PB2A

The scholastic article that I have chosen to analyze is titled “Psychological Effects of Dog Ownership: Role Strain, Role Enhancement, and Depression,” and is conducted by Krista Marie Clark Cline. The paper consists of an idea, in this case how ownership of a dog can benefit or hinder a person’s depression, a set of hypotheses to be tested, an explanation of how these hypotheses are to be tested, the results of these tests, and finally a discussion of the results. Each of these sections are quite typical of a standard research paper, and thus can be considered conventions of the genre. Overall, the paper has a formal and informative tone and style respectively, as its purpose is to add research to a previously established intellectual field.

One of the most distinct conventions, however, is an abstract which is included at the beginning of the paper. This short paragraph quickly delves into what research the author has done and acts as somewhat of a preview to the content that follows. The abstract is a crucial piece of a research paper as it can help readers, who are perhaps conducting their own research and looking to build on previous studies, distinguish between whether or not they wish to read it, or even more so if the study is useful and relevant to their own studies. The method section must be written in a way where if another researcher wanted to test the claims that this study found, he could copy the procedure from the initial study and obtain the same results. This is, as far as the genre of research papers go, another very important convention. Other typical conventions include raw data, charts, and graphs in the results section, as well as strictly objective conclusions. For example, the author states, “Again, seeing that there is no decrease in the effects of dog ownership… we can assume that physical activity does not mediate the relationship between dog ownership and depression. Therefore, Hypothesis 2 was not supported” (Marie Clark Cline). This differs from the style of writing that is used in the discussion section of the paper, where the author has room to analyze his or her results.

The study looked at the overarching question: how does dog ownership, positively or negatively, affect depression? Within this larger question the author looked at two theories, role strain (feeling discomfort by having too many conflicting obligations) and role enhancement (multiple roles contribute to well-being). Along with these theories, Marie Clark Cline considers two potentially reasons why dog ownership contributes to well-being—social support and physical activity, as well as three specific categories of people to consider—single versus married, older versus younger, and female versus male. Once it was determined that the participants were diagnosed with depression, these hypotheses were tested through the questions: how satisfied are you with the level of emotional support that they get from their friends and family and how often do you exercise.

As previously mentioned, how these results are obtained (the method) is extremely important in the reliability of findings. Thus, this section includes information about the selection of participants, as well as control variables that were in place, including race and education level. Thorough explanation is necessary throughout the entire paper, but particularly in this section. Additionally, while being thorough is a necessity, the author must be both clear and concise in order to emphasize his or her findings. The reasoning for these conventions is clear when the author of a research paper considers the purpose and target audience of his work. In order to publicize useful information, the content must be structured in way that allows fellow intellects to absorb, and perhaps expand on, the initial research’s findings.

Psychological Effects of Dog Ownership: Role Strain, Role Enhancement, and Depression: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1f1a964b-96bf-4ec3-84cf-e4a69b398a07%40sessionmgr112&vid=0&hid=116