Short Paper smile experiment

SCS 502 Module Eight Smile Experiment Guidelines and Rubric

Overview: For this short paper, you will first develop a hypothesis about smiling at others and then develop a corresponding research design. Once you have established your hypothesis and research design, you will then collect data by smiling at 10 people. Please make sure to adhere to this requirement -- DO NOT approach or interact with any of the people that you smile at, as this would constitute human subjects research and require COCE Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Finally, you will write up your study and conclusions drawn from the research. Please see the following detailed instructions:

Begin by doing a quick literature search around smiling or some sort of smiling behavior. This paper requires at least one peer-reviewed article cited in the introduction.

Next, develop a hypothesis statement. Think about what you have read in your literature search and what you experience in the world around you. What might you want to know about smiling? Make sure to use the “If . . . then . . . ” format.

Then, develop your methodology—what exactly are you going to do to test your hypothesis? Rigorous science starts with and sticks to a plan, so you should think through various challenges and how you might address them if they arise. If you start collecting data and then determine your methodology needs to change, you should discard all data collected to date and begin fresh with the new methodology.

Once you have the hypothesis and methods, you can go in one of two directions. Typically an experiment is carried out over a period of months or even years and the paper is written at the end. However, this is a week-long assignment and you might want to sit down and write the introduction and methods while everything is fresh in your mind.

In whatever order you decide to do them, the remaining two tasks are:

Collect the data. Implement your methodology and see how it goes. Remember, if you are both the person smiling and the person recording the data, you should have some discreet way of recording the information as you go. You do not want people seeing you measuring them or that will change their behavior. You also do not want to count on remembering all the details at the end of the day. Be sure to record some basic observations about who the participant was, as well as what their response was. Again, as stated earlier, DO NOT approach or interact with any of the people that you smile at.

Write the report. Using the standard APA format (see Chapter 2 of the APA manual), write up the experiment. There is an exemplar available for you to review in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubric folder. This is meant to help you. However, you should understand that it is the work of a fellow student. That means that this should be used more for ideas than as an example of the absolute gold standard of classwork.

Be sure your submission includes the following critical elements:

 Introduction: Title pages and abstract (required to be 250 words or less). Provides a research explanation that is appropriate for use based on the evidence in social science research, within APA word limits

● Introduction: Peer-reviewed resources—Include at least one peer-reviewed article for support. ● Introduction: Hypothesis—End with your hypothesis. ● Method: Development/description—Describe what you did. This should be detailed enough that you could hand the paper to a stranger and they could

replicate your study exactly. ● Method: Data collection and analysis—Describe the data collection and analysis procedures in detail. ● Method: Participants—Describe your participants. Descriptions must be an estimation only (such as estimating age). DO NOT approach people asking for

any information. ● Discussion: Supports/rejects—Write up what you found. Include a table or chart illustrating all of the participants’ responses. State if the data supports

or rejects your hypothesis. ● Discussion: Larger conclusion—What larger conclusions could you draw from this data? Are the results generalizable? What are the next steps if

someone wanted to continue this research? (Note that this section is not present in the current exemplar but is still expected for this assignment.) ● Discussion: Limitations—What are the limitations of the study that your reader needs to be aware of? ● References: Another section you are hopefully comfortable with by now. Your references should be in APA style format.

Guidelines for Submission: Your paper must be submitted as Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, running head, title page, and at least three sources cited in APA format. This submission should be approximately 3–5 pages (not counting title or reference page).

Rubric Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Introduction: Title Page and Abstract

Meets “Proficient” criteria and supports research rationale with a brief, nuanced overview of the theory being evaluated

Title page and abstract are APA formatted and are free of errors; provides a research explanation that is appropriate for use based on the evidence in social science research, within APA word limits

Title page and abstract are APA formatted with some minor errors; provides a research explanation that is appropriate for use based on the evidence in social science research but fails to stay within APA word limits

No title page and abstract exist or major errors exist in APA formatting; does not provide research explanation that is appropriate for use based on the evidence in social science research

10

Introduction: Peer- Reviewed Article

Meets “Proficient” criteria and has a clear, specific link to the hypothesis

Peer-reviewed article is appropriate for the study and is referenced

Peer-reviewed article is not appropriate for the article or no reference to the article is present

No peer-reviewed article is referenced

10

Introduction: Hypothesis Statement

Provides a research hypothesis, including the correct modification written in the if-then format with a clear rationale and support

Provides a research hypothesis, with a clear rationale and support but not written in the if-then format

Provides a research hypothesis; however, hypothesis is irrelevant and/or lacking in detail and support

Research hypothesis is not evident

10

Method: Detailed Development/Description

Meets “Proficient” criteria, substantiated with insightful rationale and experimental design clearly identifying variables and measures that fully support posed hypothesis

Experimental research design is described with justification and identification of variables and measures, and hypothesis is supported

Experimental research design is described with minimal justification and identification

posed hypothesis is not addressed or supported

of variables and measures;

Experimental research design is not coherent or evident

10

Method: Data Collection and

Analysis

Meets “Proficient” criteria, substantiated with insightful rationale regarding data collection and analysis with extensive detail

Describes the data collection and analysis procedures in detail

The data collection and analysis procedures are lacking in detail

The data collection and analysis procedures are not evident or contains sufficient issues so that it is not understandable

10

Method: Participants

Meets “Proficient” criteria and applies clear description of research population, fully describing attributes, sampling, and conditions of randomization

Provides description of research population with sampling and attribute descriptions and conditions of randomization

Provides minimal description of research population, sampling attributes, and conditions of randomization

Provides no description of research population, sampling, attributes, and/or conditions of randomization

10

Results: Supports/Rejects Meets “Proficient” criteria and supporting graphic tells a clear, succinct story of key result(s)

Describes results in constructed research with explanation and supporting table or chart; clearly addresses research hypotheses

Describes the potential results in constructed research with minimal explanation, leaving research hypotheses generated by the author minimally addressed

Description of potential results in constructed research is not evident

15

Discussion: Larger Conclusion

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and includes a discussion of generalizability and next steps

Describes the conclusions that can be drawn from the results generated

The conclusions are lacking in detail or are inaccurate

Does not identify conclusions that can be drawn from the results generated

10

Discussion: Limitations Identifies characteristics of the research that might be of concern when considering the results with suggestions for addressing them in future research

Identifies characteristics of the research that might be of concern when considering the results

Identifies some characteristics of the research that might be of concern but response is minimal

Does not identify characteristics of the research that might be of concern

10

Articulation of Response Document is consistent with APA style guidelines (all cited references are included using APA format, with no errors in construction of title page or other critical APA elements) and has no errors related to grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Document is consistent with APA style guidelines (all cited references are included using APA format, with minimal errors in construction of title page and/or other critical APA elements) and has no major errors related to grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Document is inconsistent with APA style guidelines (not all cited references are included using APA format, and there are errors in construction of title page and/or other critical APA elements) and has major errors related to grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Document is inconsistent with APA style guidelines (not all cited references are included using APA format, with critical errors in construction of title page and/or other APA elements) and has critical errors related to grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

5

Total 100%