Research Proposal (30%) & Presentation of Proposal (10%):
Each student will also be responsible for designing a research proposal in accordance with APA style. You will formulate a research question and design a research study to test your idea (note – you don’t actually do the study in this class though). The proposal must include all elements listed below. The final weeks of class will be set aside for each student to present their proposal to the class. Your paper will be due APRIL 25 at the beginning of class. The final paper is worth 30% of your final grade, while the presentation will constitute 10% of your final grade. Late papers will result in a 10% deduction (out of the total 30%) for each day it is late (any time after the beginning of class means it is late). Failure to hand in a proposal will result in an automatic course failure. Also, you MUST BE PRESENT for all proposal presentations. Unexcused absence from any will lead to a zero on your proposal and presentation.
FORMAT:
Title Page:
Follow APA format to give details about the title, author, affiliation, date, etc.
Introduction:
The first step will be to do some reading of research in the field to find out about your topic and write a brief APA style introduction to the topic (defining the problem and key constructs/variables), a summation of previous research and a critical evaluation of existing theory. This will culminate in a hypothesis or research question on which your research proposal will be based. You will be evaluated on your ability to synthesize current research and clearly communicate how this leads to your hypothesis.
Methodology:
The next step will be to decide on the method you would use to investigate this research question. Again, you will not actually be performing this research…it is simply a proposal. The methodology will include all APA components (participants, apparatus/materials, and procedure). It must be ethical and conceivable to conduct. You will be evaluated on quality of your ideas (simple replications of existing studies will result in poorer grades), your ability to incorporate conceptual issues into your research, foresee possible biases and confounds, and to communicate your method in a manner that would allow anyone to pick up your proposal and replicate your method.
Results:
While you will not be expected to show exact numbers, you should know the type of statistics that would be used to test your data and your hypothesis. You will be evaluated on your ability to anticipate the correct statistical techniques and issues that would be required by your specific design (including post hocs, strength of effect etc. if necessary). Tables/figure etc. should be in APA format as well.
Discussion:
You should now be able to interpret what you would have found. This should link back to your classic articles and your hypotheses/predictions. You also need to provide “value added” information to tell me you have really thought about the potential outcome. What would be the implications of your study? What are the shortcomings? What could be done in the future?
References:
You will be required to present an APA style reference section for all citations in your paper.
