Heider, F. (1946). Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology, 21, 107-112. Retrieved from:
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Heider/attitudes.htm
Step 2, Preparing to Write Your Summary:
a) Reading the Article:
• You will probably need to read the article more than once to truly understand it.
• You should pay attention to the main topic of the paper, what kinds of questions the authors ask, how the
ideas in the paper are organized, and what the tables, charts, and graphs show.
• It is best to take notes while you are reading the paper.
b) What to Include in Your Summary:
• Your goal is to write a summary of the article that is so clear that a classmate could understand it. In other
words, your summary should show that you have read the article carefully and understand the content of the
article. Your paper should be a summary of the following:
• The topic(s) of the study—What is the study about?

• Who were the participants (subjects) in the study? Where did they come from?
• What answers did the authors find to their questions? In other words, what were the results of the study?
• What is your evaluation of this study? Are the results of this study important in the real world? Would the
results of this study change the way we do things in some area of psychology?