- Come up with a research topic and provide your reasoning for choosing such topic. (e.g., Clinical psychology)
- Choose a population and a sample for your study.
- (e.g., CSUSB students) (e.g., 100 students from psychology department)
- Choose two ideas that you want to test (variables that you want to study).
- g., Mindfulness
- g., Depression
- Provide a clear operationalized definition of the variables.
- g., Mindfulness: deliberately paying attention to thoughts and feelings with curiosity.
- g., Depression: persistent sadness about life due to lack of energy and interest
- How do you plan to quantify or measure those variables? Develop at least 5 questions for each variable (total 10 questions) and choose a Likert scale for each question.
- g., I am aware about my surroundings. (Mindfulness)
Likert scale: 1 = Not true at all – 7 = Always true.
- g., I like to interact with people. (Depression
e.g., Likert scale: 1 = Not true at all – 7 = Always true.
- How do you warrant that your measurement has strong reliability and validity? Provide a brief description of reliability and validity.
- Which one is the independent variable and the dependent variable? How do you identify these two types of variables?
- Formulate a clear, testable hypothesis.
- “People with higher level of mindfulness are less likely to experience depressive symptoms.”
- What else can affect the outcome of your prediction? Discuss briefly what are some confounding variables and possible biases.
- Is your study correlational or causational? What makes a study correlational or causational? Provide a brief explanation for each type.
- If your study design is correlational study, how do you determine if it positive or negative correlation?
- If your study design is causational, what are some qualities that is required to make a causational (true experiment) study?