In this unit, you will complete the following steps of the literature review:

Conduct a literature search for studies that address your target question.
Select three peer previewed studies that you will summarize in Unit 4.
What is a Literature Review
The purpose of a literature review is to express to your reader the knowledge and ideas that have been established on a topic. Your literature review should describe the strengths and weaknesses in the literature on the topic you have chosen. The literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research question). The literature review is NOT just a descriptive list of the material available, or a regurgitation of the summaries will write in preparing your research.

A literature review must do these things:

Be organized around and related directly to your research question
Synthesize and organize results
Identify trends or findings
Identify areas of disagreement
Formulate questions that need further research
Study the example Literature Review provided for help in preparing to write your literature review:

Lit Review Student Example 1Preview the document
Lit Review Student Example 2Preview the document (Links to an external site.)
Unit 3 Tasks
1. Conduct a Literature Search
If you need help with finding the right journals, the links will help you get started using the databases at Park University: Psychology: Finding ArticlesLinks to an external site.

2. Select Three Peer-Reviewed Articles
Next, select three peer-reviewed studies that reinforce your earlier studies, present a different perspective, or highlight areas of disagreement.

Select carefully. You should have looked up and reviewed many peer-reviewed studies from which you choose the ones that best support your research question.

Upcoming Literature Review Assignments
In Unit 4, you will summarize the studies you selected in Unit 3.
In Unit 6, you will write the literature review.