PSY105 Assignment PSY105 version 1.docx
PSY105, Fall 2022
Assignment Guideline
Study Proposal Assignment (25% of your final grade)
Due Date: Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, 5:00PM
This assignment is designed for students to ca
y out an analysis of the selected topic and make
an explicatory judgment relevant for psychological research.
All students are expected to complete this assignment independently. In this assignment,
students will select one of two topics, ca
y out an analysis of the selected topic and the
eadings assigned for the topic, and propose a novel experimental study to examine a key
question in psychological science.
The tasks are the following:
a) select one of two topics,
) find and summarize relevant pre-existing literature on your chosen topic,
c) identify a fairly original (i.e., previously unexamined) research question, and
d) design a novel experimental study that has the potential to advance the field with a
elatively new discovery.
No research question can be perfectly original and novel, but students are expected to make an
effort to identify a fairly original research focus in your proposed study. The study will of course
e hypothetical, but students are asked to design it in a way that is ethical and scientifically
justifiable.
The assignment will be evaluated for its quality of content and originality of ideas, as well as the
clarity of organization, logic, syntax, and grammar of student writing.
The assignment will span a total of 1200 to 1800 words in length, following the American
Psychological Association’s citation and style guide (7th edition). It should be double-spaced, in
twelve-point font, with a minimum of one inch margins. It should include a title page with the
student's name, student number, date, course number, and the word count of your paper. Title
page does not count toward the word count.
The assignment is due by Thursday, Oct. 27, 5:00PM (5% late-penalty deduction per day) and
should be submitted electronically via D2L Brightspace. Note that Turnitin will be used fo
plagiarism detection. Before the due date, be sure to review the Turnitin report after submission
and revise and resubmit if there are concerns for poor paraphrasing and/or plagiarism.
Any assignment submitted that failed to meet these requirements will NOT be graded, until
e-submitted with late penalty (5% deduction per day).
Page 1 of 3
TOPIC #1 - Moral Judgment and Behaviors
Founded in 2003, Theranos was a blood testing company based in California that raised more than
US$900 million from investors because of many claims and promises made by Elizabeth Holmes,
Ramesh Balwani, and their biotech startup company about a revolutionary new technology. With evidence
gathered from whistleblowers, investigative journalism by John Ca
eyrou, reports from the Securities and
Exchange Commission, and the US Department of Justice, claims made by Theranos were found to be
misrepresented and baseless.
In the closing argument for Holme’s trial on fraud charges, the prosecutors said that “Elizabeth Holmes
chose fraud over business failure.” (US Department of Justice, XXXXXXXXXXIt was implied that a deliberate
choice was made by Holmes and Balwani to engage in a morally wrong behavior (‘defrauding investors
and patients’), instead of engaging in a morally right behavior (‘transparency about problems with new
technology’) and inevitably facing undesired consequences (‘business failure’). Both Holmes and Ramesh
were found guilty of fraud. The behaviors of Holmes and Ramesh are in stark contrast to the orthopedic
ehabilitation work Alberto Cairo was/is doing in Afghanistan, helping victims of war in their rehabilitation
(‘morally right behavior’), even though his physical/personal safety was constantly in danger (‘undesired,
ut inevitable consequences’).
Consider what factors (both internal or external to the individual) may influence the extent to which a
person is motivated to engage in a morally right behavior, even when having to face undesired, but
inevitable, consequences. I would like you to propose an experimental research study that tests out
whether one key factor that you have chosen influences how people behave morally in a social situation.
TOPIC #2 - Binge Drinking among College/University Students
Binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking, refers to having 4 or more (5 or more for males) drinks on one
occasion. Heavy episodic drinking has been associated with blacking out, impaired driving, injury,
assaults and both short-term and long-term negative health conditions. The data presented in 2021 by the
Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction (CCAC) showed that between 2012 and 2017, about
25% of patients admitted to ER after heavy episodic drinking were triaged with code 1 or 2, meaning thei
lives were in danger. People who engage in heavy episodic drinking may be diagnosed with substance
use disorder (APA, 2013), when they face significant impairment and co
esponding challenges in
important social, occupational, and/or recreational activities due to recu
ent and problematic use of
alcohol.
