Social Psychology: Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse

documents will be sent on word. the sources has to be from 2011-2021

Research Write-up (25%)

How to Write an APA Style Research Paper

Create a research study proposal for an experiment in the area of Social Psychology. The final product should be ~1000-1250 words (4-5 pages), typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. font (times new roman), 1 inch margins (see APA 7 guide). Late reports will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day including weekends, unless prearranged with Dr. Huggon. Page limit is based on redundancy rather than length. Page limit does not include title page or references (or Tables, Figures, Appendices if you use them). You do not need an abstract.

The purpose of a Research Paper is to demonstrate that you know the theoretical issues, conceptual terminology, and statistical results (proposed) related to the experiment and can communicate them using a standard format adopted by the American Psychological Association (APA). This format specifies the section headings described below in order to help the reader find and assess the critical information. Write clearly and concisely assuming the reader is familiar with basic scientific terms and is looking for weaknesses or omissions in your summary. As it is a proposal, after the intro, it should be written in the future tense (the participants will do this, it is predicted these results will occur) and in an objective manner avoiding personal pronouns like 'we', 'our', or 'you'. Use the APA style guide provided!

Some things to keep in mind

Try to have fun with your paper. Choose a topic that you find intrinsically interesting. Use this as an opportunity to examine something that you think might affect you in real life. Make sure to keep your focus relatively narrow as well.  You wouldn’t be expected to talk about everything relating to the psychological topic, but might instead focus in on how something might specifically something affect the area of interest.

DO NOT COPY FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE. YOU MUST USE YOUR OWN WORDS OR IT WILL BE CONSIDERED PLAGARISM

What do we have to include in our write up?

As discussed in other handouts, there are four main sections to write up.

Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion.

The reports must be submitted as a word file (.docx) (double-spaced, 12 point font, 1" margins) and be around 4-5 pages (~1000-1250 words) not including the Title, Figures, Tables or Appendices.  Late reports will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day.  

What kind of writing style do you expect?

 All sections must be written with full sentences in well-organized paragraphs.

• Use the past tense for intro, future tense for the rest and avoid personal pronouns.
• Be very concise and to the point. You will find that 1250 words is very short!
• Do not use any coloured font anywhere in the text, figures or Appendices (unless you specifically have coloured stimuli to show)
• Do not discuss findings in the Introduction, or interpret results in the Results section.
• When you state your results in the Results section refer to your summary Figure 1 (or Table 1) (if you want to include one).
• Interpret your results in the Discussion section after you restate the trend predicted in the Results

CHECKLIST FOR HANDING IN YOUR REPORT

1)         Title page with student name and number

2)         Introduction (~1-2 pages or ~250-500 words), Method (~1.5 pages), Results (not including tables or figures)) and Discussion (~1-2 pages) (~1250 words maximum)

3)         References section (at least your textbook and 2-3 journal articles is fine)

4)         All of these sections must be contained in one word document (.docx format)

SUBMIT YOUR REPORT using the course website.

A) Study Proposal Introduction

Intro - You will be required to find, read, and incorporate at least 3 EXPERIMENTAL research papers (2 plus an experiment from the textbook is fine) that pertain to the phenomena you wish to study. You of course can use non-experimental papers in addition to the 3 experimental papers. The purpose of the introduction is to inform the reader of the existing studies and evidence concerning your proposed area of research.  It also sets the groundwork for potential methodologies (how the study was conducted) that you may want to consider when designing your own study procedure.  Good rationales/justifications for research usually start by 1) introducing a topic generally, 2) then stating some confirmatory evidence of the phenomena to be studied, 3) then stating some contradictory or ambiguous evidence or a separate line of research, 4) then stating the areas where evidence is lacking, and finally, 5) stating the general question to be answered with this study and the specific hypotheses to be tested and predictions made. The introduction is NOT a summary of all the articles; rather, it discusses the relevant points of studies relevant to your topic.

Hypothesis/Predictions – After stating the general question that your study is trying to answer, state the specific hypotheses or predictions that you have towards the independent variable(s) you are manipulating and the dependant variable(s) you are measuring in your study.

B) Method

Participants –The proposed population you wish to study, the sample size, sampling procedure and any specific characteristics about participants in your study (e.g., all male; all PSY100; from Toronto Population; personality traits). Justify.

Materials – Describe all materials you will need to do your study (e.g., scales, computer programs, room setups, scenario summary, stimuli video, etc. . .  be realistic but USE YOUR IMAGINATION!). Make sure to give the most detail to the important stimuli in your proposed study.

Procedure - This section should state how you plan to actually perform the study.  Here you will need a layout of what will happen to a participant from the moment they arrive to the moment they are debriefed about the study before leaving.  Detail is important as other researchers may want to try to test your claims and replicate your study if there are interesting results. You may want to include Appendices with scripts of what will be said to participants or examples of what participants will experience (this will not be necessary for all studies).  Try to explain the procedure in a clear and simple way that seems logical and realistic. Be concise, not verbose.

C) Predicted Results/Discussion

            This should include predictions how you believe the study will turn out (predicted results) and what these results mean and what would be interesting about that if it did.

A discussion that states how you believe the results of your study would be of interest/impact the theory and other researchers. Also, how will it affect the population you are examining, and the general public – how can the potential results be used in real life. Future directions, limitations, and questions should also be addressed. Finish with a concluding statement to wrap it all up.

An APA REFERENCE section should be included at the end (on a separate page) listing all articles, books, and other media used as a resource for the paper. (5%)

Remember APA7 style! (5%)