Assignment 2: Research Proposal
This is the second of TWO written assignments for this unit.
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The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop skills at selecting appropriate research
designs and methods to address a research problem. You will prepare a research proposal
that will involve applying your knowledge of scientific research, research approaches and
data collection methods, research formulation, ethics of scientific research, measurement and
sampling methods.

This assignment is a 1,500 word research proposal.
It is worth 35% of your final mark.

The Research Proposal:
You are required to prepare a research proposal – a document that informs others of a
research project that you intend to conduct. This would typically be used when applying for a
postgraduate psychology degree or when working in industry. This proposal should highlight
the potential significance and feasibility of the research project. Moreover, writing a research
proposal often helps individuals structure their thoughts, identify the purpose of their research
and recognise what is involved to conduct the project. It also helps individuals to develop a
plan and specify the expected outcomes.
The general structure of the proposal is shown below. The word counts are given are
guidelines only, you may need to alter these slightly depending on your chosen topic.
• Title page:
The title needs to be brief. Include the key terms that relate to your proposal.

• Introduction: (200 words)
This section should present the relevant background information for the research
project. You will need to introduce the general field of research then narrow to the
specific area of your research project. This section should lead logically to either a
gap in the existing research or the research problem that you believe needs to be
addressed.

• Aim(s): (100 words)
This section should present the research question and/or hypotheses you will
investigate and answer in order to fill the gap in the research or address the research
problem.

• Literature review: (400 words)
This section needs to provide more information about what others have done by
reviewing relevant past research studies. It should highlight the major issues,
definitions of key terms, gaps in the research and the need for your particular
research. You will also need to highlight where your research overlaps and differs
from existing research. This section is intended to contextualise your research
questions.
To help you get started on reviewing previous research, there is a help page available
on the Swinburne library website that includes helpful guides and tips for finding
research articles and books in relevant scientific databases. You can access the help
page via the URL: https://www.swinburne.edu.au/library/search/help/

• Significance/contribution of the research: (200 words)
This section should outline how your research will make a change to an area of
research or respond to a particular problem. This is different from the justification as
it will explain how the research will lead to certain outcomes. In particular, you need
to highlight the importance of the research in terms of the following:
o theoretical contributions
o practical outcomes
• Proposed research methodology: (400 words)
This section should describe and justify the research methodology. To do this, you
should address the following:
o participants;
o methodology (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods);
o design framework (e.g., experimental, non-experimental);
o data collection method(s) (e.g., tests, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups,
observations, existing data);
o sampling method (e.g., random, nonrandom); and
o ethical considerations.

• Scope and Problems: (200 words)
This section needs to define the breadth of the research topic. That is, is the research
focused on a broad research question or will it focus on a particular issue or problem?
It also needs to identify any limitations or potential problems that may occur
throughout the project.

• References
This section should include all of the in-text references that were provided in the
previous sections. This should be in APA format.