User:Hcollomb/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Lucid dream

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article, first because I knew I found interest in the topic of dreams in previous psychology classes and wanted to explore the psychological affects more in depth. I knew I had to choose a more specific topic so upon searching up lucid dreams, I thought that there was an opportunity to add a psychology background to the page. I also found interest in psychoactive drugs last semester in my psychology course and initially did some research on what wikipedia had to offer on that topic. Psychoactive drugs are quite extensively covered on wikipedia but reading both pages for lucid dreams and psychoactive drugs I found some overlap. I thought that it could be interesting to try to relate them in some way on the lucid dreams page. Just an idea, not set on anything. I really just tried to look into the topics I was interested in and found the most room for improvement on the page of lucid dreams.

Evaluate the article
The introduction section provides a good summary definition of a lucid dream, providing a brief definition and history. It includes some psychological reference terms and gives some ways that it is utilized for sleep therapy. It does not seem to give a summary of the below sections like cognitive science, two way communication or alternative theories. Overall the lead does good job of outlining a basic definition for people who may be looking for a quick search as well as being specific and concise describing some of the following topics of the article.

Overall the article does a good job of covering a range of content on the topic providing a good historical background and also providing some information on applications for therapy. I think that there is a lack of psychological application outside of treating nightmares. There is an opportunity to add some ways that people could use lucid dreaming to positively impact their mental health or ways that they could change their psychological approach to their life by manipulating their dreams. It would also be beneficial to give some guidance on how readers could lucid dream since it mentions that it is a learned skill.

Reading the article, I do not believe that the author is biased towards one viewpoint or another and does a good job of providing balanced and non biased information on the topic. I do not feel persuaded in one direction or another when reading the article.

The sources seem to be reliable, as there are many sources that are peer reviewed sites from universities or professionally publishes researchers. There are a few outdated sources but enough relevant and recent sources on the topic to be trustworthy. There is the occasional random website but upon closer examination these random websites seem to be trustworthy and have well established authors who have relevant and accurate information on the topic. There could be an opportunity to add some more recent studies to the page as many of the research studies cited are from very outdated studies going back to the 1980s.

The images in article seem to not be that relevant and do not contribute to the article in a meaningful way. There is an opportunity to add some images that provide meaningful information. In addition there is no discussion on the talk page.

Overall, this is an effective article, but there are opportunities for addition on psychological affects and other ways to apply this learned skill of lucid dreaming. It does a good job of covering research on the topic and giving a detailed historical background on lucid dreams. In addition, there are many reliable sources that come from well known peer reviewed researchers. It also gives both sides of the story but including potential risks of lucid dreaming and how one may go about combatting psychological struggles stemming from lucid dreams.