Graduate Level Social Psychology

Click here for a U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health article on How to Write a Research Proposal at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3282423/  This will serve as a good general overview.  Your proposal will need to comply with the instructions below.

 

RESEARCH STUDY PROPOSAL DRAFT INSTRUCTIONS

 

By the end of Week 4 of the course term, you will submit a draft of a research study proposal is due. You will not be conducting this research, just proposing it as a hypothetical study. You may use an existing published study from an academic journal article as a prototype example for developing your proposal, but the study method and focus of research you propose must be your own original research idea. The paper will consist of an Introduction, a Literature Review, an Hypothesis, and a Method section.

 

Your research study proposal draft will include:

 

An INTRODUCTION

Topic overview

Research question

Significance of this question to the field of study                             

 

 A LITERATURE REVIEW

At least 4 brief summaries of other similar studies

Wrap up with a formal hypothesis

What is a Lit Review?

A brief review of the literature means that you will report (search some key words in the on-line library in Psych Abstract or some such area) on studies that are similar to the one you propose. This might include an old classic study that launched the field of study in your topic but should include some background studies and at least one rather recent study into the same area as yours. For this assignment, 4 or 5 quick reviews would suffice. The reviews are typically no more than a paragraph explaining in simple terms, who did the research (with the APA style “year” of the study in parentheses), what they were hoping to explore, and what the results of their study were.

 

 

What is an Hypothesis?

At the conclusion of your review of the literature you will summarize your research idea and then state your hypothesis. A good proposal hypothesis should directly state, without reservations, the expectations of the study. For example, “Hypothesis: The experimental group will significantly improve their scores on the _____measure after viewing the role play of bullying behavior.” Or another example: “Hypothesis: Subjects will show decreased empathy on a survey of compassion and empathy for the learners that used the weakest excuses.”   Or, “Hypothesis: There will be a significant difference between the groups with the experimental group having higher scores than the control group.”

 

A METHODS of Research Section

Detailed description of measuring devices for data collection device, survey, or measurement instrument

Subjects – study participants

Procedure – how the measures will be taken