Ashford University COVID-19 & its Impact on Substance Abuse Research Paper

Final Research Proposal

The goal of this assignment is to integrate Step One, Step Two, Step Three, and Step Four of your research proposal. The research proposal should be at least 15 pages (but not more than 25 pages), double-spaced, not including your title page, abstract, Appendix, and references page, and should contain the following sections:

1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Introduction: Explain your topic. Make a case for why this topic is important to the field of psychology.
   1. Research questions you have developed for your topic: Conclude your discussion of the research topic by identifying specific research question(s) about the relationships between two or more concepts.
4. Literature Review: A minimum of 8 pages on the 5-7 articles you selected: Read your articles thoroughly and provide a literature review that synthesizes what was theorized and discovered about regarding your topic. Do not write separate “summaries” for each article; rather, find connected themes or relationships in the different areas you cover. Use these relationships to frame your discussion of how variables were indicated, samples were obtained, and research designs were constructed. Are there any gaps or weaknesses present in the literature that can be investigated further? You will not necessarily refer to all the information from each article; instead, relate only that which is relevant to your topic and research question. Thus, your literature review should justify your study and support why conducting your proposed study would answer a problem that is not already well understood. Information should be drawn from appropriate sources, such as professional journals, books, and dissertations. Information gathered from literature sources must be appropriately cited, following APA guidelines.
5. Hypotheses: Considering your research question or statement of the problem, formulate a null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis for each of your research questions.
   1. Dependent and independent variables: Operationally define the dependent and independent variables for each hypothesis.
6. Method: Describe detailed information about how your study will be conducted. Include the following in your method sections:
   1. Participant Selection: Explain who your participants will be and what method you will use to select them. Be specific as possible as if you were giving directions to someone on how to choose and obtain the participants. Include instructions on how to get informed consent from the participants. Be sure to discuss how informed consent, privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality will be addressed in the study.
   2. Data Collection Measure: Discuss how you will collect the data (observations, surveys, documents, etc.). Thus, who will be collecting the data, where will the data collection occur, what measures are you using to collect the data, how will the data be recorded, etc.? Include a copy of the survey or systematic observation you developed in an Appendix.
   3. Research Design: Discuss the research design (either experimental, factorial, quasi-experimental, or non experimental), that you will use to examine your variables.
7. Discussion: Provide a discussion of the following information:
   1. Validity: Describe any potential threats to the internal and external validity of your proposed study. Do you believe the results can be generalized to other populations?
   2. Strengths and Weaknesses: Describe any strengths or weaknesses with respect to the proposed sampling, design, and data collection methods. What will not be “proven” though your study?
   3. Ethical Considerations: What impact might participation in this study have on participants in the short and long-term? If there are relevant ethical issues, discuss them along with possible solutions.
8. References Page: The references page should be formatted according to APA style.
9. Appendix of your data collection measure.

Research Proposal

This week’s readings will focus on hypothesis testing, statistical significance, and generalizing the results of a study to other populations. Hypothesis testing is paramount to quantitative research and will be explored in detail regarding developing null and alternative hypotheses, and identifying the errors involved in hypothesis testing. Students will also review how to differentiate between statistical significance and practical significance, as well as how certain factors may affect the external validity of a study and the ability to generalize the results. Students will also complete the final step of the Research Proposal by revising Parts 1-4 and including a discussion on the selected research design, potential threats to validity, strengths and weaknesses of the study, and ethical considerations. Students should consider the following questions before and during the reading and assignments this week:

1. What is the importance of developing a measureable hypothesis?
2. What are some of the errors involved in hypothesis testing and how can researchers decrease the chances of them occurring?
3. What is the importance of practical significance of a finding?
4. Why might nonsignificant results occur?
5. What are some of the concerns regarding generalizing the findings of a research study to other populations and experiments?

Grading Criteria

Content CriteriaTotal: 18
Content includes all elements of the Research Proposal as indicated in the instructions. Content includes at least 15 pages, not including the Title page, Abstract, and References page.
Writing and Organization CriteriaTotal: 1
The central theme/purpose of the paper is clear.
The structure is clear, logical, and easy to follow.
The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment.
The thoughts are clear and include appropriate beginning, development, and conclusion.
Paragraph transitions are present, logical, and maintain the flow throughout the paper.
Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Sentences are well constructed, with consistently strong, varied sentences.
Sentence transitions are present and maintain the flow of thought.
Rules of grammar, usage, and punctuation are followed.
The paper uses words and language that are inclusive, clear, and unambiguous.
Spelling is correct.
The paper includes summary and analysis of appropriate resources.
Research CriteriaTotal: 5
The paper includes a summary and analysis or synthesis of at least 5-7 scholarly articles plus at least two dissertations.
Professional/scholarly journals are peer reviewed and focus on the profession/application of psychology (located on Proquest, EBSCOHost, PsycNET, etc.). Non-scholarly articles include newspapers, periodicals, secular magazines, etc, and are not peer reviewed. Websites not approved include wilkipedia.com and about.com.
Research focuses on the most current information (past five to ten years) except when citing seminal works (e.g. Freud, Erickson, etc.).
Paper includes the appropriate number of references required by the assignment.
Style CriteriaTotal: 1
The paper is in the appropriate APA format used by the institution/program (e.g. the 6th edition).
The paper is double-spaced and in the appropriate length required by the assignment
The paper includes an APA style cover page.
The paper includes an Abstract that is formatted to support the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition).
The paper properly uses headings, font styles, and white space as outlined in the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition).
The paper includes an introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement.
The paper addresses the topic of the paper with critical thought.
The paper concludes with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph.
Citations of original works within the body of the paper follow the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition) guidelines.
The paper includes a References Page that is completed according to the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition).

