The Personal Financial Planning Intervention Research Proposal Project (PFPIRPP) is a
robust project and cumulative measure of your mastery of the content of this course.
For this project, you are being asked to think of a real or hypothetical client(s), select or design a
financial planning intervention that aims to meet their needs/goals, and propose a research study
that will evaluate the impact of that intervention on the client outcome variable. You will need to
observe and measure the participant(s)’s behavior, so be sure you choose an observable behavior
that is related to the client(s)’s goals/needs. You will provide the types of information found in
quality intervention research reports, but the order will follow a client-centered approach.
Write a proposal that includes the following information.
a brief description of the participant(s) (use fictitious name, please) whose behavior
you are attempting to impact with your intervention. Include information about
client’s stated goals/needs, and a plan for informed consent.
the target behavior that you are attempting to change in the participant using proper
observable and measurable terminology
a short justification and rationale for choosing the specific behavior to be changed in
the participant (i.e., why you deemed it worthy of being changed)
a review of the empirical literature on the intervention and/or client need/goal (max 3
pages)
a summary of the related theory, or theory of change (max 1 page)
the behavior measurement or recording system (e.g., event or frequency recording,
duration recording, interval recording, time sampling, etc.) that you are using to
quantify the target behavior to be changed
description or example of the interobserver agreement measurement
clear description of personal financial planning intervention that you are planning to
use to change the participant’s target behavior
a description or example of the implementation fidelity measurement for the
intervention.
a research design that is appropriate for the target behavior and intervention and states plan for baseline (control) and intervention phase(s) that reflects best practices.
Include a graph that is appropriately labeled.
Start thinking about your client’s needs and related target behavior as soon as possible. Be
prepared with 3 options. Your instructor will help you select the one that is best suited for this
project.
When thinking about the intervention, feel free to draw upon the research, as well as other
sources. Many practices employed within personal financial planning are deemed “best
practices” but many, if not most, lack empirical support. This is an opportunity for you to
contribute the empirical basis of the field. Feel free to consider practices you’ve heard about, or
read about in informal sources. HOWEVER, clearly identify these practices as not yet
empirically proven.
The paper format to use is the following:
a. Introduction section—
a. Generally introduce the (real or hypothetical – and clearly anonymous) client and
include their key characteristics, and stated goals/needs.
Plan for informed consent
Research question
Theory summary or theory of change
Review and critique of extant empirical literature on the target behavior or
intervention.
Method section—
describe the participant; include current performance or behavioral levels
describe the setting in which the intention will occur
define the target behavior that you chose to change using observable and
measurable terms;
select and describe the recording or measurement system you will use;
describe your interobserver agreement measurement
describe the single case research method you selected, and why it is appropriate
for this study, include rules for phase changes a piori
describe your intervention in replicable terms
describe your implementation fidelity measurement
describe your data analysis approach
Result section—
a. include an anticipated graph that illustrates your understanding of the conventions
associated with SCR, as well as phase change rules. Feel free to provide
hypothetical data to help illustrate your understanding. Be sure to clearly mark
data as fictional.
d. General issues to keep in mind
● the quality of your writing will be judged along with your use of APA writing
style and, of course,
● keep the following in mind— “the data were” is the correct form rather than
“the data was” because datum is the singular form of the word data
● make sure to find and review other studies that are closely related to your
study or points will be deducted (in other words, don’t review it unless it is in
the “ballpark” of what your project is all about) if no empirical studies have
been conducted closely related to your study, describe your process for
attempting to locate such studies and describe the lack of empirical evidence
available.
● this is a graduate level course, so your report should be a graduate level
quality production (i.e., at a higher level of discourse than one at the
undergraduate level)
● behavioral interventions must be observable and measurable, so don’t use an
“intervention” that isn’t observable or measurable
● if you do not follow the suggested format instructions above, the score you
receive on your paper will reflect the deficiencies.
Student includes a graphical
display of the outcome variables
and includes the following
components: Y-axis label, X-axis
label, baseline and intervention
phase(s) labeled, real or
hypothetical data-points, other
relevant information (e.g., White’s
split middle line)
