Paper 2
Psychology 74
Research Proposal: Paper 2 is a research proposal to test a hypothesis of your choosing. Your method must be a simple experiment with a hypothesis that can be adequately tested using this method.
MY HYPOTHESIS: Students who eat a healthy breakfast before class will do better on their quizzes by having energy and paying more attention than those who don’t eat breakfast before class.
Your paper should be between 3- to 4-pages of text, not including a title page, the sample measures, the sample manipulation (i.e. the independent variable and control stimuli) and references.
Overview of the Paper
Through your paper you must:
a. Clearly define and explain why the proposed study is needed, citing existing research and statistics (~3/4 to 1 page).
b. Clearly state the hypothesis at the end of the introduction
c. Provide a research strategy, including why it is the most appropriate method to assess the hypothesis (~1 to 2 pages). You will also need to detail the measures (such as the questions you would include on a survey to measure the variables).
d. Provide an analytic strategy that states which statistical tests will be used and why they are appropriate for the data. (~1/2 page)
e. Provide a short discussion section that includes one paragraph of possible implications (~1/2 page).
f. Provide an Appendix A with your measures and an Appendix B of the manipulation (i.e. what will be seen or experienced by the control and experimental groups). Your survey (Appendix A) should take no more than one page. You can use as many pages as needed for your example of the manipulation (Appendix B).
Choosing a Hypothesis
Keep your hypothesis and design simple. You should NOT propose studies with extraneous variables, multiple waves of data collection (i.e. a study where data would need to be collected more than 1 to 2 times from each participant), or too many conditions. If your hypothesis cannot be tested with a t-test or a simple ANOVA, it is too complicated for this assignment. I strongly recommend developing a hypothesis that can be tested with an independent samples t-test.
MY HYPOTHESIS: Students who eat a healthy breakfast before class will do better on their quizzes by having energy and paying more attention than those who don’t eat breakfast before class.
The independent samples t-test is used to compare the mean scores of two groups. An example hypothesis for which this test is appropriate is as follows: It is hypothesized that students who are given study guides will have higher mean exam scores than those who are not given study guides.
A dependent samples t-test is used to compare the mean scores of one group which has been tested twice, once before the manipulation and once after the manipulation. An example hypothesis for which this test is appropriate is as follows: It is hypothesized that students will report lower mean stress after attending a tutoring session compared to before attending.
A simple ANOVA is used to compare the mean scores of three or more groups. This is basically a big independent samples t-test. An example hypothesis for which this test is appropriate is as follows: It is hypothesized that students who are given video study guides (group 1) or paper study guides (group 2) will have higher mean exam scores than those who are not given study guides (group 3).
Getting Started
In general, the following elements are required:
For Your Proposal: Section-Specific Direction
Title (16 words maximum).
You should include a clear and succinct title for your paper. This should appear on your cover page. A running header is not required for this paper.
Introduction (3/4-1 page):
Tell your reader about previous research that supports your current hypothesis or the need to test the current hypothesis. You have two main goals here:
1. Teach your reader about the hypothesis and 2. Clarify why you have come to this hypothesis. This section should succinctly provide well-documented evidence of a specific hypothesis and why it is important. Your reader should get a clear sense of why the hypothesis is being tested and what the meaningfulness and application of the results might be if the hypothesis is supported.
This section should end with a clear statement of the hypothesis. Your hypothesis must include only two variables. You will also propose how to analyze the hypothesis in the analytic strategy section later in the paper.
Many of the hypotheses we could develop are quite complex so refrain from getting off topic; instead, focus on only the two variables you choose for your hypothesis.
Use research findings to back up all statements of fact and to support your ideas.
The introduction should include a minimum of three peer-reviewed articles. Citations and references should follow the APA format. You will likely find that you want more than three citations so cite as much as is needed! The citation is the information that occurs in the text (e.g., Nielsen, et al., 2004) and reference refers to the publication information that is disclosed at the end of the document, e.g.,
Nielsen, A., Pinsof, W., Rampage, C., Solomon, A. H., & Goldstein, S. (2004). Marriage 101: An integrated academic and experiential undergraduate marriage education course. Family Relations, 53, 485-494.
Method (1-2 pages):
You will propose from whom and how you would collect data to test your proposed hypothesis. Tell your reader three key components of the method here: Participants, Measures, and Procedures. Remember, you are proposing what will be done and, therefore, you should use future tense for the sections of the method.
The Participants section should tell the reader the proposed sample size and any demographic variables you would want to know. If you want to include only women, state that. If you want to include students, state that. The goal is to tell who would be sought for the sample because this has implications for the generalizability of results and feasibility of the study. This section should be one succinct paragraph.
The Measures section should tell the reader how you would measure all variables for the study. Detail the questions you would ask to measure all variables; be sure to provide sample questions for the reader or refer to Appendix B. You are welcome to use a measure that was established in previous research-in fact, this is encouraged! If you propose using a measure created and reported in a previous study, you would state that in this section and provide an APA-formatted citation to the original study where that measure was published. However, your dependent variable should be simple enough for you to collect the data with just one or a few well-written questions. This section should be one to two succinct paragraphs.
The Procedures section should tell the reader how the research would be conducted. This is a critical section of your paper. State the form of data collection (e.g. online survey, paper survey, in-person interview, behavioral observation) and the steps needed for the manipulation and to gather the data. The steps involved should also be reported with enough detail that another researcher would know how to replicate your study. You must also state the type of design you are using (such as simple experiment, quasi-experiment, complex experiment etc.). Be sure your study is feasible by using a simple manipulation of the independent variable.
Analytic Strategy (~1/2 page):
The goal of this section is to tell your reader how you would analyze the data. State exactly which statistical procedure(s) would be used to test the hypothesis (e.g. bivariate correlation, independent samples t-test). For this paper you will not collect data and you will not report results. This section is a plan of how results will be analyzed if you conducted the proposed study. The analytic strategy is basically a plan for a results section.
Discussion (~1/2 page):
Tell your reader 1. What will be gained by testing this hypothesis and 2.The strengths of the research design.
References (as many pages as is needed; does not count toward total page count limits):
This should be an alphabetized, APA-formatted list of all references used. See an example in the instructions from paper 1.
Overall Format Issues
Style and usage affect the credibility of your plan. Here are some suggestions for making your writing clear and correct (California Department of Education, 2005).
