Posted: September 13th, 2017

ASSESSMENT: SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS

ASSESSMENT: SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS

Research Report Introduction and Hypotheses: Description
Overview
For this assignment, students are required to review a particular area of social-psychological literature following one of the three topics listed below. The purpose of this review, however, is to serve as the Introduction section of a formal research report. Note that students are not actually expected to conduct or design a social psychological study. Nevertheless, they must write an Introduction and one or more hypotheses to a hypothetical study. This assignment is due on Tuesday, 28 April, 2015 at 4:00 p.m., and should be handed in BOTH on-line and to the ANU Research School of Psychology Enquiries Office. Policies on re-marking and extensions are described separately in this Handbook.
Aims
There are several aims of this assignment. First, this is an assignment that gives students an opportunity to move beyond the essential readings for PSYC3002, and explore a topic in greater detail along intellectual paths they wish to follow. Second, it gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their learning and express themselves in an extended written format (i.e., beyond short answer and multiple-choice questions). Third, this particular written assignment moves beyond a simple essay in which a particular body of research is reviewed simply for the purpose of reviewing. Instead, writing an Introduction section of a research report is an integral part of professional practice as a social-psychological researcher, and this assignment is intended to give students practice at this professional task.
Structure
The structure of an Introduction section to a research report is different from a simple essay. Literature is reviewed in an Introduction with the purpose of leading directly and logically to one or more hypotheses that will be examined in a research study. Hypotheses are propositional statements outlining expected patterns of relationships between variables. In social psychology, these variables are the independent and dependent variables in a study. Proposing one or more hypotheses must be done in a way that is fully logical. Having a written essay about visual perception and then proposing hypotheses about the social psychology of leadership is likely to fail in its logical progression unless the reader is drawn step by step from perception to leadership. Even reviewing previous research on leadership and then proposing hypotheses on leadership can fail in its logical progression. The hypotheses must emerge from the context and content of the previous literature review. Hypotheses are not just about broad phenomena (e.g., leadership), but outline specific relationships between specific variables. So, prior to proposing the hypotheses, authors must not only introduce the broad phenomenon, but focus on the key variables that will ultimately be addressed in the hypotheses.
Writing an Introduction thus entails reviewing past research (i.e., the current state of knowledge in a field), and then logically deriving a new set of predictions (i.e., hypotheses) based upon the current knowledge. Logical disjuncture between the review of the past research and the hypotheses is bad. There are several ways to derive new hypotheses from an understanding of past research.
First, students can review the previous work and identify one or more areas of study that have not been examined. Remember, however, that the hypotheses must follow logically from the research reviewed. So, simply proposing, for example, a study of gender differences or age differences because these have not been studied before is not enough; the Introduction must explain why these variables are important to study (i.e., it is not enough that they have not been studied in the past).
Second, students can review the research investigating two different theoretical positions on a particular phenomenon, and then derive hypotheses that contrast one position with the other. For example, some analyses of prejudice place considerable emphasis on the psychology of the individual, while others place considerable emphasis on the nature of the context. These two literatures could be reviewed, and a hypothesis can be derived in which the two perspectives are contrasted.
Books on Writing
To find out more about writing an Introduction, students can use a variety of different books. Three recommended books are:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Burton, L. J. (2007). An interactive approach to writing essays and research reports in psychology (2nd ed.). Queensland, AU: Wiley.
O’Shea, R. P., McKenzie, W. A., & Moss, S. (2007). Writing for psychology (5th ed.) Melbourne: Thomson.
Topics
Write an Introduction leading to (and including) one or more hypotheses on the topics of:
o    Social-psychological analyses of group-based motivation loss and motivation gain
o    Social-psychological analyses of in-group projection
o    Social-identity and self-categorization analyses of leadership

Starting References
Each one of the topics above is also a topic of one PSYC3002 lecture. The starting references are the essential and advanced readings for these lectures. I strongly recommend that you use the articles associated with the lectures for your starting references for your Introduction.
Specific Requirements
For your Introduction, you can choose one of three topics above. You must conduct an independent library research of both theoretical and experimental social psychology to write your Introduction, and at least one of your references must have been published in 2014. You may not use Internet references (other than psychology journal articles accessed through the ANU library), dictionaries or encyclopaedias in your essay. The word limit is 2,000 words, including in-text citations but not references (which means 2,000 words, not 2,000 + 10%). Note that there is no Abstract for this assignment; do not write one.
You will be assessed not only on the amount of research you review, but the quality of your integration and writing. Introductions that are simply lists of descriptions of empirical studies may pass, but certainly will not receive high marks. To earn higher marks, you must use current empirical and theoretical work to develop an argument that directly addresses the topic you have chosen.
Marks of P and C will awarded to Introductions: (a) that contain a single idea, or possibly several ideas, that is/are discussed and mastered, but done so in a non-integrative manner, (b) in which students have not been able to relate all aspects together in a coherent whole or to think through the implications of their argument, but (c) there is evidence of some understanding, coverage and effort.
Marks of D and HD will be awarded to Introductions in which several aspects of the material have been mastered and integrated into a theoretical whole. Students show they have a clear understanding of the major concepts, and can put forward a good argument. There is strong evidence of integration, and students have been able to relate all aspects together in a coherent whole or to think through the implications of their argument. The overall argument leads clearly and logically to the hypotheses proposed.