1. Applied Research Project (30 points)
It’s time to begin thinking about an appropriate research question that could be used for your Applied Research Project in this class. The research question you create for this assignment can be the one you actually use for your project, or you can decide to pursue a different question. At this point, I want to make sure you can address the basic requirements for writing an appropriate research question that is focused on a social psychology topic and is capable of being answered through observation alone. You must include a citation from and reference for your classroom textbook and any other sources you choose to include (note that only the classroom textbook is required for this assignment; you don’t need to have done any library research at this time, but that will be required later).
To demonstrate how the way you write your research question can affect the success of your Applied Research Project, consider these problematic examples: “Are groups of children more likely to steal candy than individual children?” is a question that can be answered through observation, but it doesn’t identify the social psychology topic being investigated. “Does being part of a group cause inappropriate behavior?” has several problems – you can’t answer the “cause” portion of this question without conducting a true experiment that has control over variables, and the wording for this question is so general that it makes it difficult to guide what you should write for the procedure and results section. “Do children in groups feel it’s OK to steal?” cannot be answered through observation alone because the children’s feelings are something internal that you cannot observe (you’d have to interact with children to answer this question, and that is expressly forbidden in our classroom project). One example of an appropriately worded research question on this topic is: “Are unsupervised groups of two or more children more likely to deviate from a stated rule than unsupervised individual children?”
For this item, you must include:
• Social Psychology Topic: Specify the social psychology topic you plan to investigate in your Applied Research Project and include at least one APA style citation from your classroom text.
• Variable Operational Definitions: Identify the variables included in your research question and provide an appropriate operational definition for each.
• Research Question(s): Make sure your research question(s) (a) conveys relationship to a social psychology topic, (b) is capable of being answered through observation alone, and (c) is worded as a grammatically correct question.
• Plan to Answer: Briefly explain your plan to answer your Research Question. Ensure your plan does NOT include interacting with your subjects so it is clear that your question can be answered with observation alone.
• APA Style in Citations & Reference List: Include APA style references to any sources you cite in your writing for this assignment.
Pick one topic from the list below. In 1-3 paragraphs, summarize what our classroom textbook taught you about your chosen topic, then dig deeper and find out some additional information on this topic from an appropriate academic research journal that includes an electronic version of at least the article’s abstract (e.g., doi, url). Provide appropriate support for what you write (i.e., APA style citations and references) and make sure you engage your best writing techniques (e.g., proper grammar and punctuation, interesting writing that clearly conveys meaning, etc.).
• Any historically famous social psychologist
• Cultural differences in any social norm
• Operant, associational, or observational learning
• Any cognitive heuristic or bias involved in social cognition
• Downward or upward social comparison
• Cognitive dissonance
• Any persuasive technique
My topic is : RESTAURANTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON FAMILY TIME.
MY TEXT BOOK IS : https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/part/introducing-social-psychology/
