Purpose and Requirements The purpose of this assessment is to allow you to demonstrate your ability to describe a piece of psychological research which needs to be done, and to lay out, logically, how that piece of research might be achieved. This is termed a ‘project proposal’. All funded research is initially described in such a proposal. You are required to write a short research proposal, relevant to the Research Methods Module for which you are submitting the coursework. The choice of subject area is up to you - however, it should be substantively different from the topic of your final dissertation. The topic and title of the proposal should ideally both come from you. In the event you are unable to come up with an area in which the proposal is to be formulated, the lecturer in the module may suggest a topic. Once you have an idea of the topic and methods you wish to write on, you should get the module lecturer’s agreement that this is an appropriate subject for the assignment. The assessment should be of no more than 2500 words. A word count should be given. The model for the submitted work is that of a proposal submitted to a UK research council for funding. You need not specify costs, but you should consider as many as possible of the practical aspects of the proposed research, as well as the theoretical case for undertaking the programme of work. Your thinking should demonstrate a clearly more sophisticated grasp of, and reasoning about, the issues than would be found in undergraduate work. The overall criterion the marker will look for is the case for performing the research. This is likely to include: evidence of an organised search of the literature; consideration of the relevant ethical issues; consideration of the research question(s) addressed; careful consideration of methodology to be employed; and identification of the resources needed to do the work. You should include evidence of time planning (activities and milestones), and discuss what outcomes are envisaged and how they will they be disseminated. Clarity of expression is important. You will likely use a ‘standard’ set of headings such as Background, Methods, Data Analysis Approach, with subheadings as appropriate. The following sections should be viewed as a checklist to help ensure you have covered the essentials. It is not a list of subheadings for your report. The research question (What are you planning to investigate?) Your report should include specific referent to one or more Research Questions. A Research Question is a ‘one-liner’ which might take the following form: • Is risk-taking in everyday life reflected in driving behaviour? • Does learning categories helps learning words, or vice versa? • Can a priming method can be used to investigate category formation in children? Note that the Research Question is expressed more generally than a hypothesis. Depending on the type of study, you may also need to develop at least one hypothesis. Motivation (Why do this?) Why are you planning to do this? Why is it interesting? What will we know at the start that we don’t know now? Is your proposed approach the best way to answer the question? Addressing these questions will involve, but not be limited to, an organised search of the literature. Methods (How are you going to do this?) What methods will you use? The methods you propose to adopt should reflect, at least in part, the methods you have discussed as part of your Methods module. What is the time frame? (You should include a Gantt chart). Make sure that this work practicable in the timeframe. How you will analyse your data? Does the analysis refer back clearly to the Research Question(s) or the hypotheses? What Resources are required? You are not required to cost the proposal, but the markers will want to see that you have paid attention to issues such as: • Equipment (whose, which, do you have free access to it, etc?) • Stimuli (who will make them? are any special programs required, etc?) • Rooms (what physical space is required?) • ‘Instruments’ – do you need special psychological tests? Can anyone use them, or would training be involved? Are they freely available? • Participants (who will do the study, how will you recruit them?) • How long is required Ethics? Who would provide ethical scrutiny? Can you envisage any ethical difficulties with the proposed research? Who is going to do this? Can the research be done by you personally, or would you (more likely) envisage the use of paid research assistants? (Note that it is not usual to fund research assistants for more than 5 years, and more usually 3. This constraint can severely compromise your ability to do longitudinal work.) Is the approach professional? You may wish to check your work against Research Council advice. One such source can be found at, and around: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Support/research_award_holders/FAQs2/index2.aspx