Psychology 201: Basic Research Methods Dr. John A. Johnson

Paper #3 Research proposal -- Assignment sheet Spring 2002

The third and final paper assigned in this course is a research proposal. For this assignment, you must choose a topic, do some background research, develop one or more hypotheses, and design a study to test those hypotheses. The paper should have the format of an experimental writeup in APA style, but no actual data collection is required.

The research proposal MUST be emailed to me by Monday, April 29 or your course grade will not be turned in on time! If you want to turn in a hard copy rather than emailing me an electric copy, you must hand in your paper to me by 3:30 P.M. on Friday, April 26.

Limitations

The research proposal must meet the following criteria:

1. The topic may concern anything in psychology that uses human subjects.

2. The research design can be a descriptive study, a correlational study, or a true experiment.

 3. The proposed experiment must be ethical. 4. At least three scientific references must be cited as background in the Introduction. If you are in doubt about whether your ideas are appropriate, check with your instructor before completing the paper.

What to turn in

The proposal should follow the APA format, including Abstract, Introduction, and Method. The Results and Discussion sections may be quite short, and may be combined into a single section if you prefer. The Results and Discussion section should show what the results would be if the hypotheses were supported, briefly describe the relevant comparisons (e.g., compare group A and B), and briefly describe the implications of the expected results. The criteria for what to include in the other sections are the same as for a regular research writeup. Note that this includes a reference section in APA format.

The entire proposal should be roughly 6-10 pages in length, and must be typed.
 
 
 
  

Psychology 201: Basic Research Methods          Dr. John A. Johnson
Paper #3 Evaluation and comment sheet           Spring 2002

NAME ________________________________________

TITLE __________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
 
Title (10)                                              _________

Abstract (10)                                           _________

Introduction (60)                                       _________

        Problem statement (20)  _______

        Background (20)         _______

        Hypothesis (20)         _______

Method (60)                                             _________

        Subjects (10)           _______

        Materials (10)          _______

        Design (20)             _______

        Procedure (20)          _______

Results & Discussion (30)                               _________

        Expected results (10)   _______

        Interpretation (20)     _______

References (10)                                         _________

Writing (20)                                            _________

TOTAL (200) _________

COMMENTS: