Final Project Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
The field of contemporary psychology is built upon rigorous research. Theories are constantly proposed, tested, supported, and invalidated through research
studies that are communicated to the field via peer-reviewed research papers. As such, individuals in the field of psychology must be both informed consumers
and educated producers of psychological research.
This course is the second in the sequence of two research methods courses. In the first course, you created a research proposal centered on a testable research
question. Now, in this course, you will actually conduct research around your research question guided by your proposal and using other students as your
research participants. Note that you are required to use Southern New Hampshire University students as research participants.
Once you conduct your research, you will analyze the data utilizing
the statistical software SPSS to inform your conclusions. As a final product, you will submit not only your new content, but also the content from Research
Methods in Psychology I, combining the work from both courses to create one complete research manuscript. You will, however, only be graded on the new
content from Research Methods in Psychology II.
This project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final
submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Four, Six, and Eight. Milestones One-Three are steps that you need to complete before
you can write your research manuscript. Milestones Four and Five are opportunities for you to write drafts of sections of your final project. You will receive
feedback from your instructor that can be incorporated in your final submission.
This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:
Employ methodologically sound strategies for addressing testable research questions
Select inferential statistical tests for appropriately addressing research questions in psychology
Employ appropriate statistical techniques for analyzing data using statistical software
Interpret statistical analyses for informing conclusions and identifying limitations of research
Communicate psychological research results that adhere to the American Psychological Association’s principles and standards
Prompt
For this assessment, you will create a research manuscript, guided by your research proposal from Research Methods in Psychology I and the study you
conducted earlier in the course. Please speak with your instructor if you did not take Research Methods I.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Methods
A. Outline who the participants were in the study. How many participants were there, and how were they recruited?
B. Describe the materials (surveys, etc.) you created for the study and how they specifically address the research question. Also, consider how the
materials appropriately take into consideration the participants.
C. Describe the methodological procedures used to collect the data. How were the materials used in collecting the data?
II. Results
A. Describe how your raw data was reduced for statistical analysis, clearly detailing each step of the process.
B. Create a table outlining the descriptive statistics for your key variables.
C. Describe the statistical test you selected, and explain why this test is the most appropriate for analyzing your data.
D. Communicate your research results in a manner that is of professional quality, as outlined by the American Psychological Association’s
standards.
III. Discussion
A. What were the results of the data analysis, and how do these results relate to the research hypothesis?
B. How do your obtained results complement and/or contradict the previous literature on the topic? Justify your assertions with data.
C. Outline the strengths and limitations of your research, supporting these assertions with your data analysis.
D. Identify other tests you could have used, and explain why these tests were not as appropriate for analyzing the data.
E. Discuss the extent to which your study adheres to the American Psychological Association’s principles and standards.
F. Based on the results from your data analysis, identify areas related to your topic that are still in need of future research.
