course material

1. Anything shorter than four pages will reduce your score
Custom The final project for this class is an APA proposal paper.It is an ‘APA’ paper
because you will use APA style to write your paper – more on that below–It is a ‘proposal–
paper because you will not actually do the research, you will only describe a proposal for a
research project that you think would be a good one if you had the time, money, and other
resources needed to actually do it.Appendix A in your textbook is about writing an APA
style research report and should be used as a model for writing the paper.A proposal is a
paper a researcher would write to propose a research study. Your proposal paper will be
identical to an APA paper except that it will not include a “ Results” section (since you
won’ t do the research) and the “ Discussion” section will be very limited (also because you
are not actually doing the research). Also, in sample papers in your textbook or in the
literature, the past tense is used (X was done…; the participants were…etc.), However, the
method section of a proposal shouldbe written in the future tense since you haven’ t yet
done the research (the participants will be recruited from…; each participant will complete
the Beck DepressionInventory, etc.)You are writing a proposal paper rather than doing
actual research yourself because high quality research takes time, money, and materials
that you don’ t have. Forthis project you should write as if you were conducting the study at
UCF and had access to grant money and other materials such as a lab and equipment and
researchassistants.Your paper will include the following sections:Title
pageAbstract:IntroductionMethodDiscussion:References: paper and references must be
APA styleThe DetailsSo, what you have to do for this final paper write a research proposal in
APA style. To do so you need to complete the following steps:Preliminary tasks – APA style
and referencesYou must write your paper including citing your sources using APA style. You
must have a minimum of six references in your introduction and five of them should
beprimary rather than secondary sources. Primary sources are firsthand reports of
research findings. Secondary sources are books, book chapters, review articles, andother
sources that summarize others research findings (note – the six references are for your
intro only – you will probably have additional references for your methodsection).• You
may not use Wikipedia as a reference! It can be helpful to look at a Wikipedia page for ideas,
and it is not a scientific source that you should cite in a paper.More on APA format below.•
You should not use popular magazines and newspapers, such as Men’ s Health or
Psychology Today, you should use peer reviewed journals. If it is not in psychINFO
orPubmed it is probably not an appropriate source.• You should not use websites as
references, e.g., WebMD, or psychcentral or any web site with one exception; you may use a

2. national database website (such as theNational Institute of Mental Health or World Health
Organization) to report statistical data (e.g., the prevalence of schizophrenia, or the
percentage of thepopulation that is elderly), and these will not count towards your five
primary sources.• In short, most if not all of your references should be peer reviewed
journal articles.Methods SectionIn a methods section you describe exactly how you are
going to conduct the research. The methods section has several sub-sections including:•
participants (or subjects if non-human): what is your sample, what are their demographic
characteristics such as age, sex, ethnicity (or genus/species if animal) andother
characteristics as they may be related to your study such as IQ, education, socioeconomic
status, depressed, non-drinker, religious affiliation – anythingrelevant to your specific
study.• procedure: how will you recruit participants, what is your sampling procedure, will
participants be compensated for their participation, are there any ethical orsafety concerns,
how were participants assigned to groups (if applicable), where will the research take place,
who will administer treatments and how were they trained(if applicable) what is the
research design, what will participants be doing, what are the independent and dependent
variables how are they being operationalized? Thissection should be very detailed.•
apparatus or materials or measures. The name of this section depends on the details of your
study. You might have a diagram or detailed description of an apparatusor complex
equipment, for instance, what a computer screen a participant sees might look like, a
diagram of a course they will drive on after drinking, the arrangementof cameras and
computers in a room, the type of eeg machine or blood pressure monitor, and etc.. If your
study uses questionnaires or other assessment instruments – asmost psychology studies do
– then these should be described in a materials or measures section. For example, a
measure of depression, the formula you used to calculateBody Mass Index (BMI), an IQ test,
a measure of alcohol expectancy, a questionnaire you made up for your study on how likely
participants think it is that they willget a flu shot and how likely it is that they will get the flu
in the next six months. For any measure you should provide a full citation in APA format,
provide abrief description of it, and say something about its reliability and validity. Say a
sentence about why you selected each measure such as, it is widely used to measurePTSD, it
has better reliability than other measures of depression, it only takes participants five
minutes to complete, research suggests that you can ask participantstheir weight without
having to weigh them, etc. You will need to provide citations to do this. If you make up your
own questionnaires you should explain why it wasnecessary (for example, it would be very
poor practice to make up your own measure of depression when there are several quick,
reliable, and valid measures out there;it would be more reasonable to create a measure
when there are none available in the literature). Your grade will be lowered if you say you
are using your ownquestionnaire for a measure when reliable and valid means of
measuring the variable are available.• Finally, your method should include a statement
about how you will analyze the results, for instance “ a repeated measures t-test comparing
scores on measure X beforeand after treatment Y will be conducted,” or a single factor
ANOVA comparing men’ s and women’ s scores on measure X following exposure to
condition Z will beconducted.” DiscussionYour discussion will not be the same as an actual
report since you are not actually doing the project and for this section you should write

