Social Media’s Contribution to Misinformation: How Social Media Design Affects Beliefs About Misinformation

Team Draft Research Proposal

• In this proposal, your research team of 3-4 students will design a simple experiment with one independent variable (IV) and one dependent variable (you may have more if you want, but it requires more work).
• Your IV must be a true IV that you manipulate to have at least 2 levels.
• Your experiment must be a between-subjects design.
• Your proposal must be of a study that you could actually conduct (though you will not).
• Together, your team will write a Draft of the Research Proposal for this assignment and you will all earn the same grade.
• Your research team will make an oral presentation of your draft proposal to our class and get feedback.
• Your final assignment is for each student to submit a final individual Research Proposal, using my feedback from the Draft Team Research Proposal and from your oral presentations. This will be due on Friday, May 23, the end of final exam week.
• Students will also complete a brief self-evaluation and team evaluation of your contributions to the team proposal and oral presentation.

Topic Focus:

Your research should investigate some aspect of misinformation in psychology.

USE THE FOLLOWING OUTLINE FORMAT FOR YOUR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION (with the specified headings)

TITLE PAGE in APA Style (7^th Edition)

1. Introduction
   • Research Topic: In general, what is the topic of your experiment? You topic should include your IV and DV. Provide a conceptual definition of your variables. (This should be 1-3 sentences or more if you have more terms to define.)
   • Research Question: What question do you hope to answer with your experiment? Briefly but clearly state your research question in 1-2 sentences. A good research question includes your IV and your DV. See also Ch. 2, section 9 for qualities of a good research question).
   • Significance and Literature Review: (You should use at least 4 sources to write your literature review and introduction. This should be at least 3 pages long and no longer than 8 pages.) Clearly restate your topic or research question and provide conceptual and empirical background from the scholarly psychology literature. Be sure to define terms that haven’t been provided in the previous sections (with citations). Summarize what is currently known about your topic and explain why your proposed experiment is relevant and important.
2. Variables
   • What is your independent variable (IV)? Name it and provide a conceptual definition (same one from your Research Topic)
   • What are the 2 levels of your independent variables, conceptually?
   • Provide a detailed operational definition of your IV, including both levels. How will you manipulate your independent variable?
   • What is your dependent variable (DV)? Provide a name and conceptual definition
   • Provide a detailed operational definition of your DV. How will you measure it?

3. Ethical Issues

• Present a brief cost-benefit analysis that justifies your study on ethical grounds.
• This should clearly answer: What are the benefits of the study? What are the risks to participants? There must be more benefits than risks for your study to be ethical. All studies pose some risk, even if minimal (using participants’ time, minor psychological stress or frustration, risk of losing privacy, etc.)
• Describe what you would do to attempt to minimize risks and protect participants? Be specific. (e.g., consent form, debriefing, etc.)

4. Hypotheses, Predictions/Expected Results

• • State your research hypothesis in general/conceptual terms (using the conceptual definitions of your variables).
  • Provide a short clear rationale or justification for why you expect your hypothesis to be supported (this should have been laid out in literature review, but briefly and clearly repeat it here). Cite at least 1 source here to support your hypothesis.
  • State your expected results (hypothesis) using your operational definitions for your IV (both levels) and DV. That is, clearly explain what your results would be if your hypothesis is confirmed using your operational definitions. (e.g., We expect that participants in the ________group will report more________ than participants in the ________ group.)
• 5. Method and Materials This section should describe your research methods in detail, explain why they were selected, and cite at least 2 scholarly sources (e.g., authors of measures or articles that used the methodology you are using).
• Participants:
• Materials:
• Experimental controls would you use in your study? How are you controlling or holding constant all extraneous or confounding variables when you manipulate your IV?
• Procedure
• Include complete copies of your actual research materials (e.g., specific measures, manipulations, or scripts)

6. Implications

If your results are confirmed, what does this mean for the topic you are studying? What would you conclude? What would be the significance of this finding? What about if your results are NOT confirmed? What might that mean? Comment on the relevance of your predicted finding to ongoing research and practical issues in the real world.

• APA Style Reference list

Proposal will be graded for Clear Writing and APA Style

Please edit the draft based on my professors recommendations I provided in screenshots. Let me know what corrections you make in the chat!