In PSY-452: Experimental Psychology in Topic 8 you completed the Research Report assignment. In this course you will revise components from the PSY-452 assignment and use those revised components to create a research proposal at the end of this course. You should treat this assignment as a potential portfolio piece or writing sample for future grad school applications or job interview.
For this assignment, revise the Methods from the Research Report in PSY-452. You are required to keep the following sections: participants, materials/instruments/apparatuses, procedures, and design. As you make revisions to the Methods make sure to include the following information in each section:
- Introduction paragraph: Describe the need for additional research on your topic, which you found and pointed to at the end of the literature review. State the purpose of your study in a problem statement or hypothesis. Finally, write a thesis statement which describes what the purpose of this section of the paper is: to present the methods including participants, materials, procedures, and design, that will be used to conduct the study.
- Participants: In this section, you are only to focus on presenting the demographic of those who can participate in your study. You will also present any excluding factors that are not implied when stating who can participate. Be specific about any factors that would be included in the study (i.e. age, gender, race/ethnicity, SES, education level, etc.). Include how many participants you will need to conduct the study. Your sample size should be based upon how you plan to generalize the results. In other words, to whom would the results be applied?
- Materials/Instruments/Apparatuses: List all materials you will need to conduct your study. Do not discuss how they will be used, just state what you need (i.e. tables, chairs, a room, pencils, surveys, a computer to create surveys, send them out and store the data, etc.)
- Procedures: Make sure this section is written in detail. You will begin with providing informed consent and write detailed directions that you will follow (in paragraph format) to conduct this study. It should be so clearly written that another researcher could replicate your study.
- Design: Describe the design of your study (descriptive, correlational, qualitative, quantitative and/or experimental). Also, describe how participants are assigned to groups if applicable (i.e. within/between).
- Conclusion paragraph: Summarize the main points from the whole research proposal.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
