Research Proposal Project – Extra Credit (up to 2-grade points can be added di

 
Research Proposal Project – Extra Credit (up to 2-grade points can be added directly to your core assignments grade)
What is a research proposal?
Research proposals serve an important function in psychological research. Prior to conducting studies, we often need to justify and provide a rationale for why that particular study needs to be done. This extra credit assignment serves as a mini-proposal to get you acquainted with developing and proposing studies that you may like to do (and justifying why people should care or fund your proposed research). Proposals have pretty variable formats, and if submitted to a grant or organization like the Undergraduate Research Opportunities will likely have specific guidelines. 
Here is an example of a very short real-world research proposal: Discrimination Experiences Research ProposalDownload Discrimination Experiences Research Proposal
Your proposal for this extra credit assignment should be longer than that.
Goal
For this extra credit assignment you will pick one empirical article and spend a paragraph describing what it did/found in greater detail than usual and comment on its limitations. You will then propose a study to address these limitations. Note: You must propose more than re-do the study with a larger/different sample. You must also propose an experimental approach (since Paper 1 was all correlational).
The main point of this assignment is to translate a research idea into a project, with a special focus on conceptualizing a research question into an empirical study. As opposed to a research paper, a research proposal has not been already carried out, so it will contain an introduction, proposed methods, expected findings, and implications section. 
Please follow the guidelines listed below. 
Introduction (1 page)
The introduction in a research proposal is intended to capture the reader’s curiosity and get them to care about the outcome of the proposed study. It is very similar to the introduction of a research paper in that respect, as it includes a short literature review and lays out the hypotheses of the study.
For this assignment, I will have you do a brief Introduction focused on only one article. In one paragraph, introduce the topic. Then, in 2-3 paragraphs, describe and evaluate one relevant research article (of your choice). In particular, you need to directly discuss and critique the article with respect to validity threats in the existing research. 
Last, you should have 1 paragraph briefly introducing your proposed study and how it will address the limitations of the research article you reviewed. Your proposed study MUST be experimental.
Methods (~ 1 page)
The methods section, like in a research paper, is where you indicate what will happen in the study. It will include the same basic sections: participants, materials, procedure.
You will be graded on how you conceptualize your ideas into a testable framework that is scientifically sound. It is recommended that you research your dependent variable to determine how past studies have measured it, then cite that measurement in your proposal. You also need to specify what your conditions are and how you will assign participants to condition.
Obvious confounds will result in the loss of marks (e.g. is there an adequate control group? Is a measure biased in such a way as to threaten the validity of your study?). 
Expected Findings & Implications (1-2 pages)
The expected findings & implications section is where you will state what you expect to find in your experiment (a graph may be helpful). Additionally, it is the last chance to get the reader excited about the study and demonstrate that this study is important.
After outlining what you expect to find in the experiment, go over the implications of those expected findings and the study as a whole. This will include restating how it addresses the limitations and threats to validity in the article you reviewed in the Introduction. Additionally, the study may advance the field of research in a meaningful way or may be important for applied reasons (e.g., informing policy, improving clinical care, answering an interesting aspect of human experience). You should spend about 1 page total discussing academic implications (what does it mean for the field of psychology or theory in this area?) and the more broad implications. 
References
You will need to provide an APA formatted reference page including the article you critiqued and any other relevant references.