Writing Psychology research paper

RESEARCH REVIEW ASSIGNMENT

Hypothesis Statement Due: 9/27

Research Project Due: 10/20

It is important to note that there will be no extensions for this assignment, so please do not put off doing the assignment until the final hours. It is your responsibility to let me know what questions you may have.  If I do not hear from you, I will assume that all is fine.

The research review project is designed to expose students to research methodologies within the field of psychology. Your hypothesis must be related to the field of psychology! Below is a template you can use to build your project.  You do not have to fill this in, but make sure all of the components identified below are included in your research project.

Part A: Your Hypothesis – This section is due on 9/27 and needs to be also included in your final submission on 10/20.

1. Write your Research question. What are you curious about? Let’s say I am curious about the relationship between childhood obesity and sugary drinks. I would write my research question as follows: Is childhood obesity related to the amount of sugary drinks consumed daily?

Now, write your research questions by filling in the variables you are interested in.

Is __________________________related to ____________________?

2. Write your Hypothesis. A hypothesis is an idea or explanation that can then be tested through study and experimentation. I might write my hypothesis as: If sugary drinks consumed daily increases, then childhood obesity increases.

Now, what do you think will happen with the variables you identified above? Write in your variables and circle increases, decreases, or stay the same to express what you predict.

If __________________ [increases/decreases], then __________________ [increases/decreases/stays the same].

3. Identify the variables being studied. The first variable in the hypothesis statements in #2 is the independent variable, and the second variable is the dependent variable. For the example study, sugary drinks consumed daily is the independent and childhood obesity is the dependent variable.

Identify: Independent variable: ______________________ Dependent variable: ____________________.

Part B: Journal Articles Worksheet

For the second part of this project, you need to select one research journal article related to your hypothesis. The articlemust be an empirical article describing a sociological study related to your topic of interest. The Article must come from professional literature using the NCCC Library databases. NCCC offers a number of full-text databases so that professional articles are relatively easy to find. As you begin to explore your research topic, it will be clear that some articles are more relevant to your hypothesis than others. Choose one that you believe are closest to your hypothesis. Read the article and fill out a Journal Article Worksheet.

Part B: Journal Article Worksheet

(this is to be submitted with the rest of the assignment)

1. Title:____________________________________________________________________________

Author(s):_______________________________________________________________________

Date Published:_____________ Journal Name:___________________________________

Volume #________ Issue # _______ Page Number Range: ___________

Introduction:

2. What is the hypothesisof the article?

If _____________________________ [increases/decreases], then ________________________________ [increases/decreases/stays the same].

Method:

3. Sample. How many people were in the study?____________________ Provide details about the study subjects (age, gender, living location, etc.):

How were the people in the sample selected (e.g. randomly from a population)

4. Research design. How did the researchers set up the study? What instruments or methods were used to collect the data (e.g. an observation in a natural setting, an experiment in a lab, an online survey, a psychological test given, etc.):

Results and Discussion

5. What were the results of the study? What did the researchers discover from the study? Was a positive or negative correlation between the variables discovered? Did one variable cause the other to change? Was their hypothesis supported by the data?

6. What are the weaknesses or limitations of the study? Did the author(s) identify the weaknesses or limitations of the study in the discussion section(e.g. sample size was small, not random sample, instruments used have not been tested for validity, etc.)?

Part C: Write-up

Provide the following in 2-3 paragraphs:

1. Provide a summary of the information gathered from the worksheet from section 2 – 6.

2. Does the research discussed in the article support YOUR hypothesis. You may find that the results differ between our hypothesis and the study.  Please make sure to specify whether the study supported or did not support your hypothesis and why.

Part D: Reference (Please delete the format and example provided prior to submitting)

Please present the article in APA format at the bottom of the assignment.

The correct format for online journal articles in an APA reference list:

Author(s), year of publication, article title (not in italics and only the first word capitalized unless a proper noun), journal name (in italics), volume number (in italics), issue number, page number range of the article (if available), URL or journal home page.

Example:

Hsing, Y., Baraya, A., &Budden, M. (2005). Macroeconomic policies and economic growth: The case of Costa Rica. Journal of Applied Business Research, 21(2), 105–112. Retrieved from http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/