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Topics: Whether Children Who Play Video Games Excessively Are More Impulsive Than Those Who Do Not

A research proposal is a document one generally submits before starting a research project. Generally speaking, the objective is to secure funding for one's project (generally via a grant) or to obtain approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Because your proposal will be purely hypothetical, its purpose has more to do with demonstrating your understanding of research methodology than it does impressing a grant review committee.

OBJECTIVES

Over the course of this project, you will:

Clearly state a research question

Conduct a thorough literature review in which you explain A) what we already know about your topic and B) how your hypothetical project will add to that body of knowledge

State a hypothesis

Propose a means by which you intend to test the aforementioned hypothesis either by collecting your own (hypothetical) data or identifying an existing dataset that will form the basis for your analysis.

Ps：

You must use 10 reputable sources and cite them in a formal style (I don't care which style, as long as you are consistent). at least three of the 10 sources must be from draft.

1. What will your sample size be?

2. What age group(s) will be included?

3. What criteria will you use to identify the children who play video games? Any child who owns a PC or console? Any child who plays at least one hour per day? Any child who plays at least five days per week? Something else?

Example:

Physical Attractiveness and Employment Opportunities

My research question is: how does physical attractiveness affect employment opportunities? I want to examine in the ways in which varying degrees of physical attractiveness affect hiring and selection for a work position. I think that employers will give more opportunities to more physically attractive participants.

The impacts of various demographic characteristics on evaluations made by others have been studied by psychologists for years. Much of the interest has stemmed from the frequent and subjective decisions that are made involving hiring and employment opportunities. Various legislation, such as the Civil Right Act, has been created with the goal of elimination biases that occur as a result of these various characteristics (Watkins and Johnston, 2002). Physical attractiveness has been examined in the context of student evaluation, well-being of adults, and political success (Morrow, 1990). Physical attractiveness is more salient during the time of impression formation, such as in the hiring process (Morrow, 1990). In addition, those with higher levels of physical attractiveness have been proved to be more successful in persuasion

(Chaiken, 1979). It is widely accepted that ‘what is beautiful is good’ (Watkins and Johnston, 2002), but I want to examine the effects of physical attractiveness specifically within the employment process.

My study will seek to first create an average attractiveness rating by having participants rank images of faces on a scale from 1 to 5 (where 1 is unattractive and 5 is extremely attractive). From here, 500 randomly selected participants will be assigned resumés with similar qualifications but portraits that vary in their levels of attractiveness. My conclusion will come from any relationship or trend that develops between attractiveness and hiring.

Physical attractiveness is at the heart of almost all of our day-to-day interactions. Although we try to eliminate potential biases in professional environments, are certain favoritisms unavoidable? This study seeks to find out if physical attractiveness is one demographic characteristic that is always at play in the process of subjective decisions. The key goal of the study is to examine the ways in which physical attractiveness relates to employment opportunities. Chaiken (1979) discovered that attractive communicators induced much higher persuasion on both behavioral and verbal measures of target agreements as opposed to their “unattractive” counterparts. This leads me to believe that physical attractiveness plays a role in influencing others, but I want to explore the extent of this effect in a setting that is meant to be bias-free: the workplace. In addition, I want to examine the role of physical attractiveness in a more subtle way, by providing the employers with only portraits of the candidates rather than in-person interviews. Given the results of Chaiken’s study, I hypothesize that physical attractiveness and employment opportunities will have a positive relationship, with more attractive individuals receiving more job offers than their less attractive counterparts.

In this research proposal, “physical attractiveness” refers to what is degree to which someone’s facial features elicit a favorable response from others. This will be measured by creating an average rating, derived from participants ranking the images of faces on a scale from 1 to 5 (where 1 is unattractive and 5 is extremely attractive). “Employment opportunities” refers to the likelihood that a participant will be chosen for a work position. This will be measured by having people choose between two participants with comparable qualifications for a work position. My study will be quantitative. I am not seeking to understand the “why” behind the perceptions of physical attractiveness; I am strictly examining who is seen as physically attractive and how that affects employment. The rationale for perceived physical attractiveness is difficult to verbalize, so it lends itself well to quantitative data. Analysis of this data will allow me to identify trends and eventually come to an objective conclusion on whether physical attractiveness affects employment opportunities.

