Peer Pressure

Psychology: Research Methods
IV: Framing
DV: Persuasion

For this assignment, you will be building the rationale for your research study as it flows from past research. There are three major parts to the Introduction section:

Introduce the specific topic of interest
Summarize past research
Propose a research question and hypotheses derived from relevant research

In Part One, set the stage. In about a paragraph or so, explain the general problem and why this topic is worth investigating. In Part Two, summarize the research that is relevant to your topic. When you search the literature, there will be many articles on the broad topic; however, make sure you only discuss research that directly pertains to your specific topic of inquiry. Your goal in this section is to paint a picture of what has been done in the past, and what still needs to be addressed. Finally, in Part Three, a connection between what still needs to be addressed and your current research study is made explicit. Convey how your study addresses any gaps in the literature, or how it might clarify the problem under investigation. Include a brief overview of your method, and end with a clear statement of your hypotheses. Overall, the Introduction section should give your reader a clear understanding of past research, how it connects to the present study, and why it is important to conduct this research.

Organization of your paper should follow the following “Funnel Analogy:”

Image from: https://sites.google.com/a/griffith.edu.au/redbook/research-reports/introduction-1

Guidelines

You must have five scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals that pertain to your topic. Four of the articles must be original research studies, while the other article can be a review article. You cannot have more than two articles that are identical to the rest of your group members.

When summarizing relevant literature, you must cite specific references in APA style. Please see APA tutorial and sample paper on the link posted in the syllabus. Basically, in the body of the paper, only the last names of the author(s) and the date of publication is used in APA format.

When discussing each relevant study, summarize only relevant information that pertains to your hypothesis. Important questions to answer about each study include:

What is/are the research questions/aims/goals of the study? What were the authors hypotheses? How was the independent variable manipulated and how was the dependent variable being measured? (operational definitions) What were the main findings that relate to the main IVs, DVs, and hypotheses? How does this connect back to your research question? What are the implications of the study? Any questions left open for future research that flow into your hypotheses for your present study?

Format

You must have an APA Title page and your paper must conform to APA formatting. It must be at least 5-7 pages long. An APA-formatted References page must come at the end of your paper. Attach a copy of the abstract for each article that you include in your literature review.