Research Proposal Guidelines

Over the course of the semester, we explore many topics in social psychology. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to zoom in and gain a more in depth perspective on any topic that was of particular interest to you. To complete this assignment, you will need to identify a particular area of interest to you in social psychology (e.g. intergroup relations, prosocial behaviour, social self, romantic relationships, social influence, etc) and formulate a research question on the topic. This question can come out of something discussed in lecture, lab, the text, or even a news article or conversation you had with someone else. As long as the question can be made it into a testable hypothesis relating to social psychology, it is fine.

Once you identify a topic of interest, you will need to explore the existing literature using google scholar, psycinfo, or another scientific database. You are then to propose a study that will systematically test a hypothesis that you find interesting.

This assignment can be done either independently or in collaboration with one other student from class (i.e., maximum of two people per group). You are only required to submit one paper per team (You will need to sign up your team on Learn), so you can divide the writing with your teammate as you wish. This paper is due by 11:59pm on December 13, 2024. Proposals will only be graded if they are submitted on Learn through Turnitin.

This research proposal should be 4-6 pages in length (double spaced; 12 point font) in APA format (see APA Publication Manual 7^th edition). This page count includes the title page and all other sections EXCEPT for References. Note that it is entirely fine if you can write the proposal using less space than what is listed above.

This research proposal should be written such that you are telling the reader what you would like to do. There should be enough detail present for someone reading your proposal to carry out your study, so be specific. The format of the proposal is designed to prepare you for an Honours project or a Masters thesis, but scaled down. This format would also be similar if you were asking a funding body to provide financial support for the research. Given the nature of this task, this means that the method section should be saying what you plan to do and the discussion section should state again what you expect to find.

The final paper must have the following components:

• Title Page: Include a title for the project and all author names along with their institutional affiliation.
• Literature review: This section should include: (a) an introduction that defines the research question of interest; and (b) a summary of relevant literature on the topic. It is generally better to start out this section with the big picture (e.g. something in the real world or a broader question about human behaviour) and then gradually move towards your specific question of interest along with past research on the topic. You must use at least five scientific sources for this proposal.
• Hypotheses: State the hypotheses of the research (this section can be integrated into the very end of your introduction/literature review section).
• Method: This section should describe the operationalization of your research question and how you would go about testing it. Even if you don’t have details about the specific measures you plan to use for such a study, you should at least say what is measured (e.g. prejudice toward Australians) and how you plan to manipulate variables of interest. Don’t be too vague!
• Brief Discussion: Begin with a general review of your expected results as they relate to your hypotheses. The discussion should then end with some practical implications of your study for everyday life or real world problems/issues.
• References: In APA format, include all citations in a reference section after the main body of the paper. You must have at least 4 scientific sources on this list.

The proposal will be marked considering the following criteria:

• Scientific merit, foundation, and novelty of the research idea (25 points)
• Proposed study to test the idea (25 points)
• Logic and flow of the proposal (17 points)
• Quality of the writing (13 points)
• APA formatting of the paper (12 points)
• Broader implications (8 points)