3. about a page discussing thefollowing:• why you selected the particular research design and
procedure you wrote about• what results you would hope to find if you actually did the
study• what you see as the biggest strengths and limitations/weaknesses of the study you
proposed (and hopefully, there are not too many limitations – if there are, thenyou should
probably modify your method)Helpful Resources1. See Appendix A for more details about
writing a research paper. And I also urge you to look at how it is done by reading articles in
APA journals – you should bereading them for writing your introduction anyway, so it
won’ t mean extra literature searching!2. Since this paper is a proposal, there is NO
“ results” section.3. For your discussion section, do not use the suggestions in Appendix A
since you are not actually doing the research. Instead write a page or two about (1) why
youselected the particular research design and procedure you wrote about (2) what results
you would hope to find if you actually did the study, and (3) what you see asthe biggest
strengths and limitations/weaknesses of the study you proposed.4. Though the abstract
comes first you should write it last after you have written the above sections. It will appear
near the beginning of your paper, and it is agood idea to actually write it last so you make
sure it adequately summarizes your paper. Follow the guidelines in Appendix A, except you
will not mention results inyour abstract. Put your title and abstract and your name on the
first page5. Finally, references. List every source you cite using APA format.APA StyleYou
can find detailed information on APA style in the APA style manual which you can purchase
as a hard copy or e-book or find in the reference section of the library.The UCF library also
has some helpful online materials including a tutorial on APA style.Check out the website
below for UCF library resources on APA
stylehttp://guides.ucf.edu/content.php?pid=63545&sid=468776Many other universities
also have online guides to APA style that you can access online. My personal favorite is at
Purdue University (No, I am a Michigan alumna not aPurdue alumn, and Purdue has the
better website…). Their guide can be found
at:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/You can find others if you do a
google search on APA style citationPaper DetailsHow long should my paper be?Quality will
matter more than quantity. A rough guide is 10 – 13 pages (not including title page, and
including references).Title pageabstract: one page with about half a page of
text.Introduction: four to five pages – anything shorter than four pages will reduce your
scoreMethods section will be the most variable from student to student, and it could be
about three to five or more pages depending on your research design, variables,
andsample.Discussion should be about one or one-and-a-half to two pages.References
should be one or two pages.How will my paper be graded?Title and Abstract: 5% of grade.
Does that abstract include all the information it should? Does the title make sense given the
nature of the project?Introduction: 20% of grade. Is it thorough? Is all information accurate
and up to date? Is the information from relevant sources? Does the intro explain the issue
youare researching and why it is important? Does the intro say what type of research has
already been done on the topic?Research Question and Design: 40% of grade. Is the
research question feasible, timely, important? Most important, is the design appropriate for
answering yourquestion? Do the variables make sense? Is the design ethical? Is the
sampling procedure appropriate? Does the sample make sense given the research question?

4. Are thedependent and independent variables correctly identified? Are all materials and
meaures described? Also, writing about a very simple design is easier than writingabout a
more complex design and will be graded accordingly. (But don’ t make it too complex or
you are likely to make mistakes or do unnecessary work).Discussion: 10% of grade. Are the
expected results reasonable given what is proposed and known about the topic? Are
strengths and limitations described?References: 10% of grade. Are references correctly
cited in APA format? Is all non-original material cited?Writing quality: 10% of grade. Is the
paper well-written and free of grammatical errors, spelling errors, and typos?Creativity: 5%
of grade. Is the proposed research original? Is the question and/or the approach to
answering it thoughtful and reflect original thinking?Your own work: you will submit your
paper via turnitin and it should be your original work.