Psychology assignment (("FOR THE THINK TANK ONLY"!!!)

1. A results section

Your results section describes your data and analysis. In this section, you should specify what you analyzed, how you analyzed it, and what you found. Your results should include descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics. You must report your results in both words and using appropriate notation. For most students, the results section will be 1 page.

2. A discussion section

Your discussion section should explain what you found and what it means. This section should be 4 pages. While writing your discussion, be sure to include the following information:

 An explanation of your results

 An explanation of what your results mean in relation to your hypothesis

 A description of how your results relate to previous research. Specifically, did you results match what previous researchers have found? If so, why? If not, why not? You should plan to discuss at least 2 studies here for this assignment.

 A description of any potential flaws, limitations, or confounds in your study that might have impacted your results. Consider your sample, your materials, your design, etc. and analyze them to determine what you could have done differently or better in order to improve the validity/reliability of your study or to produce different results.

 A description of where you could go next in this research area. This could be a suggestion for follow up studies, new directions to explore, or how to revise your own study

 A closing paragraph that summarizes the current understanding of this topic based on previous research and your study

Most students will need to cite at least 3 sources in their discussion section (2 peer reviewed psychology journal articles that relate to their findings, and the textbook to support the discussion of flaws/limitations/confounds), but additional citations may be needed to support your arguments in this section.

Grading

Grading for this assignment will be based on completion, accuracy, and quality. Grading will be completed using the following rubric:

	Exemplary	Satisfactory	Somewhat Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory
Student included a complete title page	1	1	.25 - .75	0
Student included a relevant SPSS data file in the correct format	1	1	#	0
Student included a relevant SPSS output file or images of the output	.5	.5		0
Student correctly completed an appropriate analysis	2	1.75 - 2	.25 – 1.5	0
Student correctly identified the statistical test used	.5	.5		0
Student correctly reported the results in words	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student correctly reported the results in notation	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student accurately interpreted the results of the analysis	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student drew appropriate conclusions about the results of the analysis	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student identified connections between the results of their study and at least two other relevant research studies	2	1.75 - 2	.25 – 1.5	0
Student adequately described each of the two relevant research studies, including information about the method, results, and/or conclusions	2	1.75 - 2	.25 – 1.5	0
Student identified appropriate limitations/flaws to the research design	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student adequately explained how each limitation/flaw was relevant to their research design	2	1.75 - 2	.25 – 1.5	0
Student identified appropriate and thoughtful directions for future research	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Overall, the student drew appropriate conclusions about the results of their study	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Overall, the student provided adequate explanation to support the conclusions about the results of their study	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student included a complete reference section	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .5	0
Student included an appropriate and accurate graph of their results	1	.75 - 1	.25 - .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: 25