Topic: Glucose levels effect on Binge Eating Disorder

Paper details:

e following description of the six sections of the research proposal are taken from the description of the elements of a research proposal found on pages 123-125 of Babbie, E. (2008). The Basics of Social Research (4th edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.

o Introduction: Problem or objective: Tell me exactly what you want to study. Give me the context or background and tell me why your topic is worth studying. That is, why should anyone else care about reading your research? Some research projects are of import to others because they contribute to basic understandings; other projects are of import because they apply to social concerns. For some, research is of import because it expands on or contributes to existing theories. Some research is of import to the construction of new theories. The possibilities as to why YOUR research is important are endless. This section will likely be the longest and is addressed in chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, and the “topics appropriate” sections of the later chapters. Anything approximating a literature review belongs in the intro section. The APA manual is an alternative source that describes what types of material should be included in the intro section.

o Subjects for study: Tell me who or what you will study in order to collect data. Identify the subjects first in general, perhaps theoretical terms. Then get specific. That is, tell me how many subjects of each type you are going to include in your study. Tell me why the subjects and number of subjects you are choosing are appropriate to the research question. If appropriate to your study, tell me how you will recruit or isolate your subject pool. If appropriate to your study, give me specifics about your control group(s) or comparison group(s) as well. If re-analyzing historical data, tell me how and where you will access that data and why your chosen methods are appropriate to your research question. If you are not using people in your experiment, explain clearly the object(s) of your study. This section is addressed in chapters 4, 7, 8, and the APA manual.

o Ethical considerations: Address those issues from chapter 3 that relate to your study. Section 3 will likely be your shortest section, though you should be aware that studies involving children will require a slightly longer write-up. DO NOT leave this section blank. Including the ethics section will be an addition to the APA format.

o Measurement: This section covers material from chapters 4-6. Tell me your key independent and dependent variables in your study. Tell me how you will define and measure those variables. That is, make sure your operational definitions are included in your write-up. A word of warning: Since the next two sections relate specifically to the variables defined in this section, a clearly defined, objective, measurable operational definition for your dependent variable is integral to accumulating enough points to get a passing grade on the paper. If you have ANY confusion as to what constitutes a good operational definition, contact me BEFORE turning in your paper!
If you are using a survey or questionnaire: Describe it and, either here or in the next section, tell me how you are going to score it and what the final “scores” or answers mean or how they will be interpreted.
If you are doing qualitative research, tell me what you will be looking for. Tell me what, if any, frequency counts you are taking. Be ready to describe in the next sections how you will analyze what you get from your observations. State how you know that what you are observing is not an anomaly.
If you are modeling your study off of previous research, be sure to include a reference. If your study differs from previous studies in some way, the specifics of how and why will add to the import of your study (again, be sure to give a reference). This section is an appropriate place to include minor comparison information to the specifics of other studies. General comparisons (and sometimes specific comparisons) to other studies should be done in the intro section. The whys of the location of those comparisons are beyond the scope of this class, and are therefore not a grading concern. If you are curious, the APA manual has a brief but definitive rundown on what should be included where.

o Data collection methods: Tell me how you will actually collect the data for your study. Tell me if your design is experimental, survey, quasi-experimental, or naturalistic observation, etc. Tell me the logistics of how you get you dependent measured. For example, tell me if the subjects come to you, or do you go to them. For example, tell me whether they provide info or the computer collects info, or whether or not the subjects even know they are subjects. The possibilities again are endless, so I refer you to chapters 8-12 for specifics of data collection as they refer to your research question and experimental design. Be sure to include why the methods chosen are appropriate to your research question and design.

o Analysis: Indicate the specific kind of analysis you plan to conduct. Spell out the purpose and logic of your analysis. Tell me what, if any, statistical test you will use to determine if your findings represent real group differences or whether your observed group differences are more likely due to chance. In other words, explain how you will know if you actually found anything if and when your research gets carried out. This section will allow you to demonstrate understanding of either chapter 13 or 14, and will draw heavily from the Statistics pre-requisite. A word of warning: This is not a section on the implications of your findings. This section is asking for specifics on your proposed quantitative or qualitative analyses.

