Final Paper: Research Proposal

CANVAS - PSY326 Week Five Welcome to Week 5 of Psychology 326, Research Methods at Ashford University. In this final week of the course, you will learn about what is considered the gold standard of research designs-- the experiment. Although this category of designs involves the highest level of control by the researcher, it's not the answer to every research question or problem. Sometimes descriptive or correlational design is best for the situation.

Experimental designs are good for helping establish causation. The most notorious ethical breaches have occurred in the context of experimental research. The potential for harming participants, whether accidental or deliberate, is greatest when some kind of manipulation in the form of a treatment or intervention is given to participants.

That's why this type of research design is subject to the highest level of scrutiny by IRB's, and the government agencies that regulate them. In your discussion post this week, be prepared to talk about how and why a quasi experimental design, that is an almost experiment, might solve some ethical problems that would come up in a true experiment.

The Week 5 quiz covers Chapter 5 of the textbook. The quiz will include questions about experimental and quasi experimental research design and threats to internal and external validity of exponents. The final paper is a research proposal. It's not a report of either real or hypothetical completed research, but a detailed plan for a new research study on the topic of the study you critiqued in Week 3.

The assignment instructions provide details about what must be included in your paper, including section headings, and the information that needs to be covered in each section. Notice that there is no results section. This is because the research proposal is not about a study that's already been done. It's the kind of document you would send to the IRB when requesting permission to begin a study.

You need to include anything the IRB might ask about, such as how you will safeguard the confidentiality of your participants, whether any deception will be involved, and if so why it is necessary, how you will protect the participants from any kind of harm, and plans for debriefing. If you choose a non-experimental research design, some of these items won't apply to you. The proposal does have a conclusion section, but this is where you summarize the main points of the research plan and reiterate why you believe the study is important and should be allowed to be done.

Don't try to make any conclusions about the results of the study. As always, don't forget to make use of the resources in the Ashford library, especially the Research Methods Research Guide to find information and peer reviewed sources to support your discussion post and your final research proposal. If you have any questions or concerns, contact your instructor. Have a great week.

Definition of really complicated word.