Final Project Instructions and Outline
Instructions: You will compose an APA-style research paper to communicate your final research project to a scholarly audience of experts in your topic’s field. Below, you will find a brief outline showing the required sections of the article and major information that must be contained within them. Refer to and use information and ideas your reported in previous assignments relating to your final projects. Refer to the APA-guide and sample papers for specifics on APA format.
Outline:
Title Page (page 1)
Include Name, Title, Affiliation
Abstract (page 2)
**Use the abstract writing guide and template to help write this section**
An overview sentence with background information highlighting the importance of your study’s topic.
State your hypothesis.
One or two sentences describing the participants, experimental design, and summarizing the procedure.
Summarize the results saying whether there were any significant effects.
One or two concluding sentences.
Introduction (page 3…)
(This will be a minimum of 3 pages and a maximum of 5 pages.)
Incorporate information from your Annotated Bibliography and Research Question and Hypothesis assignments to address the following:
Introduce the topic and explain why it is important to study from a psychological perspective.
How has previous research addressed this topic, and what has been found?
Example:
Jones et al. (2019) examined the effect of facial symmetry on attractiveness. They presented participants with illustrations of symmetrical vs. non-symmetrical faces and asked them to rate their attractiveness. THEY FOUND XXXXX.
Another study by Simon (2020) also looked at symmetry, but instead of illustrations, they presented participants with photographs. This study found XXXXXXX.
Based on previous research, what is your hypothesis?
Briefly describe your independent and dependent variables and their operational definitions.
Materials and Methods
Participants
Provide all relevant demographic information about participants. Describe your sampling strategy (convenience, random, etc).
Materials
Describe materials (tests, experimental stimuli, etc.) used in the study. Describe all materials in detail. Include and cite figures of relevant stimuli as appropriate.
Experimental Design
What was the experimental design? State and operationally define all independent and dependent variables.
Describe what comparisons will be made.
Procedure
Give a detailed description of the procedure such that another researcher reading your paper could replicate your experiment exactly as you conducted it. This will require you to describe different groups, any stimuli that participants were exposed to, etc.
How were the data analyzed? What statistical tests were used?
Results
Provide appropriate descriptive statistics.
Provide p-values for all analyses (see data analysis templates). Be sure to state whether results were significant.
Don’t forget to include Figures (with captions), and make sure all Figures are cited within the main body of the paper. Check with your APA formatting materials for more information
Discussion (1.5 – 3 pages)Provide a brief summary of your results.
How do your results fit in with previous research? Compare and contrast differences in methodology, data analysis, interpretations.
How does your work add to the body of knowledge in this field?
Discuss limitations of your study, how it could be improved in the future, and provide avenues for future research.
References
You will need a minimum of 5 references (e.g. the ones you reviewed in your annotated bibliography). Note that all references must be cited within the body of the paper.
Supplementary Materials
Include descriptions and examples of all materials used in the study. This can include stimuli, questions, survey items. Cite where appropriate.
