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Final research report (winter 2023) – PSY4130D (40%)
Your final research report must be on a theme that is pertinent to the History of psychology, covering a historical period of at least 40 years. This assignment is either individual or in a team of 3 students maximum.
First, it is important that you choose a research question that has an historical outlook relevant to psychology. However, your final research report cannot be on the same topic that you already used for your educational video or scientific poster. You need to contact me as soon as possible to confirm the pertinence of your question. I will also be able to help you build (or improve) your research question, as well as to suggest a research method.
The final report needs to be written in APA style (American Psychological Association) for a manuscript. The maximum length is 5 pages double-spaced (excluding title page, abstract, references, tables, and figures). When marking, we stop reading after 5 pages of text. It has to be written in Times New Roman 12 in a Word document submitted on Brightspace. To know how to prepare a manuscript in APA style, consult this link from Purdue University:https:
owl.purdue.edu/owl
esearch_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html
Your final research report must be a small empirical study (i.e., with a method and results). Your final report must have 6 sections: (1) abstract, (2) introduction, (3) method, (4) results, (5) discussion/conclusion, and (6) list of references. Tables and Figures should be inserted after the list of references (not in the text). The method must be either quantitative (numbers), qualitative (themes), or a mix of both. You have to select one of the following mandatory options:
Option A : Analyze publication trends on PsycINFO (e.g., publications on your theme in PsycINFO from 1900 to 2019 would be large enough of a sample)
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Option B: Analyze the abstracts of scientific journals in psychology (N=90 abstracts minimum)
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Option C: Analyze articles of professional newspapers (e.g., New York Times) when they talk about psychology (N=90 newspaper articles minimum)
You must collect a sample with your option. Then, you must analyze the content. You need a sample of at least 90 observations (N=90 minimum). However, you can have a larger sample if you want. Here is a list of suggested themes (but you can decide what will be your own theme):
For option A (PsycINFO) :
· Evolution for the number of publications on a given theme of interest to you (e.g., intelligence, personality, mental disorders)
· Evolution of delays in publication in major scientific journals in psychology
· Evolution of the titles of articles in major scientific journals in psychology
For option B (abstracts) :
· Evolution of themes in articles of major journals in psychology (e.g., Psychological Bulletin, American Psychologist)
· Evolution of the scientific quality of abstracts in major journals in psychology
For option C (newspaper articles):
· How is psychology portrayed in newspapers (e.g., New York Times)?
· What is the quality of the journalistic coverage of psychology?
If you want, you are welcome to select a topic relevant to equity, diversity, and inclusion. For example, you can have an historical perspective on psychology and diversity (e.g., people of color, indigenous people, ethnocultural minority groups, persons with disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities).
It’s important to remember that for your final research report, you are not allowed (i.e., it is strictly fo
idden) to do research with human participants or animals.
Evaluation criteria
The 5 following criteria will be used for marking. Hence, before submitting your final research report, ask yourself how much your work is answering each criterion. The abstract is a small paragraph that summarizes the study (all sections), and it goes at the beginning, on a separate page, just before the introduction. But, here it is marked under criterion 1 (introduction).
You need 20 references minimum, all of which have to be scientific articles or university books.
(1) To which extent your introduction section is good?
· Is your abstract (120 words max.) clear and on a separate page before the introduction? 1pt
· How are you justifying the historical pertinence of your study (why it matters)? 2.75pts
· Are you situating your study among other relevant studies in the scientific literature? 4.5pts
· Is your historical research question clear? 1pt
(2) To which extent your method section is good?
· How does your historiography (method) answers the research question? 1pt
· What is your sample and what is your procedure? 4pts
· Explain what are your quantitative or qualitative analyses? 1pt
(3) To which extent your results section is good?
· To which extent your results are precise, complete, and accurate (without e
ors)? 4pts
· To which extent is the presentation of results clear? 1pt
(4) To which extent your discussion/conclusion section is good?
- To which extent are you answering the research question? 1pt
- Are you suggesting pertinent, original, and alternative interpretations? 5pts
- Are you comparing your findings with findings from prior studies in the scientific literature? 4pts
- Are you explaining the methodological strengths and limitations of your study? 1.5pts
(5) To which extent your manuscript’s structure, presentation, and documentation are good?
- Quality of sentences (short and we don’t have to read them twice to understand) .75pt
- Ideas and notions are not explained in haste (e.g., explain things clearly) 1pt
- Definitions and examples are provided 1.5pts
- Scientific style (e.g., objective, no bias in language) .25pt
- Manuscript in APA style (i.e., 6 sections, written and organized in APA style) .25pt
- Throughout the final report, are references sufficiently supporting claims and notions? 4.5pts
*Do not cite or use as a reference my course notes or what I say in my video lectures (e.g., “Miranda, 2023”) or else you will automatically lose 2 points.