PSYCHOL 6509OL

ASSESSMENT 3 – RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON THE APPLICATION OF A SELECTED LEARNING THEORY

Word Count: 1600 words (+/- 10%)

Task

You will prepare a research proposal that describes how one of the learning theories covered in the course can be applied in the context of a psychological topic of your choice. Some broad examples might include:

• Investigating whether a learning theory might offer a novel explanation for a psychological phenomenon.
• Investigating how an intervention/program that applies the principles of a learning theory might affect psychological outcomes in some applied context.
• Understanding how certain psychological characteristics of individuals are related to the phenomena described by a particular learning theory.

Your proposed research must involve conducting an original study (i.e., it can’t be a meta-analysis or review) and cannot be a direct replication of an existing study.

The research proposal needs to be prepared for an academic audience (i.e., researchers and professionals with some prior knowledge). The proposal will include:

1. A broad literature review that summarises the existing research on your chosen topic, describes how your chosen learning theory has already been or could be applied to the topic, and uses the research introduced to establish a motivation for conducting your proposed research.
2. Your hypothetical research methodology.
3. Consideration of potential ethical implications of your proposed research design.

This assessment is a research proposal only. You are not required to conduct any research.

Purpose

Preparing a research proposal is an important skill for future psychology study, research grant funding applications, and future employment opportunities. You will also explore possible ethical issues that might arise in a research context, a key focus within this program, and for Australian and international psychology bodies.

Outcomes

This assessment maps to the following course learning outcomes:

• Apply principals of learning theory to human and animal behaviour
• Communicate applications of learning theories to a variety of audiences
• Formulate research designs based on the knowledge gained about learning theories

Requirements

Your research proposal should adhere to APA 7^th edition conventions for psychology manuscripts (including style, formatting, and references). The text needs to be double spaced, and size 12 font (Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri). You need to include a minimum of five peer-reviewed references. The word count is 1600 words (+/-10%).

The proposal is worth 40% of your final grade, and is due at the end of Week 6 (Sunday at 11:59pm). The following sections need to be included:

1. A cover page (formatted to APA 7th edition standards):
   • A title that succinctly captures the important elements of research proposal, including the main variables that you will explore.
   • Your student number but NOT your name
2. A literature review:
   • An introduction to your chosen psychological topic, including a broad contextualisation of why it is important.
   • A description of your chosen learning theory from the course and a justification for its application to your chosen topic.
   • This justification might rely on previous research applying the learning theory to your topic, or you might make an evidence-based argument for a novel application of a theory to a topic.
   • An explanation of why your proposed research is necessary, i.e. demonstrate the gaps that in the existing literature on your topic that need to be addressed.
   • At least one hypothesis (i.e., prediction) that you propose to test.
3. Method: Describe how you would conduct your study. Another researcher should be able to conduct your based on the information in this section. Include the following subsections:
   • Participants; who will take part?
   • Procedure; what will happen during your study? Describe the actions that will take place.
   • Measures; what data will you collect/record from participants?
   • Statistical Analysis; which statistical tests will you use to test the hypotheses you proposed in the literature review? You do not need to include details of any assumption testing that would normally be conducted. See below for more information on statistical test selection.
4. Ethical considerations: In this section, outline potential ethical issues that you will need to consider when running your proposed study. You will need to propose at least three ethical issues and explain how you would mitigate these ethical risks.
5. Reference list formatted according to APA 7th edition requirements.

 

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