Scenario

You are a research assistant for a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at a university. You have been asked to develop a research plan focused on one of the topics the faculty member is interested in studying.

For this project, you will review the topics provided by your faculty member and select the topic that interests you most. Then you will use the library to find relevant empirical and scholarly research studies to inform the research. Finally, you will develop a research plan to submit to your faculty member.

Directions

Topic: Income and Happiness for Adults in the U.S.

1. Determine the plan’s background introduction. Include the following details:
• The title of the plan
• Select 3 relevant empirical and scholarly research studies for the plan. Write a summary of each individual article. Each summary should be about 150 to 250 words. with citations within text

2.Develop a clear and specific research question that is relevant to the three research studies you chose. Your response should be about 25 words.

3. Develop a clear, specific, and testable hypothesis that corresponds to your research question. Your response should be about 25 words. Consider the following in your hypothesis:
• Your hypothesis should be informed by the claim you are making.

4. Describe aspects of sampling that you would want to consider while acquiring participants for your study. Your response should be about 100 words.

5. Select a design (experimental or correlational) for your proposed study that aligns with the research question and hypothesis. Your response should be about 100 words. Include the following details:
• Explain why you selected this design.
• Identify conceptual variables that align with the research question and hypothesis.

6. Select a measure to operationally define each of your conceptual variables. Your response should be about 100 words per variable. Include the following details:
• As you select a measure, also state whether it uses natural/laboratory observations, surveys, objective/physiological measures, interviews, etc.
• For each variable you measure, identify its scale of measurement.

7. Describe your type of analysis and the p value required to support your hypothesis. Your response should be about 50 words.

8. Develop the plan’s discussion content. Your response should be about 250 to 350 words. Include the following details:
• What you would expect to be the main finding of your study
• How you would know if your hypothesis was supported
• The potential implications of the findings
• A possible limitation of your proposed study
• Directions for future research