This assignment will ask you to be more specific about the variables you intend use in the design of your research
proposal idea. Identifying these variables will help you to select appropriate research articles to use for your Literature
Review (the next paper assignment).
Guidelines for your study’s design:
This project will have you decide on three variables:
(1) IV1: An IV (independent variable) that you manipulate, with two or more conditions (or levels). This should
be a variable that would be both practical and ethical to manipulate—in which people could be randomly assigned
to one condition or the other condition.
(2) IV2: Another IV or predictor variable. This one could be manipulated, but it does not need to be (it could just
be measured). If this variable is not manipulated, you can think of IV2 as another factor that could also influence
your DV (or influence the relationship between IV1 and your DV).
(3) A DV (dependent variable) that can be measured.
The most important parts of this assignment are to be specific about your manipulated (1) IV1 and your (3) DV. You
should definitely propose an IV2 below, but if you’re having difficulty deciding on an IV2, it can be changed or finalized
later as you write your Literature Review over the next few weeks. Your main focus right now should be to decide about
your IV1 and DV, and how to manipulate the IV1 and measure the DV.
If you’re having trouble nailing down some of the specifics, you may want to do a PsycInfo search and look in the Method
section of research articles to see how similar variables have been manipulated or measured in actual studies. This is
particularly helpful if you’re unsure of how your IV1 could be manipulated in a reasonable way. It may also help to ask
your TA.
This assignment does NOT need to be written in APA format. Number your answers (in a Word file) in response to each
item below. Each answer should be at least 1 sentence. Avoid being vague in your answers—remember, operational
definitions require you to be specific about your proposed variables. If you absolutely can’t think of a specific variable,
it’s better to admit this explicitly, rather than being vague in your answer (vague, unclear answers will lose points).
Assume you are explaining everything to someone who has not graded your previous paper topic assignment.
1. State your main research question, which may ask how your IV1 influences your DV. Put this in the form of a specific
question.
2a. What is your manipulated (or experimental) independent variable (IV1)? (give a conceptual definition here)
2b. Below, give a specific operational definition for what would be manipulated and give a description of each condition
(any experimental variable like this will have at least 2 conditions/levels). Be specific.
(Note: Parts 2a and 2b are worth 7 points of this assignment (out of 15 possible points). IV1 should be describing
a manipulated/experimental variable, in order to receive these 7 pts. This is by far the most important part of this
assignment, and you will lose these points if you can’t explain how this IV is experimental, or if it’s described
unclearly. If you’re having difficulty with this, or are uncertain about it, speak to your TA.
Remember, an experimental variable is one in which each person can be randomly assigned to one of several
conditions, in a way that is ethical to do. For example, you cannot randomly assign someone to have depression or
not; you cannot randomly assign someone to have a head injury or not; you cannot randomly assign someone to a
particular age or a gender.)
3a. What is your dependent variable (DV)? (give a conceptual definition)
3b. Give an operational definition for how this variable could be measured. You don’t necessarily have to figure out
exactly how this will be measured right now (e.g., a specific set of questions to measure it), but you should still try to be
as specific as you can.
4. Hypothesis (prediction) about how you would expect it to turn out, when comparing each condition of the IV1. Be sure
to specific the direction of the effect – for example, which group would score higher or lower than the other group.
5. Important: Why would you expect things to turn out this way?
6. Describe another IV2 that could be tested, one that is theoretically related to your IV1 or DV above. Then describe how
it would be measured or manipulated (operational definition).
7. Hypothesis (prediction) about how you would expect IV2 to influence the DV.
8. Ideally, who would be your sample? List any particular criteria for selecting your sample (for example, children aged
5-7 only, college students only).
Submit your paper as a Word or PDF file in Canvas, by the due date listed above.