Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health Among Adolescents

FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Research Proposal
(Due Saturday, December 3; worth 110 points)
The final paper assignment is a research proposal. For this assignment, you must present your literature review, develop hypotheses, design a study to test those hypotheses (with at least one experimental IV), discuss how you would collect and analyze data to test your hypotheses, and discuss the implications of your expected findings. No actual data collection is to take place.
If your paper is submitted late, there will be a 5-point penalty for each day it’s late.
Requirements:
The proposal should follow APA format, including running head, page headers, and page numbers. Papers should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins. Papers should be no longer than 20 pages total.
Be sure to include:
1. Title Page – Running head, Title, Author, Author’s Institution (no need for keywords)
2. Abstract – 120- to 150-word summary of your proposal
3. Introduction
Paper #3 (Literature Review) was designed to help you with the Introduction for this research proposal. Consider the feedback that you received on Paper #3 and make any necessary changes. Cut anything that is irrelevant to your proposal, but your Introduction should be reviewing three studies.
You may want to change the order of the studies you present to lead to your hypotheses better (e.g., the reviewed study that resembles your own proposal the most should probably be discussed last). There should be smooth transitions between the studies you discuss, and no sub-headings within your Introduction section.
At the end of the Introduction (in its last paragraph or two), you should state your hypotheses, including explicit predictions about both main effects and about the interaction of the two independent variables (i.e., whether each main effect/interaction will be significant and the nature of the effect), and an explanation of why the variables should interact (or not). When describing each independent variable, it should be clear which two (or more) levels you are comparing, and how you expect these levels to differ on your DV (the direction of this difference).
The Introduction section of your paper is not titled “Introduction”. You title it using the title of your entire paper.
Notes: If you lost points on your Literature Review because the studies you reviewed were not experimental, just keep those articles for your final paper. You will not lose points for reviewing non-experimental article in your Final Paper (even if you lost points for this in your Literature Review). It’s okay to review non-experimental articles for your Final Paper, as long as YOUR proposed study does contain at least one experimental IV. However, you are still expected to follow any other specific feedback you got from Paper #3, and make appropriate revisions to improve this part of your paper. Also, it’s okay to use the same sentences you wrote in your Literature Review assignment (Paper #3). Your Introduction section is meant to be a revised version of your Literature Review.
4. Method
Your Method section should propose a research design that tests your hypotheses. Your research design must have two independent variables (i.e., a factorial design). At least one of the independent variables must allow random assignment of participants to different levels/conditions (i.e., an experimental variable). You are allowed to include one non-experimental variable in your design, e.g. gender, marital status, or perhaps (for example) a group with depression versus group without depression. Proposals with only one independent variable will receive a maximum of 75 points.
You are also required to include the following sub-headings within your Method section:
o Design – listing the IVs, levels of the IVs, whether it’s a between-groups or mixed design, and your DV.
o Participants – How many and what sort of participants?
o Materials – What would you need to run your study?
o Procedure – What will the participants do?
Describe your study in enough detail that someone else could replicate the experiment you have designed. For example, if you are proposing to use a self-report anxiety questionnaire to measure your DV, then you should give a brief description of it (such as number of items), and give a citation for it. You do not have to include the entire questionnaire in your paper.
If your variables (IV or DV) are relying on how a participant answers other types of questions (such as the self- reported frequency of some behavior, how strongly they experience a certain emotion, a person’s ethnicity, etc.), then you will need to describe (or state) what these questions are asking. It’s also critical that you describe the response format to each question (e.g., Yes/No, on a continuous scale from 1 to 10 with the endpoints labelled “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”). You should also be explicit about which specific question(s) would measure your IV and your main DV, or how the final number/value would be computed (for example, if you’re combining answers from multiple questions).
If your manipulation is some type of different intervention for people, you should try to be as specific as possible about what each condition involves, and what people will actually experience in each condition. Again, describe it in enough detail that someone else could replicate what you are proposing.
5. Results
The Results section should show what the results would be if your hypotheses were supported. Explain whether you expect significant main effects and/or an interaction. Also describe the direction of these effects, if you expect two groups to be significantly different. Your Results section should refer to a table with your predicted results (but the table itself will go near the end of your paper; see below). Because this is a proposal, your Results section should be written in the future tense. In other words, “I would expect to find…” or “It is predicted that…”
See the “Sample Results section” posted on our Canvas homepage, in the Papers section. Feel free to use the template file for your paper (“Sample Final Paper proposal, Annotated Template”, posted on our main Canvas page), so that you get the APA format correct.
