Identify the research design category you believe is suitable for investigating your research question. Explain why this research design category is an appropriate choice.

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Research Question, Hypothesis, and Approach

[WLOs: 3, 4] [CLOs: 1, 4, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the feedback on your Week 1 paper, sections 1.2, 1.3, and 2.1 in the Newman (2016) textbook, and view the following videos: Picking Your Topic IS Research (Links to an external site.) tutorial from the Ashford University Library, as well as Writing a Research Question (Links to an external site.), and Research Questions, Hypothesis, and Variables (Links to an external site.).

In this assignment, you will follow up on the Week 1 assignment by devising a specific research question and hypothesis statement for your topic. For this assignment, use the Week 2 Assignment Template provided.

Using the Week 2 Assignment Template, complete the following:

  • Devise a specific research question on an aspect of the topic selected in Week 1.
  • Formulate a testable research hypothesis.
  • Identify the research design category you believe is suitable for investigating your research question.
  • Explain why this research design category is an appropriate choice.

Support your choices and explanation with citations from the textbook and at least one scholarly/peer-reviewed source from the Ashford University Library. You can find suitable journal articles about specific research designs and methods in the Research Methods research guide.

The Research Question, Hypothesis, and Approach paper

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Evaluate the book from your own point-of-view and based on its intended purpose. What did you identify as its most valuable contributions? Did you find any of the concepts unclear or insufficiently developed?

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Practical Book Review Instructions

This Practical Book Review provides an opportunity for you to reflect on, respond to, and evaluate the ideas, concepts, and techniques in Petersen’s (2015) Why Don’t We Listen Better? based on your own life experiences and ideas from other course texts, and apply these to your interpersonal communication context. Begin the body of your paper with a brief introductory paragraph, then organize your review in 3 sections, using the headings Response, Critique, and Application, following the specific directions provided below. Your review must be well written and organized, free of grammar and other writing errors, and formatted according to current APA style. A title page and a reference page are expected, but an abstract is not needed. Also, you may use the first-person pronoun.

Response

Articulate a personalized response that demonstrates meaningful reflection on the core content. Describe insights you gained about your own communication skills, strengths, weaknesses, and habits. For example, what concepts and principles were especially enlightening to you? Were you reminded of any past conversations? Did you identify with any of the communication traps? Your response should be between 400 and 500 words.

Critique

Evaluate the book from your own point-of-view and based on its intended purpose. What did you identify as its most valuable contributions? Did you find any of the concepts unclear or insufficiently developed? Also, compare and contrast 3 of Petersen’s ideas with related concepts articulated in Stewart’s Bridges Not Walls as well as in France & Weikel’s Helping Skills for Human Service Workers (and list these texts on the reference page along with the Petersen text). How are the perspectives of the three authors similar and/or different? Briefly analyze and discuss the relative strengths of each. Your critique should be between 700 and 800 words.

Application

Looking forward, apply what you have learned to your own interpersonal arena. Articulate the changes you need to make in light of the information gleaned from the content. Describe the specific strategies and techniques that you will implement in order to enhance your interpersonal communication—both personally and professionally—and how you plan to do so. Your application should be between 400 and 500 words.

Discuss what type of approach you chose (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, or both) and evaluate why you chose this approach.

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Scientific Methods-AUTISM

In Week 1, you used the scientific method to design research studies (basic and applied). Now you will select one of them (either the basic or the applied one) and build upon it using the skills you have developed since then. You are going to write the ‘introduction and background’ and the ‘method’ section of your study. Make sure that you review peer reviewed articles so that you can model your sections after those in peer reviewed journal articles. The background section of your study should be supported by at least 10 peer reviewed journal articles. Be sure to also specify your experimental and null hypothesis. In the method section, you will need to identify the methods of data collection, the participants, and the procedure for your study.  

