Designing Your Research Proposal
I suggest first considering an area of psychology that interests you. Then read some articles in that area. You can track down articles by using the li
ary link from the ucumberlands page. I encourage you to search PsyArticles and PsycInfo. As you read, pay particular attention to unanswered questions and limitations of previous research (see the Discussion section) on the topic. Doing so could provide good leads for your proposed research.
After deciding on a topic, begin the Introduction with a thesis statement. This statement will be a sentence or short paragraph that introduces the variables or concepts of interest and provides the rationale for the proposed study. A thesis statement could look something like this:
The present study investigates further factors involved in the fear of rodents. A variety of mental health professionals have noted the demand for improved treatments for patients suffering from this phobia. However, relatively little attention has been directed toward identifying variables relevant to the prevention of the phobia. The present study will extend this line of research.
After developing your thesis statement overview prior studies related to the topic. A minimum of 5 scholarly articles will need to be reviewed and presented. Then, in the last paragraph of the introduction, overview your proposed study and end with a hypothesis statement linked to previous research on the topic. Here is an example:
Based on previous research, it is evident that rodent phobia exists. However, little is known regarding which techniques are effective in preventing the development of the phobia. Smith and Jones XXXXXXXXXXhave proposed that biofeedback may be an effective strategy, but the technique has not been tested. Therefore, the present study will investigate the effectiveness of a biofeedback intervention. It is hypothesized that a randomly selected group of individuals taught to use biofeedback will exhibit less fear of rodents than a control group.
Ethical Considerations
Is your study ethical? Do not design a study that would compromise your own safety or the safety of others in any way (e.g., collecting data in an unsafe location or at an unsafe time of day).
Reminders
· The assignment is to write a research PROPOSAL; not a research paper.
· Given that this is a proposal, all content should be written in future tense, except for coverage of prior studies that relate to your hypothesis. The overview of these studies should be written in past tense.
· You do not need to collect or analyze any data for the proposal.
Grade Requirements and Ru
ic (100 points possible)
Grading Requirements
TITLE PAGE (5 points)
· In proper APA (7th Edition) format
ABSTRACT (10 points)
· Provides concise overview of entire proposal and APA formatting co
ect
INTRODUCTION (25 points)
· Topic is related to psychology
· Purpose of study is provided
· Critical analysis of previous research is evident
· A minimum of five (5) sources used
· Research question/hypotheses clearly stated and linked to previous research
· Written in proper APA format
METHOD (25 points)
· Participants adequately described (any special demographics such as age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
· Materials clearly identified
· Details of the specific design of the study (e.g., co
elational, experimental, etc.) and how the variables would be measured
· Procedures detailed enough to allow replication
· Two (2) issues related to internal validity discussed
ANALYTICAL STRATEGY/STATISTICAL ANALYSIS (15 points)
· Clear statements regarding how data would be analyzed
REFERENCES (10 points)
· All references cited in INTRODUCTION appear in references section
· In proper APA format
OVERALL (10 points)
· Informed consent form included as an appendix at the end of the proposal (see textbook page 47 for template to follow)
· Writing mechanics including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure
· Clarity of proposal (does is make sense?)
· Creativity of ideas and design
Microsoft Word - research proposal APA style.doc
Running head: 50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 1
Title of Paper (up to 12 words)
Your Name, Including Middle Initial
School
50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 2
Abstract
A concise summary of each section of your paper, using up to 250 words. Note that you do not
indent the first line.
50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 3
Title of Paper
Your first paragraph (or two) should be an introduction to the
oad topic of your paper.
Many people write the introduction after writing the rest of the paper! Information in your
introduction should provide a foundation for the hypotheses of your experiment. In your
introduction, your goal is to convince readers that your research topic is (a) interesting and (b)
important. You may choose to begin your paper with a story, quotation, or relevant statistics
about your topic. You can think of your paper as a story about your dependent variable.
