5 1 Title of Your Paper Your Full Name Course Title (PSYC315:

5

1

Title of Your Paper

Your Full Name

Course Title (PSYC315: Research Methods)

Introduction

Topic

Briefly define & describe the topic of your proposal. This is to give your readers an introduction to the topic and idea of what your study will be about.

Background Research

Summarize two research articles that are related to your topic. Focus on information from the articles that is directly related to your proposal.

Purpose of the Study

Explain the rationale for your study, based on the literature. What gap exists that needs to be addressed? State the purpose of your study.

Hypotheses

Briefly explain your independent and dependent variable and hypotheses. Include whatever parts of your methods are necessary for clarity.

You must mention 3 hypotheses – 2 for the main effects and one for the interaction.

Example1: Impact of income and exposure to nicotine during childhood on likeliness to start smoking

Hypothesis #1- Individuals raised in a lower income households will be more likely to start smoking

Hypothesis #2- Individuals with daily exposure to nicotine will be more likely to start smoking

Hypothesis #3- Individuals raised in a lower income households and daily exposure to nicotine will be more likely to start smoking

Example2: Experience and level of education impact on the effectiveness of an educator

Hypothesis #1- Higher levels of experience results in a more effective educator

Hypothesis #2- Higher levels of education will not result in a more effective educator

Hypothesis #3- While higher levels of experience will improve the effectiveness of an educator, higher levels of education will not.

Methods

Participants

Describe who would be in the study, the number of participants you think you would need to have enough power in the design and any restrictions on who could be in the study (Inclusion criteria. For example: Special education, minimum of 5 years’ experience, live in Chicago). Quantitative tends to have 50 or more participants.

Materials

Describe in detail how you would operationally define your variables. This must be as detailed as if you actually carried out the study. If it is appropriate, find a scale or measure in the literature to measure your dependent variable instead of creating one.

Operational Definitions

Sleep- Sleep in this study will be analyzed in terms of number of hours slept.

Stress levels- Stress levels will be measured using…. to determine its impact on acne breakout.

Acne breakout- Pimples on the face which can result from stress.

Instrument

List survey questions/link to online survey/link to existing questionnaire

Procedure

Describe the proposed design and explain step-by-step what participants would do in your study. Include ethical issues and how they will be addressed

-Consent, assent with be obtained, privacy will be ensured, debriefing will be held, risks will be managed..

-Participants participate in a survey related to sleep

-Participants participate in a survey related to stress

-Participants submit Dr. report on acne levels/breakout

Results

You will not have any actual data to analyze, but you need to explain suggested outcomes.

Suggested outcomes of the 2×2 factorial design

For example: It is suggested that the outcomes of the study will be….. (3-5 sentences).

Discussion

Re-state the purpose of your experiment (gap in the literature) and the all the hypotheses.

Discuss any limitations with the research (1).

Examples of limitations:

Sample size is too small- generalizability goes down

Sample doesn’t represent the full population- this could be due to sampling method or just the sample itself. Ex: Only girls, or only 1 school- impacts generalizability

Possible interfering variables which may impact results- State at least 1

Maybe the data collection method can have questionable reliability or validity

References

Rohde, P., Beevers, C. G., Stice, E., & O’Neil, K. (2009). Major and minor depression in female adolescents: Onset, course, symptom presentation, and demographic associations. Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 65(12), 1339-1349. doi:10.1002/jclp.20629