PSYC 2317: Statistical Methods in Psychology

The paper is a Proposal describing an experiment students will plan. Students WILL NOT be conducting an actual study! You are only going to write a proposal for this course. This is to help students think about research design.

This assignment will be submitted through Canvas, and there will be an example assignment with a notation to act as a guide to further explain expectations. Your assignment should include:

1) The Problem, which describes the issue being studied. (10 points)

2) The Hypothesis, an educated guess about the cause of an effect of interest. (20 pts)

A) The hypothesis wording describes:

(1)The null hypothesis, which claims there is no effect. The two conditions do not differ.

(2) The alternative hypothesis, which claims there is an effect. The two conditions differ. (Both forms of the hypotheses are described as two or more conditions being compared: the treated experimental and untreated control groups.)

B) Describe both variables in a measurable way.

(1) Independent Variable-the presumed cause is manipulated.

(2) Dependent Variable-the outcome characteristic scale.

C) Statistical Notation stating the measure being compared across the research conditions for both forms of the hypothesis should be depicted.

3) The Subjects (10 points). Include the number of groups and the number of subjects in each group. Talk about how the groups are formed.

4) The Apparatus (10 pts) used or any supplies needed should be described. This includes all machines or documents used in the study.

5) The Procedure (10 pts) used to manipulate group status should be described so that the treatment of all conditions is clear to the reader.

6) The Statistic (20pts) used to determine the likelihood of each outcome should be named. Omitting a test statistic is a major omission in a statistics paper. Without it, the paper is essentially incomplete. State which test statistic (One of the Zs, Ts or Fs). Specify the form of the test.

7) The Results (10pts) anticipated should be described in terms of the hypotheses. These results are hypothetical as no real subjects will be run.

8) The Conclusions (10 pts) were drawn and named by choosing one of two possible statistical Decisions. Either reject the null or fail-to-reject the null hypothesis. These two are the only choices and must be stated that way.

The written assignment is to plan an experiment that will include all eight of the steps specified above. The grading rubric includes:

Five points will be deducted for each section of the paper that is omitted or incorrect.

Choosing the incorrect test statistic will result in ten points deducted.

Using a test statistic not allowed will result in 10 points being deducted. The tests not permitted include the independent t test, Cohen’s D and Pearson’s r.