Each section of Psychology 272 requires a final project based upon research design and measurement. Your task will be to work as a group to design an intervention to increase well-being in college students that you will then execute. This will allow you to focus on the data analysis component: sampling, experimental design, the tests you would run, and so on. While you will create an intervention design and run the design, collecting data as a group, you will then write a research paper describing the existing research, methodology, and results as an individual.
First, begin by deciding what intervention related to well-being and what aspect of well-being you are interested in. Explain what this phenomenon is and why it is interesting. What about it makes it worthy of studying, and why should anyone else care? Include all appropriate peer-reviewed literature references and citations. You should have a minimum of 8 articles from the peer-reviewed literature both cited and referenced in your final submission.
Second, generate the appropriate theory/theories concerning this phenomenon, based on what you learned about the phenomenon from the literature and/or other courses. For example: if I was interested in gratitude intervention to reduce blood pressure, I might theorize that daily gratitude recognition allows an individual to focus on positive emotions and reduce stress, related to a reduction in inflammation and blood pressure.
Third, generate a research hypothesis and null hypothesis based on this intervention and aspect of well-being. You will be comparing at least 1 experimental/intervention group to a control group. Remember: the research questions must be based directly off of your hypotheses, and they must be answerable using empirical methodology. For example: college students who engage in a daily gratitude practice for 1 week will have significantly lower blood pressure than college students who do not (or do some alternative).
Fourth, lay out the methodology that must be followed in order to execute your study properly. Each student will be responsible in recruiting two participants (1 control participant, and 1 intervention participant). These participants will be totaled from the group to create your sample. While this will be a small sample of convenience, this will be acceptable for the purposes of our research project. The methodology component will have three subheadings:
- Sample. In this subsection, describe who your subjects are. Important points to address: How many subjects participated? Where and how did you recruit them? What were your inclusionary and exclusionary criteria? What are important characteristics of your sample (age, gender, race, year at WCU, etc)?
- Materials. In this subsection, briefly describe ALL tests, surveys, physical measures, inventories, and other apparatus that you need to collect your data. Be sure to specify where these materials come from. For example, if youre using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales for Youth (DASS-Y), there must be a citation and reference for the authors of the DASS-Y (Szabo, & Lovibond, 2022). References and citations for pre-existing instruments are additional to the required five peer-reviewed sources. Everything you use must be accompanied with a brief description of the instrument (usually done in a single sentence). You can use pre-existing instruments, or you can create your own. You do NOT have to create the instruments as part of this project, but a couple of sample items that you might ask are required so I have an idea of what you want to know from your subjects. If you use a pre-existing instrument, include a copy of it with your final submission as an appendix. If you choose to use a test as a measure of aptitude or achievement on some construct, the same rules apply.
- Procedure. In this subsection, describe in the necessary detail the complete lived experience of your subject from the moment they sign the informed consent form until the time they leave, leaving out no important parts. The procedure must be chronological in nature.
Sixth, explain what tests you ran to analyze the data for each research question. The tests you use MUST be the appropriate tests for the job. Describe any additional post hoc test or measure of effect size you used if you have statistically significant results.
Your submission MUST BE typed and double-spaced and in APA format. If done correctly, your submission should be at least 8 pages in length, without including the cover page, references, and appendices. A cardinal rule to remember: I should have no problem at all determining what you want to do, how youre going to do it, and what you are going to do to get to the end product. I should not have to guess what you mean; everything should be laid out logically, with obvious connections between all components of the project. The final submission should have the following components:
- Cover Page
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Current Study: Research Questions, Hypotheses, and Theory
- Methods
- Participants
- Materials/Measures
- Procedure
- Results: Data Analysis (if you were unable to complete your data collection, you must at least propose a data analysis)
- Discussion (did your findings support your hypotheses, why or why not, limitations, future directions and application)
- References
- Tables/Figures, Appendices (you can include measures if necessary)
All rules concerning grammar, punctuation, spelling, subject/verb agreement, sentence structure, lack of first- and second-person pronouns, and so on apply to this project. Additionally, the Universitys rules concerning plagiarism also are in effect (I would specifically like to state that AI technology is plagiarism, plus is often incorrect/biased/inappropriate when creating empirical research papers).
You will turn in your own independent research paper, however your Methods and Results sections can be identical to your group members. Your Introduction/Literature Review and Discussion sections will be your own work, unique among group members.
Any final submission that uses AI or other WCU honor violations, and the appropriate steps needed to bring the offender before WCUs Academic Integrity Board will be taken and the assignment will receive a ZERO. These requirements are NOT NEGOTIABLE for any reason or under any circumstance. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for knowing, understanding and adhering to WCUs Academic Integrity Policy both in letter and in spirit.
You can submit a first draft to get feedback from me. This is not required. I will accept a first draft up until 4/24 via email. I do not require perfection on the drafts at all. Rather, I am requiring the drafts to be turned in to me to ensure proper progress on the project. I will not be grading the drafts, but giving feedback to craft your final paper and maximize your final grade.
Please note that the final project will be worth 50 points total, and points can be gained or lost for any number of reasons. If you follow the instructions above and the rubric below carefully, a good grade is virtually assured. The final project is due via Canvas before Friday May 1 by 11:59 PM. Late submissions will NOT be accepted for ANY reason. I will gladly accept early submissions, but any project submitted after this deadline will NOT be accepted for any reason whatsoever without proper documentation from a University official. NOTE: Failure to turn in the final project on or before the due date will result in an AUTOMATIC FAILING GRADE for the course.
Below is the rubric I will be using to grade your submission (Total 50 points). Each of the items below in the rubric will be graded on a 0-to-2 scale as follows (total 40 points). 10 additional points can be lost for inadequate proofreading, spelling errors, lack of APA formatting and grammar errors, other simple mechanical reasons (such as first-person and second-person pronouns, and rhetorical questions) (Hint: proofread your work.) The final 50 points will come from submissions of parts of the assignment throughout the semester.
- 0 points: Missing from submission
- 1 points: Obviously minimal effort; connections/procedures not apparent or completely unclear or inappropriate
- 2 points; Excellent effort; point addressed completely and clearly; connections/procedures obvious and appropriate
RUBRIC
- The phenomenon being investigated is clearly stated.
- There is a minimum of 8 peer-reviewed sources in the literature review.
- The phenomenon being investigated is sufficiently linked to the peer-reviewed sources.
- The theory(-ies) behind your research questions and hypotheses are clearly stated and obviously linked to the phenomenon being investigated.
- The research questions are appropriate to the phenomenon being investigated.
- The research questions can be answered using the hypotheses generated from them.
- The generated hypotheses are clearly linked to the theory being investigated.
- The hypotheses are clearly testable
- The instrumentation (surveys, tests, interviews, etc.) used to address the hypotheses are appropriate.
- All instrumentation from other sources is cited and referenced accordingly and appropriately.
- If you are creating your own instrumentation, the items are included to demonstrate their appropriateness.
- The characteristics of the sample are appropriately defined and explained in sufficient detail.
- All materials required to collect data and execute the study are clearly defined at the appropriate level of complexity.
- The procedure to be followed is described in sufficient detail.
- The statistical tests are clearly defined.
- You are able to explain why the statistical tests to be used are the appropriate procedures to answer the research questions.
- All appropriate post hoc tests and measures of effect size for statistically significant results are included.
- The submission is typed and double-spaced, and in APA format.
- All source material is properly cited in the text.
- All source material is included in a reference list appended to the end of the submission. Copy and paste hypothesis, methods, results from the documents attached and use the sources from the documents attached