Psychology work...

Research Paper Draft 1 Assignment Description

For your research project this semester you will be participating in an online experiment and then writing a research paper on that topic. You will be writing the paper as if you were one of the researchers responsible for the experiment you participated in. You will have written the first draft of your research paper with the following components:

 A title page

 A brief introduction to the study which will include descriptions of at least 2 relevant psychological research articles published within the last 10 years

 A method section which will include a method for the study you participated in from the perspective of the researcher

 A references section

All components of this short research paper must be in APA format.

Instructions for Part 2 (worth 30 points – grading criteria is provided on the last page)

Research Paper Draft 1

Your paper will contain the following four components:

1. A title page

2. A brief introduction to the study which will include descriptions of at least 2 relevant psychological research articles published within the last 10 years

3. A method section which will include a method for the study you participated in from the perspective of the researcher

4. A references section

Each will be explained below.

1. A title page

Your title page should be a single page that includes the following information: a header with your running head and page number, the title of your paper, your name, and your affiliation.

2. Introduction

Your introduction section should introduce your research question to the reader and provide information about previous research to justify and motivate your own hypothesis. Remember that you are writing your paper from the perspective of the researcher who designed this study, so you should be using the same research question described on the OPL website. For your draft of this section, I would encourage you to try and write at least two pages (although you can always write more - remember that more content allows us to give more feedback!). Your draft should contain the following information:

 An introductory paragraph that discusses the general question or problem investigated in the study you participated in. This paragraph should end with the research question for this study.

 A detailed description of at least 2 specific research studies that relates to your topic

o These must be psychological studies published in a peer reviewed journal within the last 10 years

o Your description should include what the researchers did, what they found, and an explanation of what it means in relation to your own study. Each description should be about ½ - 1 page in length

Since you’ll be basing your paper on the study you participated in, you can use the information included on the Online Psychology Laboratory (OPL) website for each study to help you get started. To access this information, click on the title then select “No, but tell me more about this experiment”. This will bring you to a new page that describes the study and relevant background research.

You can use one of the references provided for your paper as long as it meets the requirements for this assignment (peer reviewed journal article published in the last 10 years). You must find the second article on your own. Note that while you can use the information provided to get started, you are not allowed to copy or quote from the OPL page – all work must be your own and in your own words.

3. Method

The purpose of the method section is to describe your study in sufficient detail so that your reader could replicate your work. For this paper, you will describe the procedure for the study you participated in from the perspective of the researcher. This means that you should write the method section as if you designed and ran the study. You will need to read the description of the study to write this section as you may not be exposed to all conditions as the participant. To access this information, click on the title then select “No, but tell me more about this experiment”. This will bring you to a new page that describes the study and relevant background research. You should not describe this study from the point of view of the participant!

For most students, the method section will be between 1-2 pages in length. It should include the following information:

 A participants’ subsection. This should describe how many people participated, who the participants were, what [if anything] they received as compensation, and basic demographic information (e.g., gender, race, age, etc).

o At this point, you won’t be able to provide a precise description of your participants, but you can still provide the outline of this section. You can either make up numbers or include XXX for any information you do not have at this time.

o Note that participants in this study will receive extra credit for their participation

 A materials subsection. This should describe the materials used in the study. You can begin your description using the content provided on the OPL website as well as your own experience completing the study.

 A procedure subsection. This describes what participants did in your study step by step. This will likely be short, but should specify that the study was run online, describe the general procedure, and give an estimate of how long the survey will take to complete. Remember that you must address all conditions in the study, not just those you personally experienced.

4. References

In this section, you will provide references in APA format for all of the sources that you cited in the current draft of your paper. You should also cite the OPL website (see this page for information on how to do this: http://opl.apa.org/APACitationPage.htm ). Do not include references for any papers that you haven’t cited, even if you plan to cite them in future drafts! Keep in mind that you do not need to include all of your references and there is no minimum number of references required for this draft. For most students, you reference section will include only two or three references at this stage.

Formatting and Submission Requirements

All components of this assignment (materials and the paper) must comply with APA formatting. See the APA manual and/or Appendix A of our textbook for more information about this.

You must save your documents as a .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf, .wpd, or .wps. file.

Grading Criteria

Grading will be completed using the following rubric:

	Exemplary	Satisfactory	Somewhat Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory
Student included a complete title page	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student clearly stated a focused problem in their introductory paragraph	3	2.75 - 3	.25 - 2.5	0
Student specified their research question in the introductory paragraph	1	1	.25 - .75	0
Student identified at least two appropriate research studies to use in support of their hypothesis	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student adequately described each research study, including information about the method, the results	4	3.75 - 4	.25 - 3.5	0
Student formulated logical conclusions related to each study described	4	3.75 - 4	.25 - 3.5	0
Student synthesized information related to the research question	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student included a complete participants section, including: the number of participants, a description of the participants, relevant demographic information, and what kind of compensation they received	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student included a complete description of the measures used in the study they participated in	2	1	.25 - .75	0
Student fully and clearly described the procedure for the study they participated in	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student included a complete reference section	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student correctly formatted their draft in APA format	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Student used correct spelling and grammar	2	1.75 - 2	.25 - 1.5	0
Total Possible Points: 30