PSY 520 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.

PSY 520 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. You are strictly prohibited from using individuals outside of Southern New Hampshire University as research participants. Also, research proposals that ask questions around diagnosable mental health disorders, suicide, or abuse of any kind will not be allowed. 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.

Milestones Milestone One: Edited PSY 510 Final Paper (Research Proposal) In Module One, you will submit an edited version of the research proposal that was the final project for PSY 510. Editing and incorporating feedback are two of the key skills that researchers need to master in order to produce high-quality writing. Indeed, all peer-reviewed articles have been written and rewritten many times; they are never completed in only one draft!

Rather than merely submitting the same version of the assignment that you submitted in PSY 510, it is important that you edit and improve the paper based on the feedback provided by your PSY 510 instructor. In addition to the feedback provided from your PSY 510 instructor, please also refer to the Milestone One Guidelines document.

It is OK to make changes to your research question, hypothesis, or research methods, but please clear any substantial changes such as completely changing the problem statement with your instructor. This will be submitted for feedback only.

Milestone Two: Draft of Research Materials (Surveys)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Module Two, you will submit a draft of all items and questionnaires that will be given to your participants in your study. The items and questions should be listed in the exact order that they will be given to participants. You may use questionnaires that you have designed, questionnaires used in previous research, or any combination thereof. Your instructor will provide feedback so that these materials may be improved before data collection. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Qualtrics Input and Participant Notification In Module Four, you will use the Qualtrics software to program the research materials (i.e., surveys) that you will give to participants. It is important to program your materials exactly how you want students to see them. Remember to register for your SNHU Qualtrics account by following the instructions on the Creating a Qualtrics Account handout prior to beginning work on this milestone. Be sure to incorporate the feedback that you received on your materials from your instructor on Milestone Two. Refer to the Qualtrics website and the instructional video in Module Four for assistance.

You will also compose an introductory message to your study participants, which you will use in the Collect Data From Participants task in Module Four.

This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Milestone Four: Initial Draft of Methods and Results In Module Six, you will submit an initial draft of your Methods and Results sections. Now that you have completed your data collection, it is important to revise your methods section so that it accurately reflects the methods that were actually used in your study.

In your Results section, you should first describe how you reduced your data for analysis (e.g., how your questionnaires were summed or averaged to get a composite score to analyze). Your Results section should also include a table of the relevant descriptive statistics. Last, you will need to describe the statistical test that you chose to run and provide the key results for the test as well as a brief explanation of the results. It is essential that you follow APA style when writing this section. Please refer to Chapters 2 and 5 of your APA manual for further instructions on how best to write a Methods and Results section. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Four Rubric.

Milestone Five: Initial Draft of Discussion Section In Module Eight, you will submit an initial draft of your Discussion section. This section should recap your findings, discuss how the findings fit in with prior research on the topic, discuss areas for future research, and mention limitations and ethical considerations related to your research. It is essential that you follow APA style when writing this section. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Five Rubric.

Final Submission: Research Paper In Module Ten, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Product Rubric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deliverables

Milestone Deliverable Module Due Grading One Edited PSY 510 Final Paper One Graded pass/fail based upon submission

Two Draft of Research Materials Two Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric

Three Qualtrics Input and Participant Notification Four Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric

Four Initial Draft of Methods and Results Six Graded separately; Milestone Four Rubric

Five Initial Draft of Discussion Section Eight Graded separately; Milestone Five Rubric

Final Submission: Research Paper Ten Graded separately; Final Product Rubric

Final Product Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your research manuscript should be 4–6 pages in length of new content, 12–16 pages total (with content from both PSY 510 and PSY 520), and it must adhere to standard formatting (Times New Roman, 12-point font, one-inch margins), using the most recent version of the APA style manual for the citations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Critical Elements Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Not Evident Value Methods: Participants Outlines the participants in the

study and how they were recruited (100%)

Outlines the participants in the study, but does not explain how they were recruited (70%)

Does not outline the participants in the study (0%)

6.4

Methods: Materials Meets “Proficient” criteria and describes materials that are especially well aligned to the research question (100%)

Describes the materials created for the study and how they specifically address the research question and audience (90%)

Describes the materials created for the study, but does not describe how they specifically address the research question or audience, or description has gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not describe the materials created for the study and how they specifically address the research question and audience (0%)

6.4

Methods: Methodological

Procedures

Meets “Proficient” criteria and describes procedures that are especially well aligned to the research question (100%)

