For Individuals:
Your proposal should include the following elements: (1) Title page, (2) Introduction, (3) Method, (4) References, and (5) Materials. See below for more detailed information regarding each element.
(1) The Title Page should include Running Head (with a page number), Title, your Name (as the Author name), and your Affiliation (in this case, it is University of California, Irvine). See “Professional Title Page” at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page (Links to an external site.). Also write “Working Independently” underneath your name for our reference.
(2) The Introduction section should include the following:
Statement about the general purpose of your study (e.g., What are you trying to investigate?)
Descriiption of the general significance of your study (e.g., Why is your research question important in general?)
Summary of the relevant literature. Write a brief annotation (~200 words max) for each article/study you have found. Note that your annotations should not include direct quotes or paraphrases.
Statement of your tentative hypothesis (e.g., What do you expect to find as a result of this study?)
Note that you need to incorporate all of the above but not in a “bullet-point” format. Your Introduction should flow as a text with proper paragraphs as needed.
(3) The Method section is where you describe how you will test your hypothesis in detail. It typically consists of several sub-sections, each of them having their own heading. Your Methods section should include the following sub-sections:
Participants: Who are your participants going to be? Explain (a) where you think your sample of participants will be drawn from, (b) expected demographics of your sample (such as age range, gender distribution, education level), (c) how many participants you will have in your study. Note that the total number of participants that you will need for your study is a minimum of 40 (if your strategy is Experiment and/or Quasi-Experimental, minimum 20 in each condition).
Design: What is your research strategy (e.g., Correlational, Experimental, or Non-Experimental/Quasi-Experimental?). If Experimental, Between- or Within-Subjects Design? What are your variables? If Experimental, indicate the Independent Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV). If Non-Experimental or Quasi-Experimental, indicate the grouping variable and the outcome variable. For all strategies, indicate whether each variable is continuous or categorical; if continuous, indicate the range of possible answers, and if categorical, list all the possible categories.
Materials: This is where you briefly describe the measures, or scales, or questionnaires that you are going to use in the study. You will also provide the full materials as a part of your proposal (see below Materials and Step 5)
Procedure: Describe how you will collect data step by step. Are you going to administer the measures individually or to a group? Are you going to administer the measures in person or online? If the latter, via phone or email or social media etc.) If the former, paper & pen or computerized? Describe what the researcher and the participants will do during the administration (including consenting and debriefing on the researcher side).
Proposed analysis: Describe what descriiptive statistical analysis you are planning on using (i.e., means, correlations, frequencies and/or percentages).
(4) The References section includes a list of all of the references you cited in your proposal. Note that you need to have at least 3 empirical sources.
(5) The Materials section (which will later serve as an Appendix) consists of all the materials you use to collect data. If your study is conducted online, make sure to include a link to your survey that can be accessed by us; otherwise include a copy of your questionnaire/whatever your data collection instrument is (including the consent form and debriefing statements).
The entire proposal should be written in accordance with the APA format and no longer than 7 pages altogether (excluding Materials section).
Check the Grading Rubric to make sure that you include everything required in your proposal.
After reading the Ethics chapter and hearing the Ethics lecture, add a consent statement and a debriefing statement to your materials (Materials section), and update your procedures section to explain when and how you will do the consenting and debriefing.
