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Research Skills

Research Skills. Week 5: Research proposal reminders. Overview. Word limit: 2000, but aim for a maximum of 1500 (not including title or references). Title. Straightforward and informative (not more than 15 words) Enough to explain your study without going into too much detail Examples:

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Research Skills

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  1. Research Skills Week 5: Research proposal reminders

  2. Overview Word limit: 2000, but aim for a maximum of 1500 (not including title or references)

  3. Title • Straightforward and informative (not more than 15 words) • Enough to explain your study without going into too much detail • Examples: • Too little detail: Fast food purchases • Too much detail: Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women in the last month in Brighton • Just right: Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women • Independent Variable = the value being manipulated or changed • Dependent Variable = the observed result that is dependent on the independent variable

  4. IV and DV examples • What is the IV and DV in the following titles? • Differences in the fast food purchasing habits of men and women • The impact of a sensation-seeking personality trait on alcohol consumption • The effects of aging on reaction time in a signal detection task

  5. Introduction • Quick explanation of research area • Summary of relevant past research (and perhaps its flaws) • Purpose of study • Brief description of methods • 4 Hypotheses (2 categorical and 2 continuous) • Aim to predict differences between groups rather than relationships between variables • Up to 1200 words

  6. Hypotheses • Categorical hypotheses: • 2 categorical variables • e.g. “Men prefer to buy fast food at Burger King, while women prefer to buy fast food at McDonalds”

  7. Hypotheses • Continuous hypotheses: • 1 categorical variable and 1 continuous variable • e.g. “Males consume a larger quantity of alcoholic beverages per week than females” • 2 continuous variables (not for this term) • e.g. “As age increases, scores on a memory test decrease”

  8. Method • Give enough information so that it is obvious what you intend to do • Subsections: • Participants • Materials • Design • Procedure Write in paragraphs (no lists!)

  9. Participants • Number of participants • Sex (# of men, # of women) • Who (students, women, the retired, etc) • Volunteers or paid? • Any other demographics that might be necessary

  10. Materials • Things you will be using: • Questionnaire (do not include the whole thing!) • Any other materials you think are necessary to include • DON’T INCLUDE: Pen, A4 paper, etc.

  11. Design • Identify: • Independent variable(s) • Dependent variable(s) • Design: within-subjects, between-subjects or mixed? • Don’t worry about this section this term • Just say you will use a questionnaire design

  12. Procedure • Explain how the experiment will be carried out • Step by step breakdown of what will be done • Informed consent

  13. Tenses, tone and terminology • Write in future tense • Write in third person where you can (e.g. “Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire”) and avoid first person (“I asked participants to complete a questionnaire”, “We asked participants to complete a questionnaire”) • Back up your assertions • Refer to people you tested as ‘participants’ not ‘subjects’

  14. Making it look neat • Double-space • Colours: Stick to greyscale • Put a title on each section • Number your pages • Check your spelling and grammar • Check your references – they are worth six marks

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