Research Skills Week 5 Research proposal reminders

Research Skills Week 5: Research proposal reminders

Overview Section Max. marks Content Title 2 IV and DV (precise and no more than 15 words) Introduction 20 Past research; rationale; hypotheses Methods 20 Participants; materials; design; procedure – in enough detail for someone else to replicate the study References 6 Full APA-style references for all citations in main text Word limit: 2000, but aim for a maximum of 1500 (not including title or references)

Title Straightforward and informative (not more than 15 words) Enough to explain your study without going into too much detail Examples: ◦ Too little detail: Fast food purchases ◦ Too much detail: Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women in the last month in Brighton ◦ Just right: Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women Independent Variable = the value being manipulated or changed Dependent Variable = the observed result that is dependent on the independent variable

IV and DV examples What is the IV and DV in the following titles? ◦ Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women ◦ The impact of a sensation-seeking personality trait on alcohol consumption ◦ The effects of aging on reaction time in a signal detection task

Introduction Quick explanation of research area Summary of relevant past research (and perhaps its flaws) Purpose of study Brief description of methods 4 Hypotheses (2 categorical and 2 continuous) ◦ Aim to predict differences between groups rather than relationships between variables Up to 1200 words

Hypotheses Categorical hypotheses: ◦ 2 categorical variables ◦ e. g. “Men prefer to buy fast food at Burger King, while women prefer to buy fast food at Mc. Donalds”

Hypotheses Continuous hypotheses: ◦ 1 categorical variable and 1 continuous variable ◦ e. g. “Males consume a larger quantity of alcoholic beverages per week than females” ◦ 2 continuous variables (not for this term) ◦ e. g. “As age increases, scores on a memory test decrease”

Method Give enough information so that it is obvious what you intend to do Subsections: ◦ ◦ Participants Materials Design Procedure Write in paragraphs (no lists!)

Participants Number of participants Sex (# of men, # of women) Who (students, women, the retired, etc) Volunteers or paid? Any other demographics that might be necessary

Materials Things you will be using: ◦ Questionnaire (do not include the whole thing!) ◦ Any other materials you think are necessary to include ◦ DON’T INCLUDE: Pen, A 4 paper, etc.

Design Identify: ◦ Independent variable(s) ◦ Design: within-subjects, between-subjects or mixed? Don’t worry about this section this term Just say you will use a questionnaire design

Procedure Explain how the experiment will be carried out Step by step breakdown of what will be done Informed consent

Tenses, tone and terminology Write in future tense Write in third person where you can (e. g. “Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire”) and avoid first person (“I asked participants to complete a questionnaire”, “We asked participants to complete a questionnaire”) Back up your assertions Refer to people you tested as ‘participants’ not ‘subjects’

Making it look neat Double-space Colours: Stick to greyscale Put a title on each section Number your pages Check your spelling and grammar Check your references – they are worth six marks