Final Research Proposal Directions You will write a research proposal for a quantitative empirical research project. The research proposal must be from 6-8 pages in length (referring to the body of the paper; the title page, the reference pages and appendices do not count towards this length). Proposed research must be empirical and plausible for you to actually conduct, however, you will not actually be conducting the study for this class . For example, drug research is not acceptable unless you are in a situation where you could actually conduct such a study. Proposals for research that is ethically questionable are unacceptable. This paper will present a review of relevant research literature, the rationale for your project, and a thorough description of how the actual research would be conducted. The paper must be in APA style (6th edition, 2009).  Sections of Research Report (see APA manual) www.apastyle.org Title Page (p. 1, with running head, title, your name, & school address; See APA Manual!)  Abstract (Do not include an abstract for this paper.)  Introduction (p. 2) Includes a statement of the research problem and a review of the relevant research literature. The literature review should include mainly research articles (not commentary, review or opinion articles) that demonstrate how previous research relates to and leads up to your current research proposal. You should include a statement of the current research problem and the research hypothesis. The relationship between the past research literature and your research hypothesis should be made explicit if it is not obvious.  The introduction provides the context for your proposed study; hence there is always literature that is relevant to your research problem.  YOU MUST HAVE A LITERATURE REVIEW! At a minimum the introduction portion of your paper should be 3 pages in length with at least six empirical research references from peer reviewed journals (i.e., research articles from refereed professional journals), and these research articles must make up at least 80% of the total references in your paper. For the purpose of a research paper, inappropriate references (if excessively used or exclusively used, thus leaving out research articles) include textbooks, non-empirical articles (e.g., commentary or opinion articles), and popular books/articles (such as TIME magazine, or PSYCHOLOGY TODAY). Review articles can be useful and appropriate to include, as long as they are not the majority of your references (not more than 20% of the total references in your paper).  Method (At a minimum the methods portion of your paper should be 2 pages in length.) This section includes three or more subsections. You must have the Design, Participants, Materials (or Apparatus), and Procedure subsections in your research proposal.  Design - You should describe in detail what design (e.g., observational; experimental - between-subjects or within-subjects; quasi-experimental - nonequival.

1. Final Research Proposal Directions
You will write a research proposal for a quantitative empirical
research project. The research proposal must be from 6-8 pages
in length (referring to the body of the paper; the title page, the
reference pages and appendices do not count towards this
length). Proposed research must be empirical and plausible for
you to actually conduct, however,
you will not actually be conducting the study for this class
. For example, drug research is not acceptable unless you are in
a situation where you could actually conduct such a study.
Proposals for research that is ethically questionable are
unacceptable. This paper will present a review of relevant
research literature, the rationale for your project, and a
thorough description of how the actual research would be
conducted. The paper must be in APA style (6th edition, 2009).
Sections of Research Report (see APA manual)
www.apastyle.org
Title Page (p. 1, with running head, title, your name, & school
address; See APA Manual!)
Abstract (Do not include an abstract for this paper.)
Introduction (p. 2) Includes a statement of the research problem
and a review of the relevant research literature. The literature
review should include mainly research articles (not
commentary, review or opinion articles) that demonstrate how
previous research relates to and leads up to your current
research proposal. You should include a statement of the current
research problem and the research hypothesis. The relationship
between the past research literature and your research

2. hypothesis should be made explicit if it is not obvious.
The introduction provides the context for your proposed study;
hence there is always literature that is relevant to your research
problem.
YOU MUST HAVE A LITERATURE REVIEW! At a minimum
the introduction portion of your paper should be 3 pages in
length with at least six empirical research references from peer
reviewed journals (i.e., research articles from refereed
professional journals), and these research articles must make up
at least 80% of the total references in your paper. For the
purpose of a research paper, inappropriate references (if
excessively used or exclusively used, thus leaving out research
articles) include textbooks, non-empirical articles (e.g.,
commentary or opinion articles), and popular books/articles
(such as TIME magazine, or PSYCHOLOGY TODAY). Review
articles can be useful and appropriate to include, as long as they
are not the majority of your references (not more than 20% of
the total references in your paper).
Method (At a minimum the methods portion of your paper
should be 2 pages in length.) This section includes three or
more subsections. You must have the Design, Participants,
Materials (or Apparatus), and Procedure subsections in your
research proposal.
Design - You should describe in detail what design (e.g.,
observational; experimental - between-subjects or within-
subjects; quasi-experimental - nonequivalent control group
design, interrupted time-series design, etc.) you plan to use and
what the important variables (I.V.s & D.V.s) and operational
definitions are.

3. Participants - You should describe how many participants you
will run and how the participants will be selected. What is your
sampling procedure?
Materials (Apparatus) - You should describe any materials you
will use in the research, such as tests, questionnaires,
computers, video cameras, etc.
Procedure - You should include the entire process that a
participant will go through when he or she participates in the
experiment. You should include a description of what happens
to the participants in each condition and how they will be
assigned to each condition (e.g., self-selected conditions,
randomly assigned to conditions, etc.).
References (You should follow APA style for all citations in the
paper and for the listing of references in this section.)
Appendices You should include an appendix that contains a
copy of the Title/Abstract page for each article that you cite in
your proposal (for every article listed in the references). If an
article does not have an abstract, include the title page and the
page that includes the beginning of the procedure subsection of
the Methods section.