You generally will present
oad background information about the topic in the first
paragraph of so. You will include at least two sections in the body of your paper. You will
summarize relevant information from prior research studies in the first section, which we refer to
as the “literature review” portion of a paper. You will present your detailed research proposal in
the second section (details are provided below). Some overall formatting rules to keep in mind
are: (a) use Times New Roman font, size 12; and (b) double-space the entire paper.
Information about the Literature-review Section
Content. In the first section of your paper, you should provide a literature review of prior
esearch and theory that relates to your experiment. The information you present should be from
diverse sources (e.g., journal articles, book chapters, web sites). Make sure it is clear to the
eader how information is related to your experimental hypotheses or procedure. So, if you are
using their method, then talk about their method; if they found similar results, talk about their
esults; if they operationally defined their DV like you want to, then talk about that, etc. To make
this section of your paper effective, you should explicitly relate information from various sources
to each other and to your proposed research. After you discuss past research, you should make it
50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 4
clear how your study is the next logical one, that your study improves upon past studies, that
your study fills obvious holes left by the others.
Citation of sources. You should cite references throughout the body of your paper.
There are two ways to cite a source. The authors can be listed in the sentence, with the year in
parentheses: “The Davis XXXXXXXXXXweb site presents information about American Psychological
Association (APA) style rules.” Alternatively, the citation can be entirely in parentheses: “The
web site presents information about American Psychological Association (APA) style rules
(Davis, 2001).” These are the only two acceptable ways to cite sources in APA style. When
citing a journal article, you should never include the title of the paper or the first names or initials
of the authors.
There are additional important rules when sources have more than one author. When
listing multiple authors in the text, write out the word “and”: “Brown and Milstead (1968)
examined . .” When listing multiple authors in parentheses, use the symbol “&” rather than the
word “and”: “The research findings were consistent with hypotheses (Brown & Milstead,
1968).” Another important rule applies to sources with three or more authors. The first time you
cite the article, list all three authors (e.g., Green, Campbell, & Finkel, 2001); any subsequent
time you cite the article, list the first author followed by the words “et al.” (e.g., Green et al.,
2001).
Citation rules become even more complex when it comes to citing web sites. Web sites
often do not have authors or dates listed. If a web site has no author listed, use the first few
words of the title in your citation: “APA style rules have changed dramatically (“APA Guide,”
1999).” If the web site has no date listed, use the letters “n.d.” in place of the year: “APA style
ules have changed dramatically (APA Guide, n.d.).”
50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 5
Almost all of the information in the literature-review portion of your paper will be from
outside sources; it will be necessary to cite at least one source in each paragraph. (The exception
to this rule would be if you are writing a “short” research proposal and have been told by your
instructor that outside sources are not required.) You should be selective in the information you
choose to include from each source. Avoid quoting information from an article; it is rarely
necessary and is likely to distu
the flow of your paper. Also, avoid including information from
a source that is not relevant to your experiment; it is unnecessary to completely summarize all
articles that you cite. You may write only one sentence about one article, but an entire paragraph
about another, more relevant article. It is possible that several sources provide similar
information. If this is the case, then summarize the information and cite multiple sources at once:
Research suggests there is a relationship between X and Y (Davis, 2001; Davis & Rusbult, 2001;
Green et al., XXXXXXXXXXNote the format of this multiple-article citation: articles are in alphabetical
order and are separated by semicolons.
Proposed Method
In the second section of your paper, you should provide details about your proposed
experiment. It would be appropriate to label this section of your paper “Proposed Research” or
“Method”, using the level of heading that was used for the title of the paper. It is a good idea to
highlight the way in which your experiment will extend past research; for example, you could
include a one sentence statement claiming that past research has focused on _____, but left out
_____. The first paragraph or two of this section should include your hypotheses and your
easoning (theory). The next paragraphs should present information about your research method.
It is likely that you will use subsections such as the ones that I include below.
50 CHARACTER VERSION OF TITLE IN CAPS 6
Participants
You should include information about who the participants will be in your experiment.
How many participants will be in your study? Summarize whether you