PSY 520 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

The field of contemporary psychology is built upon rigorous research. Theories are constantly proposed, tested, supported, and invalidated through research studies that are communicated to the field via peer-reviewed research papers. As such, individuals in the field of psychology must be both informed consumers and educated producers of psychological research.

This course is the second in the sequence of two research methods courses. In the first course, you created a research proposal centered on a testable research question. Now, in this course, you will actually conduct research around your research question guided by your proposal and using other students as your research participants. Note that you are required to use Southern New Hampshire University students as research participants. You are strictly prohibited from using individuals outside of Southern New Hampshire University as research participants. Also, research proposals that ask questions around diagnosable mental health disorders, suicide, or abuse of any kind will not be allowed. Once you conduct your research, you will analyze the data utilizing the statistical software SPSS to inform your conclusions. As a final product, you will submit not only your new content, but also the content from Research Methods in Psychology I, combining the work from both courses to create one complete research manuscript. You will, however, only be graded on the new content from Research Methods in Psychology II.

This project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Four, Six, and Eight. Milestones One-Three are steps that you need to complete before you can write your research manuscript. Milestones Four and Five are opportunities for you to write drafts of sections of your final project. You will receive feedback from your instructor that can be incorporated in your final submission.

This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:

Employ methodologically sound strategies for addressing testable research questions

Select inferential statistical tests for appropriately addressing research questions in psychology

Employ appropriate statistical techniques for analyzing data using statistical software

Interpret statistical analyses for informing conclusions and identifying limitations of research

Communicate psychological research results that adhere to the American Psychological Association’s principles and standards

Prompt

For this:

  • conducted earlier in the course. Speak with your instructor if you did not take Research Methods I.
  • assessment, you will create a research manuscript, guided by your research proposal from Research Methods in Psychology I and the study you
  • Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Methods

A. Outline who the participants were in the study. How many participants were there, and how were they recruited?

B. Describe the materials (surveys, etc.) you created for the study and how they specifically address the research question. Also, consider how the materials appropriately take into consideration the participants.

C. Describe the methodological procedures used to collect the data. How were the materials used in collecting the data?

II. Results

A. Describe how your raw data was reduced for statistical analysis, clearly detailing each step of the process.

B. Create a table outlining the descriptive statistics for your key variables.

C. Describe the statistical test you selected, and explain why this test is the most appropriate for analyzing your data.

D. Communicate your research results in a manner that is of professional quality, as outlined by the American Psychological Association’s standards.

III. Discussion

A. What were the results of the data analysis, and how do these results relate to the research hypothesis?

B. How do your obtained results complement and/or contradict the previous literature on the topic? Justify your assertions with data.

C. Outline the strengths and limitations of your research, supporting these assertions with your data analysis.

D. Identify other tests you could have used, and explain why these tests were not as appropriate for analyzing the data.

E. Discuss the extent to which your study adheres to the American Psychological Association’s principles and standards.

F. Based on the results from your data analysis, identify areas related to your topic that are still in need of future research.

Milestones

Milestone One: Edited PSY 510 Final Paper (Research Proposal)

In Module One, you will submit an edited version of the research proposal that was the final project for PSY 510. Editing and incorporating feedback are two of the key skills that researchers need to master in order to produce high-quality writing. Indeed, all peer-reviewed articles have been written and rewritten many times; they are never completed in only one draft!

Rather than merely submitting the same version of the assignment that you submitted in PSY 510, it is important that you edit and improve the paper based on the feedback provided by your PSY 510 instructor. In addition to the feedback provided from your PSY 510 instructor, please also refer to the Milestone One Guidelines document.

It is OK to make changes to your research question, hypothesis, or research methods, but please clear any substantial changes such as completely changing the problem statement with your instructor. This will be submitted for feedback only.

Milestone Two: Draft of Research Materials (Surveys)

In Module Two, you will submit a draft of all items and questionnaires that will be given to your participants in your study. The items and questions should be listed in the exact order that they will be given to participants. You may use questionnaires that you have designed, questionnaires used in previous research, or any combination thereof. Your instructor will provide feedback so that these materials may be improved before data collection. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Qualtrics Input and Participant Notification

In Module Four, you will use the Qualtrics software to program the research materials (i.e., surveys) that you will give to participants. It is important to program your materials exactly how you want students to see them. Remember to register for your SNHU Qualtrics account by following the instructions on the Creating a Qualtrics Account handout prior to beginning work on this milestone. Be sure to incorporate the feedback that you received on your materials from your instructor on Milestone Two. Refer to the Qualtrics website and the instructional video in Module Four for assistance.

You will also compose an introductory message to your study participants, which you will use in the Collect Data From Participants task in Module Four.

This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Milestone Four: Initial Draft of Methods and Results

In Module Six, you will submit an initial draft of your Methods and Results sections. Now that you have completed your data collection, it is important to revise your methods section so that it accurately reflects the methods that were actually used in your study.

In your Results section, you should first describe how you reduced your data for analysis (e.g., how your questionnaires were summed or averaged to get a composite score to analyze). Your Results section should also include a table of the relevant descriptive statistics. Last, you will need to describe the statistical test that you chose to run and provide the key results for the test as well as a brief explanation of the results. It is essential that you follow APA style when writing this section. Please refer to Chapters 2 and 5 of your APA manual for further instructions on how best to write a Methods and Results section. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Four Rubric.

Milestone Five: Initial Draft of Discussion Section

In Module Eight, you will submit an initial draft of your Discussion section. This section should recap your findings, discuss how the findings fit in with prior research on the topic, discuss areas for future research, and mention limitations and ethical considerations related to your research. It is essential that you follow APA style when writing this section. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Five Rubric.

Final Submission: Research Paper

In Module Ten, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Product Rubric.

  • Milestone
  • Deliverable
  • Deliverables Module Due
  • One Two Four Six Eight Ten