Description
Using research from journals and other authoritative sources, make a list of possible research questions and hypotheses. For each of these research questions, 1) explain the importance for asking these questions and 2) explain what research design, measurement, and/or data analysis problems were mentioned. This analysis will be included in the Introduction section of your proposal. Be sure you look at the actual studies, so you gain a detailed understanding of exactly what was done and why certain parts of the research process were problematic.
designing a research project that avoids the issues raised in the studies you found. Begin by reviewing the APA guidelines for writing a research proposal. Your proposal will have seven parts: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Expected Results, Concluding Statement, References (at least 10 articles). Because this project also is an opportunity to show what you have learned about research methods in this course, you’ll also be asked to annotate, i.e., provide an explanation and rationale for three of these sections – Introduction, Method, and Expected Results. Title
You will have defined a research question that involves looking for an association or a cause-and-effect relationship, or both.
Your title should state what you are looking for and the independent and dependent variables involved. Under your title, put the word “Explanation” and then describe the kind of relationship(s) you are looking for and how you will define your variables in objective, observable ways.
Abstract (write this last)
Write the Abstract last, after all other parts of your proposal have been defined. For your outline, you should list the types of information you will include in your final Abstract. Remember that the final version should not be more than 250 words. This section summarizes all major features of the planned project. It is much more than just an introduction. Think of it as the “elevator talk” you would give when asked to describe your proposal in a minute.
Introduction
This section introduces your proposed project. The primary goals here are to let readers know what your study will do and to convince them of the importance of the research question. It should begin by saying what your research question or hypothesis is and justifying the importance of gaining answers. Write your thesis sentence into the introduction.
The simplest way to design a study is to look up an existing study that interests you and propose doing almost the exact same thing. You can just add your small twist to the study and explain how that would provide new and useful information.
Literature Review
After the introduction, please present the results of your literature review (including at least 10 research studies). This must be organized by THEME and cannot simply describe studies, one after the next with no explanation of how they compare and contrast. A literature review must be a story about what you’ve found, not a list. A literature review is like preparing a meal. First you collect the raw ingredients and then you slice, dice, combine, and cook them into a meal. If your literature review only explains one study after the next, this is called an annotated bibliography and is like giving people a plate of raw ingredients instead of a prepared meai.
You may want to use some articles from popular sources such as the news, but make sure to rely primarily on academic sources.
Where appropriate, explain why a study is weak in some way or explain what the unanswered questions are, so that their findings cannot be accepted as fact. Finally, conclude this section in a paragraph that explains why your proposed study is the perfect one to find answers to these compelling research questions.
Method
This section is critical to convince the readers that you not only have a very important topic to study, but that you’ll be using valid and strongly supported methods.
For this proposal, you should design two sub-projects. Sub-Project 1 will use qualitative methods designed to establish a correlation between variables; Sub-Project 2 will use quantitative methods and a design that will allow you to test for causal relationships.
The simplest way to do this is to decide what your variables are and in sub-project 1, measure the correlation between them and in sub-project 2, try to manipulate the independent variable while holding other variables constant. For example, if you want to look at the relationship between watching 20 minutes of violent TV or movie programming and aggressive feelings, you could ask 100 people to watch 20 minutes of their favorite violent programming (if they like that sort of programming), and then rate their aggressive impulses on some valid scale of aggression. For sub-project 2 of such a study, you could randomly invite 300 people to the study and randomly assign 100 of each to one of three media exposure 20 conditions such as 1) violent media content 2) a non-violent nature show to serve as the control, 3) youtube videos showing people a how-to tutorial on some topic of their interest. To test for aggression, you would test everybody before and after the video viewing on a validated aggression scale of your choice.
Participants For each sub-project, you will begin by describing the participants in the study, saying:
o How many people are involved and where are they?
o How you will select them, and why
o Whether or not you will do any pre-testing, and why
o How you will separate them into groups, if that is part of the plan
o How you will ensure that the individuals who participate are representative of the population of interest
o What the anticipated demographics of your participant group will be
Procedures For each sub-project, describe in great detail exactly what you will do, and in what order, with your participants. If you will use a survey or interview, include a copy of the questions to be asked, along with introductory and concluding statements. If you will be doing direct observations, include a copy of your observation form.
Ethics Procedures For each sub-project, say what ethics procedures are needed and explain in detail how you’ll manage these procedures. Always discuss the informed consent process.
Expected Results
For each of the two sub-projects, explain what data will be collected for each participant, what summary statistics you’ll determine, and what statistical tests you will apply to your data. Explain your choice of the statistical tests and why these will allow you to define the relationships of interest.
Concluding Statement
Write one paragraph that returns to the importance of your research questions and the implications of having answers to these questions in which we can have great confidence as we use them to make future decisions.
References (must have at least 10 articles).
Be sure to format your references following the guidelines in the APA Style Manual.
show what you have learned about research methods in this course, you’ll also be asked to annotate