Despite many negative consequences, heavy episodic drinking is often not recognized as a significant
problem among college students. According to Statistics Canada, in 2021, the reporting of occasional
heavy drinking was the highest among people who fell in the age group of 18 to 34 years old. There
seems to be a pervasive drinking culture on college and university campuses, with explicit or implicit pee
pressure and biased norms about heavy episodic drinking.
Consider what factors (both internal or external to the individual) may influence the extent to which a
person between the ages of 18 to 34 is motivated to drink heavily episodically. I would like you to propose
an experimental research study that uses an innovative group-based psychological intervention (of
your own ideas), specifically aimed to make college/university students less prone to heavy episodic
drinking.
Page 2 of 3
Guidelines
● In this assignment, your task is to design and propose an experimental study. In contrast
to co
elational or observational research, experimental research involves a)
experimental manipulation of the independent variable, and b) measuring the effect of
experimental manipulation on the dependent variable.
● Your paper should be between XXXXXXXXXXwords. The word count includes the entire
paper, MINUS title page and references. A penalty of 10% will be assigned to a pape
that is less than 1200 words (not counting References), and words over the 1800 words
limit will not be read or marked. Be sure to include the word count on the Title page of
your paper. Use, at minimum, five scientific references (e.g., published, peer-reviewed
journal article) in your Background section.
● You are expected to work on this assignment independently. Present your own work.
Additionally, you cannot use written work you yourself did in another course.
● Use the following five headings in your paper: Background, Objective, and Rationale
[Estimated word count: XXXXXXXXXX], Methods [Estimated word count: XXXXXXXXXX], Expected
Findings [Estimated word count: XXXXXXXXXX], Limitations and Future Directions
[Estimated word count: XXXXXXXXXX], Reflection on your assignment [Estimated word count:
~100]. ***See Grading Ru
ic for more detailed information.
Grading Ru
ic
The assignment will be graded according to each of the six sections:
● Background, Objective, and Rationale (14 points)
● Methods (10 points)
● Expected Findings (4 points)
● Limitations and Future Directions (4 points)
● Reflection (3 points)
● Quality of Writing (12 points) and APA Formats (3 points)
Due Date and Submission
● The assignment will be due on October 27 at 5pm. You will be submitting it on D2L and
the paper will be reviewed by plagiarism detection software (Turnitin) for textual
similarity. When you submit your paper, Turnitin will show you a similarity score, which
captures its estimate of how much overlap there is between your work and other text in
its database. If your similarity report and score suggest concerns, I strongly
ecommend you make the necessary edits to your paper and re- submit you
paper on D2L in order to avoid plagiarism. You can submit it as many times as you
wish before the due date. The paper that is uploaded by the due date will be considered
to be your final submission.
Have fun with the assignment! Questions? Submit them via the FAQ document (link on D2L).
Page 3 of 3
Copy of Assignment support for Students
Assignment Resources
This document contains assignment Resources, which are compiled together by the professor.
Your graduate TAs may add to it during the next few weeks. We hope you find them helpful.
Table of Contents
Academic Writing (General)
How to Write the Introduction
Methods (Experimental Design)
Expected Findings/Limitations/Future Directions
Reflection
Li
ary Workshops
Office Hours for the next two weeks: (see Office Hours schedule on D2L)
Oct 10
Stat. Holiday
Oct 11
11:30 Kesaan
(Zoom)
Oct 12
12:00 Emma
(Zoom)
Oct 13 Oct 14
Oct 17 Oct 18
11:00 Mica
SBB 109
Oct 19 Oct 20
11:00 Mica
SBB 109
Oct 21
Oct 24
12:30-2:00
Jessica
(Zoom)
Oct 25 Oct 26 Oct 27
Assignment
Due (5pm)
Oct 28
*I (Jessica) am away for the week of Oct 17. I will be responding to emails (up to 48 hours for a
esponse).
*It helps to
ing a specific question to office hours, so that you (student) have a goal in mind.
Assignment Resources, PSY105 F22.Do not repost, redistribute or edit this work without direct,
written permission from the professor.
https:
yersonhipaa.zoom.us/j/ XXXXXXXXXX?pwd=NDJyOUpoMDNxaFRBVzQzT00yMlNWUT09
https:
yerson.zoom.us/j/ XXXXXXXXXX
https:
yerson.zoom.us/j/ XXXXXXXXXX?pwd=cmZ6WmozcitiVmNoNWhLZTRhSDR4dz09
Assignment Resources
Academic Writing (General)
Topics Resources
General TMU Li
ary Support
https:
li
ary.torontomu.ca/guides
APA Style writing Purdue University Online Writing La
https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
TMU Li
ary’s Psychology Research Guides
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/psychology
Paraphrasing and
Citations
Citations Guide
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/c.php?g=731034&p=5249074
Why Cite and How to Avoid Plagiarism
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/Research/whycite
Image Source: TMU’s Research Help Guide (TMU Li
ary, 2022).
Paraphrasing How to Paraphrase
TMU’s Online Resources:
https:
www.torontomu.ca/student-life-and-learning/learning-support
es
ources
Writing a Paragraph Writing Paragraphs (Structure of a Paragraph)
https:
csmn.libguides.com/c.php?g=889348&p=6393295#:~:text=Tra
nsition%20%26%20Link%20Words-,Structure%20of%20a%20Paragra
ph,paragraph%2C%20called%20the%20topic%20sentence.
Assignment Resources, PSY105 F22.Do not repost, redistribute or edit this work without direct,
written permission from the professor.
https:
docs.google.com/document/d/1x-CPZdOa6GlgtVXihKhbvlzqVvYz1rvJkaUqQGcMRzQ/edit
https:
li
ary.torontomu.ca/guides
https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/psychology
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/c.php?g=731034&p=5249074
https:
learn.li
ary.torontomu.ca/Research/whycite
https:
www.torontomu.ca/student-life-and-learning/learning-support
esources
https:
www.torontomu.ca/student-life-and-learning/learning-support
esources
https:
csmn.libguides.com/c.php?g=889348&p=6393295#:~:text=Transition%20%26%20Link%20Words-,Structure%20of%20a%20Paragraph,paragraph%2C%20called%20the%20topic%20sentence
https:
csmn.libguides.com/c.php?g=889348&p=6393295#:~:text=Transition%20%26%20Link%20Words-,Structure%20of%20a%20Paragraph,paragraph%2C%20called%20the%20topic%20sentence
https:
csmn.libguides.com/c.php?g=889348&p=6393295#:~:text=Transition%20%26%20Link%20Words-,Structure%20of%20a%20Paragraph,paragraph%2C%20called%20the%20topic%20sentence
Assignment Resources
How to Write the Introduction
“What made you interested in this topic? Why is this topic important? What is the
history
ackground on this topic? What are the related theories and findings? What is you
hypothesis?
In the introduction, you provide your reader with information about what question you plan to
tackle) and how that question relates to other work in the field. You should focus on explaining
why the question is important, summarizing the history of the question, and describing previous
theories and data that are relevant to the study you will describe. Finally, you should present the
hypothesis that you will test in your study.” (Olson & Meyersburg, 2008).
Source: https:
hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files
g_psychology.pdf
Topics Resources
Research question
and hypothesis
Sage Research Methods
https:
methods-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/methods-map
APA Thesaurus
https:
psycnet-apa-org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/thesaurus
Rationale For this Assignment, you are asked to