I plan to gather 500 participants to create the attractiveness ratings for the portraits. I will gather these 500 participants using sampling rather than a census because the study does not require a large number of elements and the population is homogenous (there is generally a consensus on who is considered physically attractive). The sampling method I will use is stratified random sampling. This method will allow me to take random samples from different groups: those who are attracted to men, those who are attracted to women, and those who are attracted to both. After creating the attractiveness ratings for the portraits, I will then assign each image to a different resumé with similar qualifications. Next, I will need to select more participants to be the employers in the study. I will use stratified random sampling with similar strata and stratum as the first group of participants to find 500 additional participants that will act as employers. This type of stratified sampling allows me to ensure that the potential for attraction is there, so I can move to examine if the attraction is playing a role in the employment offers over the course of the study. Everyone in this group of employers will hire one out of two candidates that have different attractiveness ratings. These ratings will be hidden from the employers to prevent any additional biases. It is not necessary to use interviews or focus groups with the employers because they have all of the hiring information listed in the resumés. The only major difference between each pairing of candidates will be physical attractiveness, so the hiring decision is the only piece of data that must be gathered from the employers. In addition, this study is meant to be generalizable to a larger population, which is why I plan to use a form of random sampling.

I intend to analyze the data by establishing that the independent variable (physical attractiveness) has a causal effect on the dependent variable (employment opportunities). A causal effect occurs if variation in the independent variable is followed by variation in the dependent variable, when all other things are equal. The similar resumés allow for all things to be equal between the two candidates except for the physical attractiveness of the linked portraits. To establish association, I will examine if physical attractiveness varies together with the employment opportunities. Will pictures ranked as “extremely attractive” be chosen on average more than those ranked as “unattractive?” Or vice versa? Time order is already established in this study. The employers will see the qualifications and the portrait on the resumé, and then choose who to hire. Nonspuriousness is also already established in this study. The two resumés that employers will be choosing from are similar enough to leave out the chance that an employer will choose who to hire based on a third variable. The larger context surrounding the variables is also already accounted for in this study. The stratified random sampling allowed me to select employers that have the potential to be attracted to the two portraits they must choose from. The effect of attraction occurs upon seeing the picture, so we can ensure that it is at play as they examine the candidates. Once the data is gathered, I also intend to create a visual representation for the relationship between the two variables. That way, correlation, or a lack thereof, will be visible at a glance.

There are a few potential flaws with my study. It is difficult to prove the causal mechanism of physical attractiveness in this study. Despite my best efforts to establish nonspuriousness and to keep all other factors between the two participants constant, it is still difficult to know if the physical attractiveness is directly influencing the employer to choose their candidate. There will be slight variations between the two resumés in order to hide the true purpose of the study from the employer participants. However, even if the academic and work qualifications between the two resumés are identical, it is difficult to discern whether an employer chose a candidate because of the physical attractiveness of the portrait or because of the slight differences in the other aspects of the application. Another issue that I foresee with my study is its generalizability to a larger population. Physical attractiveness has been at the center of many cross-cultural studies, which have revealed that certain factors influence attractiveness perceptions to a greater degree in different countries. Swami, Viren, and Tovée (2005) found data suggesting that waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has an effect on the attractiveness ratings of Japanese people, but not of Britons. Not only are certain features viewed as more attractive within certain cultures, but some features (such as WHR) are not even visible from the portraits used in my study.

References

Chaiken, Shelly. “Communicator Physical Attractiveness and Persuasion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 37, no. 8, 1979, pp. 1387–1397., doi:10.1037/0022-3514.37.8.1387.

Morrow, Paula C. “Physical Attractiveness and Selection Decision Making.” Journal of

Management, 1 Mar. 1990, pp. 45–60.

Swami, Viren, and Martin J. Tovée. “Female Physical Attractiveness in Britain and Malaysia: A Cross-Cultural Study.” Body Image, vol. 2, no. 2, 2005, pp. 115–128., doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.02.002.

Watkins, Lucy M., and Lucy Johnston. “Screening Job Applicants: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness and Application Quality.” International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 16 Dec. 2002, pp. 76–84.