Length: Minimum: 1,250 words; maximum: 1,400 words.
Format: Typed, 12-point Times New Roman font, black font, 1-inch margins, single-spaced.
Allowable file formats: .doc, .docx.
The Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to help you apply what youve learned in this course toward: (1) formulating a research question, (2) conducting a micro review of what is already known about your research question, (3) formulating a hypothesis that might answer your research question, and (4) outlining a study design (descriptive or experimental) that would empirically evaluate whether or not your hypothesis withstands the empirical test. You will not conduct the actual study in this course. That is: You will not collect or analyze any data for this assignment. However, this assignment may serve as a theoretical and methodological draft/springboard from which to conduct an actual study in the future if you wish to do so.
To facilitate grading, please provide your answers following each of the questions/instructions below (the prompts/instructions are in red font). You will not write a single block of text. Instead, you will write four separate blocks of text, one for each of the four questions/instructions below. Write each of your four responses following the prompt Your answer:. Enter your answers in this document (see below), rename the document as Writing Assignment [YOUR SURNAME], and upload the document to Canvas (Assignments section) when youre ready to submit it.
Note: There are 352 words worth of questions/instructions between the lines of asterisks. You need to write between 1,250 and 1,400 words. Therefore, there needs to be a total of between 1,602 and 1,752 words between the lines of asterisks once you complete your assignment.
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#1. Formulate one research question relevant to one aspect of human social psychology. Your research question might be about conformity, or attitudes, or romantic love, or friendship, or aggression, or self-perception, or emotion, or stereotyping, or some other topic covered in class.
Max: 10 points
Suggested length: ~100 words
Your answer:
#2. Search (e.g., in Google Scholar; https://scholar.google.com/), read, and summarize two published research papers or chapters relevant to the research question you raised in #1. These two papers or chapters may be empirical and/or theoretical. Your summary of the two papers/chapters will serve as background knowledge; a micro-review of what is already known about your research question. Use APA format to cite the two papers/chapters in your summary (see: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa6_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html). If you quote directly from the two papers/chapters, put quotation marks around the quote(s) and include the page(s) where the excerpted text is found in the original papers/chapters.
Max: 20 points
Suggested length: ~700 words
Your answer:
#3. Formulate one hypothesis that might answer the research question your raised in #1. Your hypothesis may be critical of the two background papers/chapters you summarized in #2. Alternatively, your hypothesis may be relevant to, but not critical of, the two background papers/chapters that you summarized (perhaps your hypothesis is about an aspect of the problem about which the two background papers/chapters are silent).
Max: 15 points
Suggested length: ~100 words
Your answer:
#4. Formulate a study design (either descriptive or experimental) to empirically evaluate whether the hypothesis you formulated in #3 withstands the empirical test. Explain in plain English how you would conduct your study. Skip details of method (e.g., how much you would pay participants for their participation); instead, focus on the essentials (e.g., if the study you propose is experimental, what are the experimental conditions?). Indicate what variable(s) you need to manipulate (e.g., room temperature, generosity of a confederate) and/or what variables you need to measure (e.g., height of the participant, socio-economic status of the participant) in your study. Remember: You will outline the study design but you will not collect or analyze any data for this assignment.
Max: 25 points
Suggested length: ~500 words
Your answer:
