Writers Den

Approved Topic:

How likely is divorce on young married couples?

– I want to focus my research essay around the topic of age, marriage, and divorce. I want to explore the correlation of the likelihood of divorce of couples who are married at a young age compared to those who are married in their early 30s. I am interested on how likely the couples are going to get tired of each other especially if they got married at a young age. On the other hand, it would also be interesting to research about couples who got married in their early 30s, and how much pressure they would have to have kids right away.

Reference:

The Psychology of Women (7th ed.) text book by Margret A. Maltin.

Allen, L. (2010). Queer(y)ing the straight researcher: The relationship(?) between researcher identity and anti-normative knowledge. Feminism & Psychology, 20(2), 147-165.

Weisstein, N. (1993). Psychology constructs the female; or, The fantasy life of the male psychologist (with some attention to the fantasies of his friends, the male biologist and the male anthropologist). Feminism & Psychology, 3(2), 195-210. [This is a revised and expanded version of “Kinder, Küche, Kirche as scientific law: Psychology constructs the female,” published by the New England Free Press, 791 Tremont Street Boston, MA, USA, 1968. Copyright, Naomi Weisstein, 1971.]

Shields, S. (1975). Functionalism, Darwinism, and the psychology of women: A study in social myth. American Psychologist, 30(7), 739–754.

Townsend, T., Thomas, A., Neilands, T., & Jackson, T. (2010). I’m no Jezebel; I am young, gifted, and Black: Identity, sexuality, and black girls. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(3), 273-285.[Note: If you are unfamiliar with statistical analyses, you may skip the “Methods” and “Results” sections of this article and focus on the authors’ introduction and discussion.]

Due: After Unit 9
Weight: 30%
Length: 8 pages (2000 words)

Before you begin this assignment, you must have completed Assignment 4 and received approval from your tutor to proceed with the topic and research question you have proposed.

Prepare a detailed research proposal on a topic relevant to the material presented in this course. Important: You are not to conduct the actual research.

Your research proposal should be designed to investigate one of the major topics presented in this course that is of particular interest to you; it is to based on the research question approved in Assignment 4.

The goal of this project is to allow you to explore more fully either the role feminism and feminist analysis has played in the psychology of women; or the role feminist psychologists have played in reframing understandings about women. The overarching goal of this assignment is to allow you to familiarize yourself, in some depth, with relevant literature that will allow you to generate your own questions and analysis of the issue, area, or problem you have elected to focus on.

This proposal should not exceed 8 typed/word processed), double-spaced pages (approximately 2000 words). This page limit does not include the title page, reference section, or any appendices that you may want to attach.

Your written research proposal must include the following elements in this order:

1. Title: The title should reflect the general topic area covered in your proposal and should be derived from the topic approved from Assignment 4.
2. Literature review: The literature review portion of your research proposal will form the largest segment of this proposal. Include an annotated analysis of the articles that you examined as you researched your proposal topic; your proposal must review, and refer to, a minimum of 5 articles. All of these articles must be articles from peer-reviewed journals. You may also want to include materials from secondary sources such as books, book chapters, or non-refereed articles found on reputable websites. If you choose to include such sources, these are to be in addition to, rather than instead of, the 5 journal articles. Think of this literature review as a short (4–5 pages) essay whose main purpose is to contextualize the research question you have framed. As you write this segment, you should consider using your introduction as a space that will answer, for the reader, questions such as: “What have other researchers said about the topic?” “What main findings do other researchers present to support their hypotheses?” “Are there theoretical approaches used by the authors that help frame the topic clearly?” “Do other authors point out particular flaws or gaps in the research? “
3. Research question: Approved from Assignment 4. Present your research question in one or two sentences.
4. Research methods: Clearly describe exactly how your research project would be conducted. Include the following: Sample: In this section, briefly describe the potential research participants (i.e., the sample group). This section should answer such questions as, “Who will be participating in my study?” “How will I recruit them?” “What special characteristics do individuals need to have in order to take part in my study (e.g., should they be women, adolescents, mothers, professionals?)?” “How will my sample help me address my research question?”Procedures: In this section, describe for the reader exactly how you, the researcher, would go about conducting the study and collecting the data that would allow you to answer your research question. This section should answer such questions as “What steps do I need to take to conduct the study?” “Will I need special equipment to conduct my study (e.g., audio or video recording equipment)?” “How will I measure the behaviours or attitudes that I need to measure in order to answer my research question?” “How will I collect the data I need in order to answer my research question (e.g., observing participants in natural settings, observing participants in experimental settings, interviewing participants, asking participants to fill out surveys or questionnaires)?”
5. Proposed results: In this section, provide a brief overview of the results you would expect to see if you (or someone else) were to conduct your proposed research project.
6. Discussion: In this section, briefly discuss how the anticipated results (above) of your proposed research project would answer your research question, and how the expected findings would contribute to the literature on the topic you examined in your literature review section.
7. References: In this final section, include all of the references you used in your proposal. Be careful to use APA style in formatting the references for this section.

All references and citations must conform to APA style. (The AU Library website has additional information on style guides and citing sources.)

If your study proposes the use of a survey or interview instrument, provide a brief outline of the kinds of questions that would be asked. Although you will not be conducting this study, pay attention to the ethical guidelines established by the Tri-Council Policy (TCP). (Information on research ethics is available on the AU Women’s and Gender Studies program’s home page and on the National Council on Ethics in Human Research website.