Overview: This Is The First Assignment For Your APA Research

Overviewthis Is The First Assignment For Your Apa Research Project Ea

This is the first assignment for your APA Research project. Each assignment builds on previous work so take care in completing this week's work! By the time you finish the course, you will have first-hand experience constructing and administering a survey, as well as practice in analyzing your results and drawing conclusions. As you learned from the previous page, you will be conducting non-experimental research using self-report surveys. Because this is your research, you may choose a topic of interest to you.

Before completing this assignment, please read the information on 'Writing Survey Items' in section 7.35 of your textbook. Understanding the information that can be gained from survey items will make this assignment much easier. You will be learning about survey research in more detail next week. Instructions for APA Project - Assignment # 1 (Survey Topic) Planning Please read each bullet point carefully. This week, you are to choose the topic you would like to research.

Choose wisely! In next week's assignment, you will create a survey using both open-ended and closed-ended items on your selected topic. Don't forget: You can choose to conduct observational or correlational research. Observational research - your research will describe one variable. Correlational research - your research will examine the relationship between two variables.

Here is a pdf with some single variable topic ideas to get you started: ObservationalSurveyTopics.pdf. Download ObservationalSurveyTopics.pdf. Don't be limited to these research questions though. Be creative and try to think of new ideas. Here are a few correlational topic ideas: Study habits and GPA, Meditation/exercise/sleep habits and mood, Quarantine and eating/drinking/exercise habits, Living situation (e.g., alone, with friends, family, kids) and stress, Social media use and stress. Important: Your research is not being submitted to an IRB so please do not ask about private, sensitive, personal matters such as mental illness, sexuality and the like.

Beyond that, have fun creating questions you really want answers to.

Paper For Above instruction

Creating a research survey requires careful planning, especially when following APA guidelines, to ensure clarity and validity of results. The first step involves selecting a meaningful and manageable research topic that interests the researcher, with the understanding that subsequent assignments will involve designing and administering a survey or observational/correlational studies related to that topic. Choosing between observational research, which focuses on describing a single variable, and correlational research, which examines the relationship between two variables, is fundamental to shaping the survey design.

In establishing a topic, researchers should consider practical constraints, such as ethical considerations and sensitivity of the questions. For example, topics involving private or sensitive information, like mental health or sexuality, should be avoided unless proper ethical approval has been obtained. Several sample topics are provided, ranging from studying sleep habits during quarantine to exploring the impact of social media use on stress levels. The key is selecting a topic that aligns with personal interests and is feasible for survey-based research.

Once a topic is chosen, defining the target population is crucial. The population encompasses the group of individuals whose characteristics and behaviors are of interest. Clear inclusion criteria should be established to specify who qualifies for participation, such as demographic characteristics or specific experiences related to the research question. For instance, if studying sleep habits during quarantine in college students, the inclusion criteria might specify students aged 18-25 enrolled in a particular university.

Next, conceptual definitions of variables are necessary for clarity. For example, quarantine may be defined as "isolating at home for 10-14 days," while sleep quality might be described as "subjective assessment including bedtime, wake time, sleep duration, and difficulties falling or staying asleep." These definitions inform the development of survey questions, which can be both open-ended and closed-ended, to gather relevant data.

Developing specific research questions helps focus the survey. For example, questions like "Have people's sleep habits changed during quarantine?" or "Do sleep patterns vary based on living situation?" aim to uncover relationships or descriptive information. These questions should target measurable aspects of the variables identified, such as sleep duration, sleep difficulties, or stress levels.

Measurable aspects of variables, or variables of interest, include things like the presence or absence of quarantine, hours of sleep, sleep quality rating, and frequency of sleep difficulties. Operational definitions specify how these variables will be measured numerically or categorically, such as responses on a Likert scale or time measurements. For instance, sleep quality might be rated from 'Very Poor' to 'Excellent' on a 5-point scale.

An essential component is forming a hypothesis grounded in the theoretical framework. For example, one might hypothesize that "sleep habits change during quarantine, with individuals going to sleep later and waking up later, resulting in an increase of about one hour of sleep per night." This hypothesis guides the direction of the analysis and helps interpret the survey data.

In designing your survey, remember to focus on clarity, relevance, and ethical considerations. You will be passing your work through Turnitin to assess originality, so it must be your own creation. The collected data will contribute to a better understanding of behavioral changes or relationships between variables pertinent to your selected topic.

References

• Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE Publications.
• Robson, C., & McCartan, K. (2016). Real World Research. Wiley.
• Fink, A. (2013). How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide. SAGE Publications.
• Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2015). Practical Research: Planning and Design. Pearson.
• Brace, I. (2018). Questionnaire Design: How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey Material for Effective Market Research. Kogan Page.
• Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods. Oxford University Press.
• DeVellis, R. F. (2016). Scale Development: Theory and Applications. SAGE Publications.
• Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach. SAGE Publications.
• Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. SAGE Publications.
• Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. John Wiley & Sons.