The Final Proposal (Prospectus) is a proposal for a hypothetical experiment, quasi-experiment or correlational study. The proposal should focus on an experimental or Correlational design found in the text (Jackson, 2012).
NOTE: Examples could be correlation (Pearson, Spearman, or Point Biserial) or regression, ANOVA (correlated or independent groups), repeated measures ANOVA (e.g., 2 X 2), t-test, chi square, or non-parametric t-test or ANOVA. Descriptive designs and single subjects’ designs are not accepted for the Final Paper.
So you will need to find a topic by surveying a section of the Psychology literature. This might be something from Social Psych, Development, I/O, Abnormal or really any field. Your proposed subjects (remember, we are not going run any actual research) can be adults, or children. Think about how you are going to recruit your subjects too and about the informed consent process you will use.
Keep your study goals modest. We would all like to find the cause of schizophrenia or of why people tell lies. Also, please don’t get into studies involving complex biological subjects unless you are well versed in those. We would like to study very large groups, but most studies in Psychology run maybe 40 or 50 to 100 people.
And remember Week 1 Discussion. We want our studies to be able to pass Institutional Review Board scrutiny. That means informed consent (or a waiver if you can present a good reason). It means minimizing any harm, physical or psychological, to our subjects. It means maintaining confidentiality.
The proposal will be written in APAformat and should be 10 to 12 written pages when formatted as APA Style requires in terms of font, margins and so on., with 7-10 scholarly references. Stronger papers have a mix of primary and secondary sources
