Guidelines for the Research Report

GRADING GUIDELINES

SCHEDULE:

Wed, Jan 27: 1 paragraph description of plan for research report

Wed, Feb 3: Optional but highly recommended: Bring draft research report for review by your coaches.

Wed, Feb 10: Peer editing of research report: bring a copy of your full draft

Mon, Feb 15: Research Report due in class--1 copy. To be graded by outside grader, so everything needs to be very clearly described for someone who is not an "insider."

** Penalty for late papers: 3 points (out of 20) automatic deduction. Monday 5 is the latest that late papers will be accepted**

Mon, March 9: Optional: Rewrite of research report. NOTE: If original paper was late, the 3 point deduction cannot be erased with a rewrite. Rewrites ONLY accepted if complete research report was handed in for the February due date. Previous version of the paper with comments from the grader must be attached.

TOPIC: The research report will focus on one (or possibly two) of the three data sets collected by the class:

Class Exercise: Individual, collective, and individual decisions on Hazards task. Data includes individual decisions, group decisions, post-group individual decisions, plus questionnaire responses to questions about contribution to the discussion, leadership, satisfaction with the decision process, expected scores (relative to other groups), whether group paid attention to all members, and ranking of apparent expertise of members. Sex of members is identified in the questionnaire.

Click to see Answer Key and Protocol for running the exercise.

Observational data: Observations of size, gender, and age composition of natural groups. Approximately 380 groups observed.

Click to see a copy of the Observation form.

Membership questionnaire: Questions about groups people belong to, including group type, size, age and gender composition. For two of these groups, additional questions about ethnic diversity, meeting frequency, time group has been together and person has been a member, leadership, conflict, and cohesiveness. Complete data on 74 groups.

Click to see a copy of the Membership questionnaire. [Note: Formatting is a bit weird on second page--sorry]

FORMAT: Paper should be 5-10 pp. double spaced (10 MAX for the text, counting title page and references), and should follow APA format. Tables and figures not included in the page maximum.

ORGANIZATION: The paper should (1) introduce the study, citing relevant literature (2) propose one or more hypotheses for the exercise based on the literature (3) describe the study design [methods section] (4) present results [descriptive, and if feasible, inferential statistics] (5) State whether the results support the hypothesis[es] or not and (6) discuss the outcomes.

NOTE: Be sure and identify the limitations of the data in your discussion section, and suggest how the study design could be improved.

AUTHORSHIP: You may complete the paper individually or in pairs. A clear division of labor is essential for dyadic papers, and the nature of each author's contribution should be specified in an endnote.

MATERIALS: The materials for the report will be the data generated, plus the instructions for the class exercise. Three copies of each data set are on reserve at the library. Instructions used for the class exercise are included with the data. Additional materials are your text and additional references you look up in the library. Forsyth cites lots of references--look through the chapter most relevant to your topic to get ideas for further materials to consult.