For Individuals:
Your proposal should include the following elements: (1) Title page, (2) Introduction, (3) Method, (4) References, and (5) Materials. See below for more detailed information regarding each element.
(1) The Title Page should include Running Head (with a page number), Title, your Name (as the Author name), and your Affiliation (in this case, it is University of California, Irvine). See “Professional Title Page” at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page. Also write “Working Independently” underneath your name for our reference.
(2) The Introduction section should include the following:
Statement about the general purpose of your study (e.g., What are you trying to investigate?)
Description of the general significance of your study (e.g., Why is your research question important in general?)
Summary of the relevant literature. Write a brief annotation (~200 words max) for each article/study you have found. Note that your annotations should not include direct quotes or paraphrases.
Statement of your tentative hypothesis (e.g., What do you expect to find as a result of this study?)
Note that you need to incorporate all of the above but not in a “bullet-point” format. Your Introduction should flow as a text with proper paragraphs as needed.
(3) The Method section is where you describe how you will test your hypothesis in detail. It typically consists of several sub-sections, each of them having their own heading. Your Methods section should include the following sub-sections:
Participants: Who are your participants going to be? Explain (a) where you think your sample of participants will be drawn from, (b) expected demographics of your sample (such as age range, gender distribution, education level), (c) how many participants you will have in your study. Note that the total number of participants that you will need for your study is a minimum of 40 (if your strategy is Experiment and/or Quasi-Experimental, minimum 20 in each condition).
Design: What is your research strategy (e.g., Correlational, Experimental, or Non-Experimental/Quasi-Experimental?). If Experimental, Between- or Within-Subjects Design? What are your variables? If Experimental, indicate the Independent Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV). If Non-Experimental or Quasi-Experimental, indicate the grouping variable and the outcome variable. For all strategies, indicate whether each variable is continuous or categorical; if continuous, indicate the range of possible answers, and if categorical, list all the possible categories.
Materials: This is where you briefly describe the measures, or scales, or questionnaires that you are going to use in the study. You will also provide the full materials as a part of your proposal (see below Materials and Step 5)
Procedure: Describe how you will collect data step by step. Are you going to administer the measures individually or to a group? Are you going to administer the measures in person or online? If the latter, via phone or email or social media etc.) If the former, paper & pen or computerized? Describe what the researcher and the participants will do during the administration (including consenting and debriefing on the researcher side).
Proposed analysis: Describe what descriptive statistical analysis you are planning on using (i.e., means, correlations, frequencies and/or percentages).
(4) The References section includes a list of all of the references you cited in your proposal. Note that you need to have at at least 3 peer-reviewed sources and 1 of them has to be an empiricalone.
(5) The Materials section (which will later serve as an Appendix) consists of all the materials you use to collect data. If your study is conducted online, make sure to include a link to your survey that can be accessed by us; otherwise include a copy of your questionnaire/whatever your data collection instrument is.
The entire proposal should be written in accordance with the APA format and no longer than 7 pages altogether (excluding Materials section).
Grading Rubric_____ (5 points) Title Page_____ (30 points) Introduction_____ (6) Statement about the general purpose of the study (e.g., What are you trying to investigate?)_____ (6) Description of the general significance of the study (e.g., Why is your research question important in general?)_____ (6) Summary of the relevant literature (e.g., What has been done so far in the literature? At least 3 citations with 1 being empirical)_____ (6) Statement of the tentative hypothesis (e.g., What do you expect to find as a result of this study?)_____ (6) Completeness, clarity, and style (e.g., Were studies from the literature described in sufficient detail? Is it clear the student understood what they were describing? Does the hypothesis development make sense?) _____ (35 points) Methods_____ (7) Participants (e.g., Who will be your participants? How many participants will you have?)_____ (7) Design (e.g., Is it a Correlational, Experimental, or Non-Experimental/Quasi-Experimental design? If Correlational, what are the variables that will be examined? If Experimental, what is the IV and DV? Non-Experimental/Quasi-Experimental design, what is the grouping variable and what is the outcome variable? Are variables continuous or categorical? If continuous, what is range of possible scores, and if categorical, what are the categories?)_____ (7) Measures/Materials (e.g., How will each variable be operationalized?)_____ (7) Procedure (e.g., What will the experimenters do? What will the participants do?)_____ (7) Proposed Analysis (e.g., What variables will be related or compared? How will the data be analyzed: Comparison of means? Comparison of frequencies and/or percentages? A Correlation?)_____ (5 points) References (e.g., Is the reference page included? Did the student provide at least 3 references with 1 being empirical?)_____ (15 points) Materials (e.g., Are the materials, such as survey, questionnaire attached? If so, can hypothesis be properly tested with these stimulus materials? Are the questions in the survey/questionnaire clearly worded? Do the materials include demographic questions?)_____ (10 points) APA style (e.g., General adherence to APA style in title page, body of paper, citations, and references) _____ (100 points) TOTAL SCORE