Resources

Articles:

Balkin, R. S., & Sheperis, C. J. (2011). Evaluating and reporting statistical power in counseling research. Journal of Counseling & Development, 89(3), 228-272. [Retrieved from EBSCOhost].

Barry, A. E. (2005). How attrition impacts the internal and external validity of longitudinal research. Journal of School Health, 75(7), 267-270. [Retrieved from ProQuest].

Cox Jr., L. (2007). Regulatory false positives: True, false, or uncertain?. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 27(5), 1083-1086. [Retrieved from EBSCOhost].

Jones, A. & Sommerlund, B. (2007). A critical discussion of null hypothesis significance testing and statistical power analysis within psychological research. Nordic Psychology, 59(3), 223-230. Doi: 10.1027/1901-2276.59.3.223. Retrieved from EBSCO host.

Knight, K. L. (2010). Study/sxperimental/tesearch design: Much more than statistics. Journal of Athletic Training, 45(1), 98-100. [Retrieved from EBSCOhost].

Lee, J. S. K. (1992). Quantitative versus qualitative research methods—Two approaches to organization studies. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 9(1), 87-94. [Retrieved from ProQuest].

Sun, S., Pan, W., & Wang, L. L. (2010). A comprehensive review of effect size reporting and interpreting practices in academic journals in education and psychology. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 989-1004. doi: 10.1037/a0019507. [Retrieved from EBSCOhost].

Websites

Experiment-resources.com (2017). Experimental research. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/experimental-research (Links to an external site.)

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (2017). APA style. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/ (Links to an external site.)

Scribe, A. (n.d.). APA style lite for college papers. Retrieved from http://www.docstyles.com/apacrib.htm (Links to an external site.)

StatSoft, Inc. (2017). Electronic statistics textbook. Retrieved from http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/ (Links to an external site.)

Trochim, W. M. K. (2006). Research methods: Knowledge base. Retrieved from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ (Links to an external site.)

Vanguard University & Degelman, D. (2017). APA style essentials. Retrieved from http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796 (Links to an external site.)

Walonick, D. S. (2017). The research process. StatPac. Retrieved from http://www.statpac.com/research-papers/research-process.htm (Links to an external site.)

Week 1 Paper

Feed Back Please add in final paper

I have graded your written assignment for Week 1 and embedded comments regarding your assignment into the attached document. Each of the following should have been included in your assignment: 1. Rationale/Problem Statement for the research topic of your choice: Explain your topic. Make a case for why this topic is important to you, the field of psychology, or your specialization area. 2. Research questions you have developed for your topic: Conclude your discussion of the research topic by identifying specific research question(s) about the relationships between two or more concepts. Use both the textbook and the Pajares (2007) website to formulate specific research questions. 3. Hypotheses that you want to test: Considering your research question or statement of the problem, formulate a hypothesis that states the relationships between the variables and answers the research question. 4. References page: Include a list of at least 5 scholarly sources on the Reference page that support your topic. You do not need to provide a comprehensive summary of the resources for this week, but should be preparing to do so for the Week Two written assignment. Please see the grading rubric included in your graded assignment for details as to how your grade was derived. Please email or call with any questions that you have.

Week 2 Paper Feed back

See paper

Week 3 Feed back

I have graded your written assignment for Week 3 and embedded comments regarding your assignment into the attached document. This assignment is the third step toward completing your final research proposal in Week 6. In a one to two-page paper, in addition to the Title Page and References Page, answer the following. Please use the Kallet (2004) article for further guidance on how to prepare the methods section. Participant Selection and Sampling Procedures: Explain how you will select your sample. This part of your proposal should read like a detailed set of instructions that someone else could follow and execute without your help. You should cover the following questions: a. Who or what is your target population? b. What is your sample size? c. Where will you obtain your sample? d. Is the sample representative of the defined population? e. How many groups will you have? f. What sampling method do you plan to use (e.g., randomization, convenience sampling, etc.)? Why do you plan to use this method as opposed to others that are available? g. How will the sample be collected? Be sure to discuss how informed consent, privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality will be addressed in the study. Please see the grading rubric included in your graded assignment for details as to how your grade was derived. Please email or call with any questions that you have.

Week 4 Paper

As soon as I great the feed back I will added