1. ASHFORD PSY 326 Entire Course (Research Methods)
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Topic Selection. This week you will select a topic you want to study and the area
of psychological research that will be used to study this topic, for the Final Paper.
For example, you may identify alcoholism as the topic and biopsychology as the
research area. You should also indicate why this topic is of interest to you. You
will ultimately review a research study in this area for your Final Paper so it is
important to choose an area of interest.
The following list provides acceptable topic areas that should be applicable to
research across these disciplines, but you may also propose another topic that
interests you.
1. Drug Addiction
2. Schizophrenia
3. Learning
4. Memory
5. Intelligence
6. Attraction
7. Depression
You will then choose one of the following research areas to study your topic:
1. Biopsychology
2. Cognitive Psychology
3. Developmental Psychology
4. Social Psychology
5. Clinical Psychology
Submit your research topic and explain why you have decided to focus on this
particular topic for your Final Paper. The paper should introduce the importance
of the topic and your thesis should be clearly stated. Be sure to include a
conclusion as well.

2. The paper should be one to two pages in length (excluding title and reference
pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing
Center. You should cite at least one scholarly, peer-reviewed source that was
published within the last five years that supports the importance of your topic
selection. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the
Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left
navigation toolbar in your online course.
Establishing Reliability and Validity. You are a psychologist working for a
consulting firm that specializes in survey development. Your firm has been
contacted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) to develop a survey that
will identify teenagers who are at-risk for driving while intoxicated. M.A.D.D. has
provided a list of questions that its research suggests will help to identify risk
factors contributing to this behavior. M.A.D.D. needs your firm to work with its
members to establish reliability and validity of this survey so that they can begin
using it to establish risk in young adults across the nation. In a two to three page
paper (excluding title and reference pages), discuss the steps that you would take
to establish reliability and validity of this survey. Be sure to describe the type(s) of
reliability and validity that you are attempting to establish as part of your
consulting project.
Your paper should include an introduction to these concepts, a clearly stated
thesis for the development project, and a conclusion.
You must use two to three scholarly, peer-reviewed sources published within the
last five years, from the Ashford University Library to support your discussion in
this assignment. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials,
visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the
left navigation toolbar in your online course.
Research Study and Method. This week, you will submit a one to two page
paper (excluding title and reference pages) that discusses the research study you
will critique for your Final Paper. The research study you choose to critique must:
1. Be an actual research study, not a review.
2. Contain a literature review of research related to the topic.
3. Have a clearly stated research question (or questions) and a hypothesis.
4. Collect data for analysis.
5. Conduct some type of analysis on the data collected.
6. Interpret the results of the analysis.
7. Discuss the implications of the results of the study.

3. It is important that you complete all of the components of the assignment this
week so that your instructor can provide you with feedback, which you will use to
complete the Final Paper.
Your paper should contain the following:
1. An introduction that includes the hypothesis, methods, and results of this study.
2. A summary of the study.
3. An explanation of how this study is consistent with the topic and discipline
submitted in Week One.
4. A conclusion.
5. All references must be cited according to APA guidelines as outlined in the
Ashford Writing Center.
6. Two scholarly, peer-reviewed sources published within the last five years, not
including the course text. One of these sources will be the research study that
you are discussing.
The Final Paper for this course is a Research Study Critique. For this assignment,
utilize the topic and the research methodology approved by the instructor in Week
One of the course and the selected peer-reviewed published research study on
your topic from Week Three. You will then go through each section of the
research study and critique not only the research but also how the research is
presented. In many cases, the research is done well, but it is written or presented
in a way that is misleading or confusing. Consequently, it is important to evaluate
both the research and its presentation. This will allow you to apply the concepts
learned in the class to the interpretation of actual scientific research.
The research study that you chose to critique must:
1. Be an actual research study, not a review.
2. Contain a literature review of research related to the topic.
3. Have a clearly stated research question (or questions) and a hypothesis.
4. Collect data for analysis.
5. Conduct some type of analysis on the data collected.
6. Interpret the results of the analysis.
7. Discuss the implications of the results of the study.

4. Your Final Paper should be eight to ten pages in length, excluding title and
reference pages, and formatted according to APA style with citations from a
minimum of six to eight scholarly, peer-reviewed sources that were published
within the last five years. Please refer to the Ashford University Library and
Writing Center for more information on APA and scholarly sources.
Follow the instructions described below to organize and write your paper. The
Final Paper must contain all of the components found in an actual published
research study. In each section the content of the paper will be summarized and
then critiqued using the knowledge that you have obtained in this course.
Writing the Final Paper
The Research Study Critique must contain the following sections:
I.
Introduction
The introduction section will provide a general introduction to the topic, and will
explain why this topic and discipline were chosen. The research study being
critiqued will also be introduced in this section.
II. Literature Review
In this section, the literature that the author of the study introduced will be
discussed. The critique of this section will be focused on the relevance of the
studies reviewed and any biases that are evident in the review. Most research
contains various perspectives of the subject. The critique should indicate if some
research was excluded from the review, and it should discuss whether or not the
exclusion impacts the interpretation of the review.
III. Methods
In this section, the research method and statistical approaches for the study will
be presented. This section should discuss all information that is relevant to the
experimental design and should include the following: the approach (qualitative or
quantitative), the design experimental, quasi-experimental etc., sampling method,
sample size, variables (independent and dependent), measures of the variables,
statistical tests, and any assumptions noted on the part of the researcher. In this
section, you should provide a critique of all of these factors and suggest
alternatives when appropriate.
IV. Results
In this section, the results of the analysis performed in this study should be
presented and critiqued. It is also appropriate to discuss limitations or critique the
interpretation of the results provided in each study.

