falls within the discipline of psychology |
| 3.1 | The information required to address the research question is indicated | 3 | The participants are clearly described as being known as having grown up as only children, living in the greater Cape Town region, and aged between 18 and 27 years |
| 3.2 | The information is about psychological constructs and understandings | 3 | Interpersonal relationships can fall within the ambit of psychology |
| 3.3 | The information is presented in a logical and coherent manner | 2 | Use is made of clear subheadings and the article is divided into Background, Method, Data Collection,Data analysis, reflexivity, trustworthiness, ethical considerations, results and discussion, discussion and conclusion – though some of these headings might have been better as sub-headings and ‘discussion’ is repeated in two headings.
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| 4.1 | The actions of information gathering are legitimate actions in psychology | 3 | The use of interviewing to obtain narratives on the topic is legitimate psychological practice In addition the authors highlight in detail, the methods they used and do justify the use of this method |
| 4.2 | The information gathering actions are practical | 3 | The description of how the participants were recruited and how the interviews were conducted, is detailed and does show practicality |
| 4.3 | The actions can produce valid, reliable and sufficient information | 3 | As the aim was to acquire perceptions and attitudes, capturing the voices of the participants does lend itself to a methodology based on the interviewing technique |
| 5.1 | The method of analysis is appropriate to analyse the gathered information | 3 | As the authors give a detailed account of their own backgrounds and what they brought to the study, the method of analysis is appropriate. |
| 5.2 | The method produces a valid, reliable and sufficient reduction of information | 3 | The themes highlighted by the authors is quite comprehensive and because the data handling methods an analysis are described in detail, the information they provide could be described as valid. They also highlight the trustworthiness of the data |
| 5.3 | The produced answer is relevant in light of the research question | 3 | The discussion section does address the perceptions and attitudes of the participants |
| 6.1 | All ethical issues relevant to the study are considered | 3 | The authors go to great lengths to stress their ethical approach to obtaining participants and provide detail and justification on how the focus groups were conducted |
| 6.2 | Ways to manage the ethical issues are suggested | 3 | The authors go to great lengths to stress their ethical approach to obtaining participants and provide detail and justification on how the focus groups were conducted |
| 6.3 | The suggested ways to manage the ethical issues are practical | 3 | The management of the ethical issues are practical in the sense that the authors have considered details such as, for example, the participants’ and facilitator’s shared language preferences |