Instructions for the APA Style Research Proposal
What you need to do:
Select a topic. Think about a topic in the field of psychology that has always interested you, whether as a matter of curiosity or importance. An example topic would be psychological well-being.
One possible proposed research would be to examine "The role of mindfulness and family support on psychological well-being”, where mindfulness and family support would be the independent variables and psychological well-being would be the dependent variable. These terms should be familiar to you. If not, refer to the appropriate sections in your textbook to refresh your memory.
Do a literature search/review to see what is currently known about your topic by finding and reading the relevant peer-reviewed journal articles on your topic.Recommend using “Web of Sciences” or “PsychInfo” available on the UCF library website for your search.
Select at least three peer-reviewed journal articles to read and to use to support and to motivate your topic. You need to write at least one paragraph for each article in your introduction summarizing the content of each article.
Upon reviewing the literature, you will learn what is known about your topic. Your goal is to be able to identify a gap in the current knowledge if one is interested in studying the same topic using a different combination of independent and dependent variables.
Write your proposal. In addition to the material that we will be covering in clas
Remember, you will have many opportunities and resources to learn how to do the above steps, effectively. For example, "Presenting Results" in your textbook (page 523) is very helpful in this regard.