At the conclusion of these two sections you need to write a rationale for your study that includes the following:

  • Analyze the types of sources used and how these choices may affect results.
  • Justify why your chosen methods of data collection are the optimal choice.
  • Discuss what type of approach you chose (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, or both) and evaluate why you chose this approach.

Submission Details

  • Please provide your answers in a 3- to 4-page Microsoft Word document.
  • Support your responses with examples.
  • Cite any sources in APA format.

Discuss ethical issues you encounter in your professional life or psychology specialization and how those can be avoided or handled.

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By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 3: Evaluate ethical issues in research studies.

Analyze the ethical responsibilities researchers have to the public and to their discipline as it relates to human participants.

Analyze the ethical responsibilities researchers have to maintain intellectual honesty and integrity.

Evaluate the implications of the study if the researcher had not maintained ethical standards.

Competency 6: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.

Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the identified field of study.

Complete a 6–8-page analysis in which you discuss and evaluate the possible ethical considerations found in the research articles you studied in Assessment 1.

Consider the following real news headlines of recent years:

“Case of Two KU Scientists Illustrates Growing Problem of Research Fraud.”

“Ben Carson Issues Apology for Plagiarism in His Book.”

“Plagiarism Costs Degree for Senator John Walsh.”

“Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research.”

“Decades Later, Condemnation for a Skid Row Cancer Study.”

“CNN Suspends Fareed Zakaria for Alleged Plagiarism.”

“Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Is Called Fraud.”

“German Education Minister Quits Over PhD Plagiarism.”

“Harvard Finds Scientist Guilty of Misconduct.”

“Horrific Medical Tests of Past Raise Concerns for Today.”

SHOW LESS

The list could go on and on with instances of ethical violations in research and academics from decades past. Ethics in academic and scientific writing, the ethical treatment of research participants, and research misconduct are not limited to graduate students or any particular field of study. If anything, the above list represents that unethical behavior has no boundaries and may be more complex than it seems on the surface.

We might consider the thought that if ethical decisions and behavior were obvious and easy, there would not be such a large number of known violations. Still, it is your sole responsibility to understand and perform the ethical behavior that is required of you as a learner and professional. Conducting your research in an ethical and responsible manner is a hallmark of good research.

Preparation

Use two of the research articles you found in Assessment 1. Contemporary published research articles seldom have looming ethical concerns; however, all researchers are solely responsible for their ethical conduct. This not only includes the ethical treatment of participants but also ethics in being truthful about all research procedures and reporting the findings. Reread two of the articles from Assessment 1; pay special attention to the ethical concerns the researchers had to consider when carrying out the study.

Using the Capella University Library resources, find and read at least four articles regarding ethics in research.

Instructions

In 6–8 pages, write an analysis in which you complete the following:

Begin your paper with an introduction, Explain the purpose of the paper and its contents.

Start with a general discussion of important ethical concerns of conducting research using human participants.

Make sure to touch on the ethical treatment of participants and the importance of other ethical behavior required of researchers.

Using your research articles from Assessment 1, identify and analyze the ethical considerations the researchers would have had while planning, conducting, and presenting their research.

Note that you are not being asked to find ethical violations but, rather, to identify the aspects of the research where the researchers would have had to exercise ethical behavior, such as in the sampling procedure.

Discuss what might have happened if the researchers had not been ethical.

Discuss ethical issues you encounter in your professional life or psychology specialization and how those can be avoided or handled.

End your paper with a summary and conclusion.

Additional Requirements

As much as possible, the assessment should be written in your own words; it may include paraphrased information that is properly cited in the current APA style.

If you need to quote, do so sparingly, and make sure you have cited quoted material according to the current APA style.

Your assessment needs to demonstrate your understanding of the material, not how well you can quote someone else’s work.

Write in a professional tone, without writing errors.

Include a title page and references page, using the current APA style.

Write 6–8 pages with 1-inch margins, plus a title page and references page. An abstract is not required.

Include at least 4 current scholarly or professional resources.

Use APA-style headings to organize your paper.

Use Times New Roman font, 12 point.

Double space.