Describes the methodological procedures used to collect data and how the materials were used in collecting (90%)

Describes the methodological procedures used to collect data, but not how the materials were used in collecting, or description has gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not describe the methodological procedures used to collect data and how the materials were used in collecting (0%)

6.4

Results: Raw Data Meets “Proficient” criteria and is exceptionally clear, contextualized, and aligned to the research question (100%)

Describes how the raw data was reduced for statistical analysis, clearly detailing each step of the process (90%)

Describes how the raw data was reduced for statistical analysis, but does not clearly detail each step of the process, or steps are inappropriate (70%)

Does not describe how the raw data was reduced for statistical analysis (0%)

7.68

Results: Descriptive Statistics

Creates a table outlining the descriptive statistics for the key variables (100%)

Creates a table outlining the descriptive statistics for the key variables, with gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not create a table outlining the descriptive statistics for the key variables (0%)

7.68

Results: Statistical Test

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates a nuanced understanding the alignment between appropriate statistical tests and data (100%)

Describes the statistical test selected and explains why the test is the most appropriate for analyzing the data (90%)

Describes the statistical test selected, but does not explain why the test is the most appropriate for analyzing the data, or explanation lacks detail or accuracy (70%)

Does not describe the statistical test selected (0%)

7.68

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results: Conducted Meets “Proficient” criteria and is exceptionally clear, contextualized, and aligned to the research question (100%)

Describes how the statistical test was conducted, clearly detailing each step of the test and how the software was used (90%)

Describes how the statistical test was conducted, but does not clearly detail each step of the test and how the software was used, or steps are inappropriate (70%)

Does not describe how the statistical test was conducted (0%)

7.68

Results: Manuscript Standards

Meets “Proficient” criteria, and manuscript is of the quality that would be found in an American Psychological Association article (100%)

Manuscript is of professional quality, as outlined by the American Psychological Association’s standards (90%)

Manuscript is aligned with the American Psychological Association’s standards, but not of professional quality (70%)

Manuscript is not aligned with the American Psychological Association’s standards (0%)

7.68

Discussion: Hypothesis

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the connection between research results and hypotheses (100%)

Details the results of the data analysis and how the results relate to the hypothesis (90%)

Details the results of the data analysis, but does not detail how the results relate to the hypothesis, or has gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not detail the results of the data analysis (0%)

4.8

Discussion: Previous Literature

Meets “Proficient” criteria and does an exceptional job of integrating the current findings with previous literature (100%)

Details how the results complement and/or contradict the previous literature on the topic, justifying assertions with data (90%)

Details how the results complement and/or contradict the previous literature on the topic, but does not justify assertions with data or has gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not detail how the results complement and/or contradict the previous literature on the topic (0%)

4.8

Discussion: Strengths and Limitations

Meets “Proficient” criteria and details and examples, demonstrating a keen insight into the strengths and limitations of the research (100%)

Outlines the strengths and limitations of the research, supporting the assertions with analyzed data (90%)

Outlines the strengths and limitations of the research, but assertions are not supported with analyzed data (70%)

Does not outline the strengths and limitations of the research (0%)

4.8

Discussion: Tests Not Appropriate

Meets “Proficient” criteria and demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the alignment between appropriate statistical tests and data (100%)

Identifies other statistical tests and explains why the tests were not as appropriate for analyzing the data (90%)

Identifies other statistical tests, but does not explain why the tests were not as appropriate for analyzing the data, or explanation has gaps in detail or accuracy (70%)

Does not identify other statistical tests (0%)

9.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion: Study Standards

Meets “Proficient” criteria and details and examples demonstrate a keen insight into the American Psychological Association’s standards (100%)

Discusses the extent to which the study adheres to the American Psychological Association’s standards (90%)

Discusses the extent to which the study adheres to the American Psychological Association’s standards, but with gaps in accuracy or detail (70%)

Does not discuss the extent to which the study adheres to the American Psychological Association’s standards (0%)

9.6

Discussion: Future Research

Meets “Proficient” criteria and is extremely insightful in identifying areas in need of future research (100%)

Identifies areas still in need of future research, based on the data analysis (90%)

Identifies areas still in need of future research, but assertions are not based on the data analysis (70%)

Does not identify areas still in need of future research (0%)

4.8

Articulation of Response

Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy-to-read format (100%)

Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization (90%)

Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas (70%)

Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas (0%)

4

Earned Total 100%