5. V. Discussion
In this section, overall efficacy of this study will be evaluated. The strengths and
weaknesses of this study should be evaluated and other directions that the
researcher could have gone in should be discussed. Finally, the interpretation
and future directions proposed by the author of the study should be summarized
and critiqued as well.
Week 1 DQ1
Research Ethics
This discussion has two options. Please choose either Option A or Option B to
respond to. Be sure you indicate within your post which option you chose.
For both options, review the American Psychological Association Ethical
Principals of Psychologists and Code of Conduct before responding:
Option A:
The ethics of animal research continues to be one of the most debated topics in
psychological research. Watch theAnimal Testing by Big Tobacco – The Mouse
House video and review theCommittee for Animal Research and Ethics
(C.A.R.E.) guidelines developed by the APA. Then answer the following
questions:
If these guidelines are adhered to should animal research be allowed? Be sure to
use the guidelines to defend your position on the topic. If allowed, should animal
research be limited to research that investigates cures for terminal illnesses, or
should they continue to be used in any Institutional Review Board (I.R.B.)
approved research? How is using animals for research any different than using
animals for food?
Option B:
Human research is common in the field of psychology, which raises many ethical
questions. For this discussion, review theStanford Prison Experiment slideshow.
Respond to the following:
If a question must be answered that has significant negative psychological impact
on the subject, such as in the Stanford prison study, is it more ethical to use
human or animal subjects? Are there some research questions that should simply
not be evaluated because of the potential for negative psychological impact the
research would have on the human subjects?
Week 1 DQ2

6. Much of scientific inquiry is focused on developing and evaluating theories. There
are four major criteria that are used to evaluate theories that are presented in
your text:
Explains the past; predicts the future Testable and falsifiable Parsimonious
Promotes research
When evaluating a theory, which of these criteria do you think is the most
important, the least important, and why? Do all of these criteria need to be
satisfied for the theory to be considered a valid or good theory?
Week 2 DQ1
Research Design
You have been approached by a pharmaceutical company that has developed a
new drug, which is supposed to be effective in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Before mass producing the drug, the company wants to be sure that the new drug
is more effective than the one they are currently producing. The company has
hired you to design a research study to determine the effectiveness of the new
drug in comparison to the old one.
Discuss what research design you would use for this study and why. Be sure to
include a brief overview of the study and how you would determine the
effectiveness of one drug over the other.
Week 2 DQ2
Hypothesis Testing
Use the study you designed in the previous Discussion (Research Design) to
complete this discussion question. Based on the study you designed, define the 5
steps of hypothesis testing as follows:
Step 1: State the hypothesis.
Step 2: Collect the data – For the purpose of this discussion, you will state how
you would collect the data.
Step 3: Calculate statistics – For the purpose of this discussion, you will indicate
the statistics you would use.
Step 4: Compare to a critical value – For the purpose of this discussion, you will
indicate where you would set the alpha value and why. Note: Step 4 is
hypothetical as you are not actually conducting a statistical analysis.

7. Consequently, you will choose if the results of your hypothetical analysis are
above or below the critical value.
Step 5: Make a decision – For the purpose of this discussion, you will make a
conclusion based on the hypothetical results from Step 4. Be sure to include a
recommendation on the effectiveness of the new drug based on the results.
Week 3 DQ1
Descriptive Research
Briefly discuss the three descriptive designs (i.e., case studies, archival research,
and observational research) presented in the reading this week. Be sure to
discuss the strengths and weaknesses associated with each approach. Which of
these three approaches do you think is the best descriptive design and why?
Finally, indicate the types of research testing where each of these designs would
be effective.
Week 3 DQ2
Data Description
This discussion question has two parts. Be sure to address both parts in your
post.
Chapter 3 introduces different methods that can be used to describe data.
Discuss why describing data is such an important part of the research process.
Why are there different methods that can be used to describe data? Do the
methods used depend on the type of research design that is utilized, or it is a
function of the data that is collected? Explain your reasoning. Visit the Ashford
University Library and select a quantitative research study. Identify and describe
the method(s) used to describe the data in this study. Was/were the appropriate
method(s) identified, in your opinion? Could other methods have been used to
describe the data in this study? Be sure to properly cite the study you chose
within your post.
Week 4 DQ1
Survey Research
Choose a research area that you would like to learn more about. Briefly design a
study, using one of the survey approaches introduced in the reading this week.
The research design should include the type of sampling you will use and why
you have chosen this approach to study the topic. Regardless of the method you
choose, include two sample questions that will be part of your study. Indicate why
each of these would be good questions, based on the principles presented this
week. What are the ethical concerns associated with your question or approach?

8. Finally, suggest ways to improve the response rate or participation levels in your
study.
Week 4 DQ2
Data Analysis
Assume that you have conducted the research study which you proposed for the
first discussion question this week, and that you now have the data. Which of the
methods used for analyzing survey data would you use to analyze this data and
why? Be sure to explain why the approach that you are proposing for the data
analysis is consistent with the survey research method that you employed and the
data you obtained.
Week 5 DQ1
Experimental versus Quasi-Experimental
Discuss the major differences between experimental and quasi-experimental
designs. Be sure to address the relationship of variable manipulation to each of
these designs and the different types of manipulations that may be used. What
dictates the design (i.e., experimental versus quasi-experimental) and the type of
manipulation used in a research study?
Week 5 DQ2
Internal and External Validity
When conducting experimental research, interpretation of an experiment’s results
can be greatly influenced by its internal and external validity. Discuss the
importance of external and internal validity and some of the threats to each of
these. What is the impact of having one type of validity but not the other? If you
could only have one type of validity in your experiment, which would it be and
why?