PSY 693 Research Proposal
Using the PSY-530 and PSY-550 Research Proposal assignments, submit a 500-750-word summary of your proposal. The summary must include the following:
Part 1 (Introduction, Literature Review, and Research Questions/Hypotheses)
Introduction: Title, description of what will be researched, an explanation of why the research is important to the field of psychology, and an explanation of how respect for persons, beneficence, and justice will be upheld and the process for informed consent.
Literature Review: An analysis of the literature review detailing findings from 8-10 scholarly, empirical, peer-reviewed references published within the past 5 – 7 years.
Research Questions/Hypotheses: Presentation of research questions and hypotheses.
Part 2 (Methods and Data Collection, Hypothetical Findings, Suggestions for Future Research, Conclusion, and References)
Methods and Data Collection: An explanation of the method (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed), data collection method, sample, instrumentation, and the statistical analysis used to test the hypotheses, if quantitative, or the data analysis method if qualitative.
Hypothetical Findings: A verbal or graphical presentation of the findings and an explanation of how the findings rejected or failed to reject the null hypotheses (if applicable) and answered the research questions.
Suggestions for Future Research: Suggestions for future research based on the hypothetical findings.
Sample Answer
Part 1
Introduction
Title: Evaluating whether screen violence contributes to aggressive behaviors among individuals.
This research study will evaluate the effect of massive exposure to screen violence that is being witnessed in contemporary times from various media channels such as the internet, video games, and television. This study will therefore seek to determine whether exposure to screen violence can make individuals subsequently behave aggressively. The research of whether exposure to screen violence contributes to aggressive behavior in individuals is important because it can be used to explain the increased incidents of mass violence across the US, such as mass shooting events.
In the research process, respect for persons and beneficence will be upheld in that only willing research participants will be recruited. The research participants will also not be involved in any activity that can bring direct harm to them. In the research study, the researchers will not involve vulnerable groups such as children in the study without receiving consent from their parents. This will honor the principle of justice. Finally, all the research participants in the research study will be required to fill informed consent forms to highlight that they willingly wish to participate in the study.
Literature Review
According to Mitrofan et al. (2016), various modern media channels such as video games, television, and the internet show a lot of violent acts, with many teenagers spending a lot of time-consuming content. The brain structure of a person and its composition will determine how to screen violence affects them (Alia-Klein et al., 2014). Shao & Wang (2019) posits that a combination of a bad family environment and exposure to screen violence can contribute to aggressive behaviors. On the other hand, significant exposure to screen violence will increase the susceptibility of an individual to aggressive behavior (Akçay & Akçay 2018). Parents normally observe changing attitudes and behaviors among children who spend a lot of time-consuming violent media content (Zafar & Chaudhary 2018).
Research Questions/Hypothesis
The null hypothesis in this research study is that massive exposure to screen violence will result in the onset of aggressive behaviors among individuals.
The research questions explored in this research study include:
- What are the most popular media channels among adolescents?
- What is the extent of violent content in popular media channels among adolescents?
- How many hours every day do adolescents spend being exposed to violent media content?
- What is the relationship between exposure to violent media content and the onset of aggressive behaviors among adolescents?
Part 2
Method of Data Collection
The research will involve a quantitative study adopting the correlational design. The research will favor self-administered questionnaires as the main data collection tools, which will be administered to at least 2,000 participants between the age of 13 and 19 years. The research will also rely on the chi-square test to test the hypothesis (Curtis et al., 2016).
Hypothetical Findings
The expected findings in the research study are massive exposure to screen violence among adolescents result in the onset of aggressive behavior. The correlation will therefore be established between exposure to screen violence and the onset of aggressive behaviors in adolescents. The findings will therefore support the null hypothesis.
Suggestions for Future Research
Future research should focus on determining populations that are more susceptible to aggressive behavior once they are exposed to screen violence.
