Designing a Psychology Study

Overview

For this assignment, you will design your very own psychology experiment or study. You will be creating a research proposal, modeled after actual research proposals, although yours will not need to be as long. You will write a short paper describing your proposed research project and upload your paper as a word-processed document to the Response Paper 1 drop-box in the online classroom. Your paper should be written in your own words using proper punctuation and grammar. This assignment is worth up to 50 points. Your grade is based on how well you respond to the assignment topic and how well you follow the required format for the paper.

The Assignment

STEP 1: Pick a topic. Consider any topic in psychology that interests you. Remember, psychology is the scientific study of behavior and the underlying mental and biological processes. Your topic can be anything within this broad area. It can relate to something we have already discussed in class or another topic in psychology. Think of how you could design a scientific study related to this topic.

PART 1: Introduction. Write a paragraph or two as an overview about your research proposal. Include the theory you are testing as well as your hypothesis. Refer back to lesson 2 for a definition of theory and hypothesis. Make sure that you discuss your proposed explanation for the observed phenomena and have a hypothesis that allows for testing the theory. Your hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable.

PART 2: Background. Provide context for why you chose this topic. Write a paragraph or two explaining why studying this topic is important.

PART 3: Method. Describe how you would conduct the study to test your hypothesis. Consider all of the questions below as you write out this main section of your research proposal. Refer back to lesson 2 for information on the research process.

Who will participate in your study?

What will the sampling process be?

How will you control against bias?

How will you collect the data? Will you use naturalistic observations, a survey, or conduct an experiment?

If an experiment, what are the independent and dependent variables?

What will a participant in the study do in the study?

PART 4: Results/Conclusion. Write a summary paragraph about how you could and would utilize the results of your experiment.

How will you analyze your results?

What results would either confirm or disprove your hypothesis?

Specifications for your paper:

Word-processed document. Microsoft Word documents, PDF documents, or other formats readable by Microsoft Word are acceptable formats.

500 – 750 words (2 – 3 pages)      12 point-font

Double-spaced with margins of at least .75 inches and not longer than three pages.