Honors Addendum

PSY-452: Experimental Psychology

Honors Competency Alignment

The following checked competencies align to the readings, supplemental materials, and
assignments below that are differentiated for honors students enrolled in this course.

☒ Make ethically sound decisions that are supported with logic and aligned with
contemporaries in various disciplines.
☐ Exhibit the qualities of great leaders who are able to inspire, motivate, and change or
improve the conditions within their sphere of influence.
☐ Integrate theory from the classroom to serve within various discipline-specific settings.
☒ Use evidence and research for the purposes of making data-based decisions that are
supported by literature from relevant fields of study.

☒ Critically evaluate the quality of evidence and consider all sides to an issue before
formulating a position.
☐ Consider the perspectives of diverse cultures, traditions, and worldviews when interacting
with people, texts, and ideas.

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Honors Requirements
Topic #2

Assignments:
Topic Proposal and Operational Definitions

Honors Students: This assignment is included in the score of the Final Benchmark
Assignment.

The ultimate goal of this class is to create an original research proposal in the field of
psychology. Your research study can be anything you want, as long as it has something to do
with psychology!

The goal of this assignment is to finalize a research topic, think of research questions related to
that topic, and then identify the key variables of those questions. The answers to the following
questions should be 400-700 words in total.

1. Research Topic: Describe the general topic of interest in one to two sentences.

2. Research Questions: Write three to five questions related to this topic that are most interesting
to you?

3. Key Variables and Operational Definitions: What are the main variables of interest in your
research questions? Which variables do you want to focus on for the research project? After
you’ve identified the variables, create operational definitions for each variable.

4. Develop you Hypothesis: What is your prediction or educated guess for your research? How
do you think the key variables are related?

5. Address the possibility of bias in research. Knowing that everyone has bias, consider some of
your own potential biases and how they may impact your research design. Find a scholarly
resource on how to mitigate bias.

2
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the
Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the Topic Proposal and Operational Definitions
rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful
completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical
support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Topic # 3

Assignments:
Annotated Bibilography

Complete the attached "Annotated Bibliography" worksheet, then synthesize the articles. The
common themes may be clear. Describe if any, differences in the research. Consider how the
differences may be related to different avenues available, to research the topic. In your own
words describe the differences and why your proposal may need to be narrowed in focus and
scope and the difficulties you may face if the study is to broad. Your summary should be 100 –
250 words in total.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the
Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the Annotated Bibliography rubric prior to
beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical
support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.