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The Relationships Among Academic Attitudes, Psychological Attitudes And The First Semester Academic Achievement Of First Year College Students

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Article Title: Reynolds, A. L., & Weigand, M. J. (2010). The relationships among academic attitudes, psychological attitudes, and the first-semester academic achievement of first-year college students. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 47(2), 175-195.
Introduction
The study by Reynolds and Weigand was conducted in 2010, which means that all sources used by researchers should be evaluated from that perspective, counting 5 years from the publication year as more recent and older sources that have no fundamental value as irrelevant. Reynolds and Weigand (2010) have utilized 40 sources in their research, with only 8 of them being recent (6 of 2005 year, 1 – 2006, and 1- 2007), and the rest being irrelevant, dating back to 1985. Therefore, the investigators did not report on the recent and relevant literature, using outdated sources for backing up their findings and justifying their research. Although the investigators’ language seems neutral and objective, the sections reporting about limitations of the study brings all biases and drawbacks to discussion, revealing sample size, lack of generalizability, and use of first-semester GPA for evaluating students’ academic achievement are cited as the major limitations.

Hypothesis
The hypothesis of the study is not stated clearly, leaving only research questions to guide the readers in guessing the purpose of the research and possible assumptions. So, Reynolds and Weigand (2010) asked, “(a) what is the relationship

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