Research Paper in Evolutionary
Psychology
(20% of final
grade)
Task: To design
(not perform) one or more experiments to investigate an unresolved issue in some aspect of evolutionary
psychology. The experiments should be credible and feasible such that given the
resources (and time) it could be completed by a researcher.
Aim: To encourage
you to think about the research methods available to the evolutionary
psychologist, to stimulate your thinking on a particular unexplored topic, and
to develop your expertise in that topic.
How to develop
your idea:
In class, and in the text, a number of areas have been covered where there are
currently more questions that answers. This is one of the advantages of a focus
on an evolutionary perspective - it is so new! I suggest that you to pick an
area of research (e.g., male short term mating) and a particular topic within
that area (e.g., flirting) that interests you. The area of focus can be one
already covered in class or one to be covered in class (or one outside these
areas but I suggest you talk to me about it in that case). Your topic MUST be
different from that in the Review paper.
Once
you have established an area you are interested in, there are two main ways to
identify a topic for your paper: (1) Do an electronic search on PsycInfo. These
searches can be done through the CMU library from many of the clusters. Search
for "evolutionary psychology” and “[your topic]"; (2) Come talk to me,
and between us we will narrow your interests to a manageable topic. Once you
find one article that interests you, look in the References section at the end
of the article--you are likely to find several other articles on the same
topic, perhaps even by the same author.
Once
you have read more deeply on the topic, you will start to notice that there are
many unresolved issues that could (and should) be empirically tested. For
example, given the area of “flirting”, perhaps there are no studies that have
yet addressed the various forms (touching hair, eye contact, smiling) as
“actual” indicators of interest (in fact, some similar studies have been
performed). The idea of this paper is that you will design a single study to
address any such unresolved issue.
Structure of
the paper: The
best guideline for the structure and format of your report would be to look at
any published psychology paper. Here is a basic outline of the structure of the
paper, which should include the following sections.
Title Page. The title should reflect the purpose of the
study. The title of your paper should reflect the most important variables in
the study and the participant population. For example, “A study of the
relationship between flirting and sexual interest in undergraduate students”.
Beneath the title, list yourself as the author, using your name. Your
affiliated institution should appear below your name. The title page should also include a running head at the top (a
shortened version of the title, e.g., “Flirting and interest”.
Abstract.
Your abstract should be a brief, comprehensive summary of your
paper. I recommend writing it after you
have completed the rest of the paper and after you have answered the questions
to ensure that your abstract accurately reflects the ideas and finding
presented in the paper. It should
concisely describe the following (in less than 150 words):
·
the
research problem (1-2 sentences)
·
the
participants (1 sentence)
·
the
procedure (1-2 sentences)
·
the
major predicted findings (2 sentences)
·
conclusions
and implications (1-2 sentences)
Introduction. Briefly describe the theoretical context of
the study (2 - 3 paragraphs). Discuss research already performed in the area
(2-3 paragraphs), and highlight gaps in these studies that leave certain areas
unexplained or unresolved. This should lead you explicitly to state the
research question and the specific hypotheses to be tested (1 paragraph). Think
of the Introduction as a story (fact, not fiction) - that leads the reader to
the conclusion that the study you have designed will fill an important gap in
our knowledge.
Method. This section
covers how the study is performed. Be sure to provide sufficient detail so that
someone reading your proposal could actually do the experiment.
Participants. Who will be tested?
Undergraduates? Or will information be gathered from records? TV? How will
participants be recruited? How many will there be?
Design and procedure: How will the
participants be tested? Will the study be observational? If so, where? Will
there be an experimental manipulation with a test and control group? What
materials will be used? (1-3 paragraphs).
Results: What are the
predicted results? What other results could occur? What statistics would you
use? Give figures of potential/predicted outcomes (1-2 paragraphs).
Discussion: What will
the predicted results tell us about the phenomenon under investigation? Will
they support and refute various other evidence? How do they bear on the
theories in the area? Any suggestions for future research? Limitations or
weaknesses of the proposed study? (3-4 paragraphs)
Repeat these
last steps if you include multiple experiments. The sections
can be briefer the second time around: you can say, for example, that the
procedure will be the same except for X and Y, which will be different in ways
P and Q.
References. Include citations, in APA format, for all the
sources you use.
After the text of your
paper, you should include a References section, where you list the three
articles you reviewed and any other references you cite (but NOT references you
didn’t specifically cite) in the text of your paper. References for journal
articles should be provided as follows (note that the References also
should be double-spaced):
Shackelford, T. K., &
Buss, D. M. (1996). Betrayal in mateships, friendships, and coalitions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
22, 1151-1164.
References for book
chapters should be provided as follows:
Shackelford, T. K. (1997).
Perceptions of betrayal and the design of the mind. In J. A. Simpson & D.
T. Kenrick (Eds.), Evolutionary social
psychology (pp. 73-107).
References for books
should be provided as follows:
Buss, D. M. (1994). The
evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating.
Any
idea you take from another source should be credited to that source by putting
the last name or names and year of publication in parentheses after you present
the idea. Alternatively, you can credit the author by last name in the context
of the sentence. In this case, you would put the year of publication of the
source in parentheses after the author’s last name. Needless to say, don’t
plagiarize in your paper. If you are using more than three words in the order
in which they were written by the author, you must put quotes around these
words and cite the page number and source from which the phrase or sentence was
taken. Plagiarism will result in immediate failure of the paper. As a general
rule, paraphrase (use your own words) rather than quote directly. Feel free to
discuss ideas with other students, but all written work should be your
own.
Not
including the References page, your paper should be about 8 typed pages. Do not
exceed 10 pages. Try to be as clear and concise as possible. You will discover
that it is a challenge to write everything you need to write in 8 to 10 pages.
Class presentation.
You will be required to present your research ideas to the class in a 5-6
minute talk during the last weeks of class. The goal of this presentation is to
give you practice in orally presenting your work and for you to receive
constructive feedback on your ideas before writing the paper. Further details
about the presentation will be given to you toward the end of the semester.
An
outline of your research proposal is due in class on Tuesday March 6th . This
outline should be one page long, should cover the area to be studied, the
hypothesis, and the general strategy for testing the hypothesis.
The
paper is due on Thursday
May 3rd in class. Anything handed in after class will be considered “late”. No
extensions will be given.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
And if you have any questions - ask!!!!