Research Methods
ASSIGNMENT 3 (i.e., Final Draft of Research Proposal) - 50 pts
DUE: 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, 6/22

In Assignments 1 and 2 you searched the literature on a topic of interest, narrowed your search to specific variables, critically evaluated the results of several studies and tentatively developed a hypothesis, a methodology to test the hypothesis, and an appropriate data analysis to assess your results. The purpose of this assignment is to help you further develop your hypothesis and methods as well as to predict what the results of your study would be if it were carried out.

This assignment will constitute the final draft of your proposal. Specifically, the assignment must be typed as a research proposal in APA format.That is, type this up as though it was a manuscript of an article submitted for publication. The formatting, etc. should look exactly like the sample manuscript in Chapter 14. Review Chapter 14 in the text for guidelines in writing and typing a manuscript in APA format.

1. State the general topic area and purpose of your proposed study. Indicate the nature of the relationships among the relevant variables suggested by your literature review. Briefly ummarize the studies you cited in Assignment 2 (and/or other, different articles you may have found since then), showing how each one relates to the hypothesis you plan to propose. Compare/contrast their results, and indicate any limitations/problems with them. How will your study address these shortcomings?

2. State your hypothesis clearly and concisely. Specify the results you expect in the form of predictions. List the research evidence that led you to your hypothesis and supports your predicted results. --(Issues in #1 and #2 are essentially the Introduction section of your paper)-- This section should be approximately 3 - 4 pages, and will be given the most weight in my grading this assignment.

3. State clearly and specifically your proposed research design, including the independent and dependent variables you will employ to test this hypothesis. Include operational definitions of variables and describe the proposed measurement procedures in detail.

4. Describe the proposed participant population. How will they be assigned to treatment groups? Outline the procedures of your proposed study. Include a description of materials to be used (e.g., measurement instruments and how score will be calculated), and how independent variables will be manipulated, and how extraneous variables will be controlled. --(Issues in #3 and #4 are the basically the Methods section of your paper)-- This section should be about 2 - 3 pages, and will be given the second most weight in grading.

5. Specify the statistical analyses to be conducted on the data. Generate hypothetical results (including actual statistics, such as Pearson-r correlation values, F-values, tables of means or figures of interactions) that would support your hypothesis/predictions. That is, you are to create a Results section as it might look if you had actually conducted the study and obtained data which you analyzed and are "reporting" here. Create results that you would expect to occur of your hypotheses/predictions are accurate. Note that this does not mean that you have to generate "raw data" and compute the statistical analyses. All you are doing is "guestimating" what the results of these analyses would be, and "making up" some statistics that would support your hypotheses. This section should be 2 - 3 pages (including tables/figures), and will be given the third greatest weight.

6. State the conclusions you would draw from the above hypothetical results. Will they confirm/disconfirm existing theories/evidence? What important implications (either practical application or theory development) will your study have? Discuss limitations of your study and suggest future research that could address thes limitations or other "gaps" the literature you cited. This is your Discussion section. It should be 2 - 3 pages in length, and will be weighted less heavily than the other sections for this assignment.

7. Create a Reference section and Tables/Figures to complete your rough draft.

8.Submit a Word file of your assignment as an attachment to a reply to the "Final Research Proposal" Discussion Topic.