For this paper, you are the one who decides about details such as your sample size and all the means for your predicted results. You will decide on mean values so that they are consistent with the hypotheses proposed. (See the “Table” section below, for more details about this.)
6. Discussion
The Discussion section should start by briefly interpreting the meaning of the expected results in plain language (without numbers and without technical terms like “main effects”). In other words, what would you conclude if you found the data you expected? Reminder: You didn’t do this study, so you write about it in the future tense (e.g., “The expected finding that watching The Daily Show would support the idea that…”).
Your Discussion section should also talk about any potential limitations of the study you proposed. Describe at least one possible problem with construct validity of your variables, and at least one possible threat to internal validity of your design. Be specific for these: state how or why these are problems, and how they could affect the interpretation of your proposed findings. After describing the threat to internal validity, describe what steps could be taken to reduce this threat.
Discuss future directions for this line of research. For example, how would you address the construct validity limitations you mentioned, in future studies? What related questions remain unanswered? If you had done your study and found what you predicted, what would be the next logical study to run?
After you discuss the meaning/interpretation of your findings, the limitations of your study, and future directions, you should broaden your discussion to talk about why this is an important research question more generally.  Finally, find an appropriate way to conclude the paper, like a few concluding sentences that wrap things up.
7. References – A references page in APA format. See any feedback you got from your Literature Review assignment, and see the Annotated Template file posted in Canvas.
8. Table – in APA format with an appropriate caption (title/description of the table). You should refer to this table (as Table 1) somewhere in your Results section, but the table itself will be placed after your References section, on a separate page. This should be a table that shows your predicted results, which report the mean scores of your one most important dependent variable. Do not put your marginal means near this table—only include means for each cell (inside the table).
To repeat: You will make up hypothetical numbers (mean scores) in each cell of your table, based on what you predict would happen in your proposed study. You will want to decide what these predicted numbers will be in your Table before you write your Results and Discussion sections. The mean values in each cell of the Table should be consistent with how your main dependent variable (DV) is measured. For example, if your main dependent variable is grade point average, then all of the numbers (means) in your table will should be in the range between 0 and 4.
Other guidelines:
• You should review any comments you received on the literature review, and use these comments to improve your proposal.
• Do NOT quote directly from any sources (like the articles you reviewed). The only acceptable way to use quotation marks is if you are quoting a word in order to express irony or an unusual use of the word. (For example: The cafeteria worker plopped a glob of “food” onto my tray.)
o More specifically, do not copy more than three consecutive words from any source, even if you cite that source. We will be using TurnItIn (plagiarism detection) for these writing assignments, so avoid copying from other sources.
o There are two exceptions to this rule: (1) You are allowed the use the same material you wrote in your Literature Review. The Introduction in your final paper is a revised version of your Literature Review. Also, (2) you are allowed to use the language in the Sample Results and Annotated Template files that are posted for you in Canvas.
• Your paper should be understandable to an intelligent reader who knows nothing about your topic. In other words, you should write for a naive audience, not for an instructor who already knows something about the topic.
For example, when introducing a psychological or technical term that the average person is probably not familiar with, you should briefly define that term.
• It is okay to write in the first-person in your paper (e.g., “I believe…” or “I would propose…”). Most academic journal articles in psychology use the first-person.
IMPORTANT: The papers are due by the day and time listed at the very beginning of these instructions. Submit your paper through the “Final Paper Assignment” link in Canvas. Every day late will cost you 5 points.
Final Paper Assignment – Psych 301 – Grading Criteria Sheet
APA-Style Title Page (2) _________
Abstract (3) _________
Introduction (20) _________
Opening paragraph and Introducing your topic (2) _______
Background/Literature Review (15) _______
Hypotheses, and some justification of why you hypothesized things these ways (3) _______
Method (20) _________
Design (2) _______
Participants (3) _______
Materials/Procedure (15) _______
Results (15) _________
Proposed design (2) _______
Expected results (8) _______
Table (placed after the References page) (5) _______
Discussion (20) ________
Interpretation of results (2) _______
Threats to Validity (10) _______
Future Directions (5) _______
Importance of Research/Conclusion (3) _______
References (5) _________
Clarity and grammar (20) _______
APA Format (5) _______
TOTAL (110) _________
If you turn in your paper late you will lose 5 points for each day late.