| Thursday I will pose the methods and results portion of the paper, and the conclusion/final portion as well. Do you think you will be able to finish that up in 7 days? Also, when I post the project to you on Thursday can you have the following answers prepared for me so I can submit them this week? 1. At this point in the course, you should be writing your methods and results papers. I want a brief summary of your method for your paper, and then I want you to choose at leasttwo respects in which your internal validity may be threatened. Tell me how these factors may influence internal validity, and then tell me how you plan to account for them. Note: if you’ve already done a great deal to account for this, that’s great! Just tell me what you’ve already done! 2. You should be developing your methods and results papers, but you’ll be writing the Discussion section of your final papers soon. I want you to think ahead about replications of your experiment you could perform toincrease its external validity. Write a brief paragraph abouttwo replications of your experiment that you would perform if your hypothesis were confirmed. Describe how these replications couldincrease external validity. 3. By now, you should have written your methods and results papers. I want you to tell me about which sampling method you will use for your final paper, though. Write about which sampling method you would use, but consider whether that method would actually work. If you had to use a non-random sampling technique, whichone would you use for your study? 4. If your final paper’s study utilizes a quasi-experimental design, describe in a paragraph how selection threat could affect your conclusions. If your final paper does not use a quasi-experimental design, try to transform it intoone. Describe in a paragraph how selection threat could affect your conclusions. These questions ask for a paragraph but it really only has to be 3 to 4 sentences. Let me know and I canpay you separately for this portion. No more then a page total with all questions being answered. They have to be specific to the paper. Let me know and I can post this asap. Method: This is the section of your paper in which you tell people what your study actually does, or in your case, will do. Since you’re writing a research proposal, this section should be written in the future tense, for the most part. The method section is generally divided into three main subsections: the participants section, the materials section, and the procedure section. • Participants section: Describe your participants, including selection and assignment. When in doubt, use more detail rather than less. Describe how the participants will be recruited, what sort of demographics are relevant (i.e., race, gender, economy sector, or any other relevant features). Also, describe how participants will be assigned to groups and that sort of thing. Provide enough detail that someone could replicate your method. (20 points) • Materials: Describe any materials being used in your experiment. If you’re using pretty basic stuff (i.e., pens and paper, computers, that sort of thing), then you don’t need to give a ton of detail. Again, focus on giving enough detail that other people could replicate your method. (20 points) • Procedure: Provide a summary of the procedure from your experiment, including a step-by-step of how to do the study. (20 points) Predicted Results • Describe main effects, correlations, interactions, or any other statistical tests. (20 points) • Describe and caption one or more graphs from your paper. (20 points) Your final paper should be a research proposal, and it should include all the sections usually found in a research report. Introduction The introduction section should contain a description of the basic research question, including motivation for the research, and a literature review. The literature review should provide an overview of other research that has been done in the field. Conceptually, think of the introduction as a funnel: you start out very broadly stating the research question/problem to be solved, then you say why this is an important question to address. After providing this information, you describe what other people have done in terms of this research question, and then you should describe what your study is going to add to the field. What remains left to be found in this question? Where have other studies fallen short? How are you adding to the field? Your introduction should end with a very general description of your study that you’re proposing. Method The Method section should describe in detail the “how” of your study. The “Participants” subsection describes your participants — how you select them, how you compensate them, demographics, etc. The “Apparatus/Materials” subsection describes any measures you’re using, including scales/surveys, experimental materials, and that sort of thing. The “Procedure” subsection should describe everything that happens with the participants from when they enter the lab until when they leave. Finally, you should have a “Planned Analyses” subsection describing the statistical tests and other data manipulations you’ll be using to analyze the results. Results This section should describe your predicted results. It might help to describe your predicted results in terms of the hypothetico-deducto method: “If (X) is true, the results should look like (Y). If, on the other hand, (X2) is true, then the results should look like (Y2).” X and X2 refer to potential hypotheses, while Y and Y2 refer to patterns of results. Significant differences, significant correlations, or whatever you would predict for a given hypothesis. In this section, I would like you to have at least one graph, too. By this time, you should know how to make a graph in Excel, but if you need help, ask around, then ask me. I’d like your graph to have labeled axes, a title, and a legend describing what various points and lines mean. This is a hypothetical graph, so you can make it as neat and tidy as you like, but you may want to put some noise in it, too. Discussion You should start your discussion section with a summary of the research question and what your study will do and might find. Then you should describe what this means in terms of the field as whole — implications for future research, practical applications, and broader impact. Then you should describe one or more limitations of your study, and be hard on yourself with this. End your article with a description of what your next step(s) would be in this line of research. References You should do APA style references throughout the paper. If you need to know how to do this, check out https://www.apastyle.org/, or pick up an APA publication manual (they’re not too expensive, if you get them used). Other Notes • You’re writing this as a proposal, so in general, future tense is your best bet when you’re talking about your proposed study. • I’m not expecting perfection in terms of the APA style. In terms of your time/effort/grading, APA should account for probably 10% of everything. Don’t obsess over APA, but do make an effort to follow the guidelines — particularly in the in-text references. • Use 12-point font, Times New Roman font, no colors, 1″ margins all around, double-spaced. • Do your best, folks — the main thing I’m looking for here is that you’ve thought about an empirical finding in your field and planned a way to extend the results into a new direction. Or maybe you’ve found an article whose conclusions you disagree with and think you could do a better job of examining the research question. |
