Using Research

This activity is designed to get you to practice writing good topic sentences and conclusions for
studies. Imagine you were using McCrory et al.’s (2011) study on ACEs and London kids for the
following topics. The description would be identical (middle column). You only need to adjust the
topic sentences to introduce the study and the concluding sentences to explain its relevance to the
question. The first one has been done for you. Can you do the rest?

Topic and Topic Sentence Description Concluding sentence

A sociocultural explanation of
one health problem…
McCrory’s study shows how
ACEs are one sociocultural
explanation for stress.
A biological explanation of
one health problem…
Prevalence rates of one health
problem…
Dispositional factors…
Determinants of health…
Risk and/or protective
factors…
McCrory conducted one of the This study shows how one
earliest studies investigating sociocultural factor, ACEs, can
the link between ACEs and increase someone’s risk for
amygdala reactivity using experiencing chronic stress
fMRI. They had two groups of through the effects it has on
participants from London: one the amygdala.
group of 20 kids were selected
because they had been
exposed to family violence
such as severe corporal
punishment, emotional abuse,
or physical abuse. A control
group of 23 kids with no
exposure to family violence
were selected to be matched
on age, gender, IQ and
handedness. In the fMRI the
kids were shown a series of
pairs of faces – angry
(threatening), sad (non-
threatening), and neutral. The
results showed that those in
the violence exposure group
had higher activation in their
right amygdala when angry
faces, but not sad faces, were
shown together with neutral
faces. The researchers
concluded that the heightened
sensitivity of the amygdala
towards threat perception
(angry faces) was a
neurological risk factor that
makes a child more vulnerable
to developing psychological
problems later on in life.

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