STEP 1: Find a popular news article from within the past five years that reports on the results of a research study related to lifespan development. This can be on any topic, but, ideally, is something that is of interest to you. This should not be a blog entry, but a published article from a news source such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, CNN, Fox News, etc. A great place to look is the APA’s Psychology news portal. Read through the article and ensure that it is descriptive and sufficiently long enough in order to draw conclusions from the original research mentioned.

STEP 2: Find the psychological study or studies that are mentioned in the news report. Sometimes those are not freely available online, so you may have to track down the original study through the library’s website. The study should have been performed within the past five years.

STEP 3: Write a paper between 500-750 words that:

describes and summarizes both articles
Describes the research method, research design, hypothesis, independent and dependent variables (if applicable), and any reliability or validity concerns
compares and contrasts the key points, style, and purpose of the news article with that of the research article
examines if the news article accurately describes the research
includes correct APA citations (both in-text and in a reference page) for both of the articles (See Purdue Online Writting Lab APA guidelines for reference).