Are racial differences in I.Q. environmental or genetic?

I. Introduction section

a. Overview paragraph(s) or “overview” section. Provide a brief general introduction that orients the reader to the topic and the purpose of the research project. The final sentence should be something like “The present study will examine...”

i. See example in appendix below and in attachment

b. Literature Review. This section – which should not be titled “literature review” – can be broken down into subsections (but doesn’t have to be) corresponding to the main topics under investigation. Here you review the RELEVANT research (this does not mean any study on the topic. You must streamline this section to only include studies that have direct relevance to the question(s) you are asking. Furthermore, you do not need to describe every aspect of these studies – just what is relevant to make the case for the questions you are addressing. This section should be organized from general to specific, i.e., first review broad research/theory, then describe the findings from specific studies. This last point is important: you usually focus on the “findings” from studies and their implications. Do not include extraneous information from the methods, such as details about demographics or measures used. Such information is only mentioned when it has direct relevance to your question. For example, if a study only examined men and your study will examine women (or examine sex differences), then it merits mention.

i. Remember, when reviewing studies, you do not have to review ALL of the findings they report – only the findings that are relevant to your study.

c. The “Present study” section. Here, you need to integrate and synthesize the reviewed theory and research into a coherent goal. This section should restate the aims in more detail and culminate with a specific statement of the hypotheses (see examples below).

i. Hypotheses should be clearly articulated and logically derived from the literature you have cited.

Examples:

“We expect a positive correlation between X and Y.”

“We expect a main effect for (GROUP) on (dependent variable) such that those in (group X) will score higher on (dependent variable) compared to those in Group Y.”

“Variable X and Variable Y will interact in predicting (dependent variable). Specifically, we expect ….”

II. Method: Explain how you are going to do the project. Include the following sections

a. Participants and procedure: Who are the (expected) participants? How many? Are they part of a special population? (In-patient, residential, part of an alternative school, victims of the WTC attack, carrying a diagnosis of X). How will they be recruited? Are you using a survey methodology? In-person interviewing? If you are proposing an experiment (e.g., randomized clinical intervention), you must describe the procedures (e.g., manipulation, etc.) in detail (this can be separated out into a separate section) Comment by FDUUSER: I’m fine with them combining these sections for simple studies (survey procedures). They can have separate sections for more complicated designs, e.g., experiments with manipulations

b. Measures: List your measures with an adequate description including: (1) the source, (2) what it is purported to assess, (3) example items and response scale, (4) evidence of reliability and validity.

III. Data analysis plan . How will you test your hypotheses? Comment by FDUUSER: Only for proposals, senior seminar. For completed projects, this is “Results”

a. Be specific regarding analytic strategy, e.g., t-test, correlation coefficient, ANOVA

i. Also state what effects size statistics you will report (Cohen’s d, r, r2)

ii. Power analysis for sample size Comment by FDUUSER: This is beyond the scope for undergrads, but you can let them know that this is something that would be done for proposals

The paper needs to conform to APA style; APA guidelines can be found in the American Psychological Association Publication Manual (found in the library or on-line at http://www.apastyle.org/). In addition to adherence to APA format your final paper should exhibit proper grammar, mechanics, syntax, and observance of ethics (e.g., no plagiarism)."

Example from Muraven et al. article:

Example from Merrill et al. article:

1

Thisis the first paragraph of the

introduction section.

Note how the authors orient the reader to

the problem and what

the study will address.

THEREVIEW OF THE LITERATURE WILL GO HERE. YOU COULD SEPARATE THIS INTO SUBSECTIONS (WITH SUBTITLES), BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO.ATTHE END OF THIS SECTION, STATE THE HYPOTHESES

This studyhas a "Present Study"

section. It is the last

section of the introduction. Here,

the purpose is

restated in more detail and the authors tell us

how the reviewed

literatures led them

do specific hypothesesthey are addressing.

SNIP...SNIP...end withexplicity statement of hypotheses

First paragraph of the introduction

section. Note how

the authors orient the reader to the

problem and what

the study will address.In this article, the authors used

subtitles for their

"literature review" section (this is

optional). As you can

see, they start our by reviewing broder

theoretical issues

then go on to review

specific findings (not shown here).

This studydoesn't have a section with the subtitle

"Present Study," but they

do transition into this at the end of the reviewed

literature. Again, here they

restated the purpose in more detail and they tell us

how the reviewed

literatures led them to the

specific hypothese they are addressing.