designing a study in social psychology
For this assignment, you will begin to design your very own psychology experiment or study. You will be creating a research proposal, modeled after actual research proposals (visit this link for an example research proposal), although yours will not need to be as long. Your finished product should be between 1-2 pages in 12 pt. font.
STEP 1: Pick a topic. Consider a topic within social psychology that interests you. Think of how you could design an experiment to test this theory. If you have a hard time thinking of an experiment, think of common proverbs or sayings and consider ways to test these proverbs. Possible proverbs to test include:
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Opposites attract
Birds of a feather flock together
Love is blind
There’s no such thing as love at first sight
A friend in need is a friend indeed
Familiarity breeds contempt
Spare the rod and spoil the child
You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours
Too many cooks spoil the broth
True love never grows old
You can’t please everyone
Not my circus; not my monkeys
Good fences make good neighbors
Honesty is the best policy
Actions speak louder than words
PART 1: Introduction. Write a paragraph or two as an overview about your research proposal. Include the theory you are testing as well as your hypothesis. Explain why this proverb is of interest to you.
PART 2: Method. Consider all of the questions below as you write out this main section of your research proposal. Remember that you should be as detailed as possible to make sure that someone should be able to replicate your ideas. This should be roughly 1 page in length.
Who will participate in your study?
What will you sampling process be?
How will you control against bias?
What type of research methods would you choose and why?
If an experiment, what are the independent and dependent variables?
What is a participant in the study going to do?
How will you collect the data?
PART 3: Results/Conclusion/Discussion. Write a summary paragraph about how you could and would utilize the results of your experiment.
How will you analyze your results?
What results would either confirm or disprove your hypothesis?
What limitations or confounding variable might get into your way?
In what way will the results of this study be beneficial?