Topic: Glucose levels effect on Binge Eating Disorder

Paper details:

e following description of the six sections of the research proposal are taken from the description of the elements of a research proposal found on pages 123-125 of Babbie, E. (2008). The Basics of Social Research (4th edition). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.

o Introduction: Problem or objective: Tell me exactly what you want to study. Give me the context or background and tell me why your topic is worth studying. That is, why should anyone else care about reading your research? Some research projects are of import to others because they contribute to basic understandings; other projects are of import because they apply to social concerns. For some, research is of import because it expands on or contributes to existing theories. Some research is of import to the construction of new theories. The possibilities as to why YOUR research is important are endless. This section will likely be the longest and is addressed in chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, and the “topics appropriate” sections of the later chapters. Anything approximating a literature review belongs in the intro section. The APA manual is an alternative source that describes what types of material should be included in the intro section.

o Subjects for study: Tell me who or what you will study in order to collect data. Identify the subjects first in general, perhaps theoretical terms. Then get specific. That is, tell me how many subjects of each type you are going to include in your study. Tell me why the subjects and number of subjects you are choosing are appropriate to the research question. If appropriate to your study, tell me how you will recruit or isolate your subject pool. If appropriate to your study, give me specifics about your control group(s) or comparison group(s) as well. If re-analyzing historical data, tell me how and where you will access that data and why your chosen methods are appropriate to your research question. If you are not using people in your experiment, explain clearly the object(s) of your study. This section is addressed in chapters 4, 7, 8, and the APA manual.

o Ethical considerations: Address those issues from chapter 3 that relate to your study. Section 3 will likely be your shortest section, though you should be aware that studies involving children will require a slightly longer write-up. DO NOT leave this section blank. Including the ethics section will be an addition to the APA format.

o Measurement: This section covers material from chapters 4-6. Tell me your key independent and dependent variables in your study. Tell me how you will define and measure those variables. That is, make sure your operational definitions are included in your write-up. A word of warning: Since the next two sections relate specifically to the variables defined in this section, a clearly defined, objective, measurable operational definition for your dependent variable is integral to accumulating enough points to get a passing grade on the paper. If you have ANY confusion as to what constitutes a good operational definition, contact me BEFORE turning in your paper!
If you are using a survey or questionnaire: Describe it and, either here or in the next section, tell me how you are going to score it and what the final “scores” or answers mean or how they will be interpreted.
If you are doing qualitative research, tell me what you will be looking for. Tell me what, if any, frequency counts you are taking. Be ready to describe in the next sections how you will analyze what you get from your observations. State how you know that what you are observing is not an anomaly.
If you are modeling your study off of previous research, be sure to include a reference. If your study differs from previous studies in some way, the specifics of how and why will add to the import of your study (again, be sure to give a reference). This section is an appropriate place to include minor comparison information to the specifics of other studies. General comparisons (and sometimes specific comparisons) to other studies should be done in the intro section. The whys of the location of those comparisons are beyond the scope of this class, and are therefore not a grading concern. If you are curious, the APA manual has a brief but definitive rundown on what should be included where.

o Data collection methods: Tell me how you will actually collect the data for your study. Tell me if your design is experimental, survey, quasi-experimental, or naturalistic observation, etc. Tell me the logistics of how you get you dependent measured. For example, tell me if the subjects come to you, or do you go to them. For example, tell me whether they provide info or the computer collects info, or whether or not the subjects even know they are subjects. The possibilities again are endless, so I refer you to chapters 8-12 for specifics of data collection as they refer to your research question and experimental design. Be sure to include why the methods chosen are appropriate to your research question and design.

o Analysis: Indicate the specific kind of analysis you plan to conduct. Spell out the purpose and logic of your analysis. Tell me what, if any, statistical test you will use to determine if your findings represent real group differences or whether your observed group differences are more likely due to chance. In other words, explain how you will know if you actually found anything if and when your research gets carried out. This section will allow you to demonstrate understanding of either chapter 13 or 14, and will draw heavily from the Statistics pre-requisite. A word of warning: This is not a section on the implications of your findings. This section is asking for specifics on your proposed quantitative or qualitative analyses.