Overcrowding in prisons, effects on mental health
Abstract
Short summary of the entire research proposal, usually about a paragraph (6-7 sentences, 150-250 words). This section should include the general topic of your proposal, research question & hypothesis, what’s already known about the issue through previous research, and the goals of your current proposal, including a concise description of research methods (survey, secondary analysis of data set, etc.). This does not count toward your 5-7 page limit.
Introduction (per APA format, do not include a heading that says “Introduction”)
This section identifies the research question you are interested in exploring. In other words, what is the problem you propose to examine? The goal of this section is to provide a brief description of a social problem, a compelling reason why social workers should try to address the social problem or issue, and a brief description of what must be learned next to address the social problem.
Briefly describe your chosen social issue or problem. This section may include information from other sources (scientific journal, credible webpage) that give statistics that help the reader understand the importance and magnitude of the problem.
Include why this social problem or issue is important; why should we care about it?
First Heading: Literature Review
Briefly describe what is already known about this social issue or problem. This section may highlight, for example, what we know about the causes or the consequences of the social problem/issue.
Provide data on the prevalence, demographics, causes, effects, symptoms, etc.
Use at least 4 peer-reviewed journal citations.
You already have a draft of the literature review from an earlier section of your proposal Be sure to incorporate feedback from earlier drafts. This is a literature review; the different articles you examined need to be integrated. It should not read as a list of separate article analyses.
Subheading: Research Question
Link the information you have already provided in your literature review about what is known on this social issue/problem to a gap in the knowledge base. This gap should then link closely to the research question that you will be proposing.
Your proposed research question will generate knowledge that will hopefully fill that gap. This paragraph should provide clear logic that shows how your research question builds off and extends the existing knowledge base
At the end of this section, state your proposed research question(s). These research questions should be revised from your original research questions to reflect an answerable, feasible question. If you are doing an experimental design (pre-post test) or a correlational study (seeing if one variable is correlated with another variable), include your hypothesis. If you are doing a descriptive or exploratory design, do not include a hypothesis.
Second Heading: Methods
This section needs to include your research design, the study participants & sampling strategy, measurements/instruments (scales, surveys, secondary data analysis, etc.) and (brief) data analysis. Clearly operationalize your independent and dependent variables in this sections.
Subheading: Sample, Sampling Strategy & Recruitment
Describe the sampling strategy that you will use. Justify why your sampling strategy is feasible and will help you answer your research question.
Describe your population and ideal sample.
State how many people you hope to enroll in your study, and how you will recruit them.
Subheading: Study Design & Methodology
Describe the design of your study and the methods you will use. Are you using quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods? If you are using qualitative, are you planning on conducting interviews, focus groups or something else? If using quantitative, are you doing cross-sectional or longitudinal? If using an experimental or quasi-experimental design, specify which design type you are using (see chapter 12 in your text). If you are planning on using a survey, briefly describe your measures (e.g. Beck Depression Inventory, GAD-7 Anxiety Questionnaire, CAPS-5 PTSD Scale, etc.). If using quantitative methods, be sure to include how you are operationalizing your variables (e.g. “depression will be measured by scores on the Beck Depression Inventory”).
Subheading: Analysis
Briefly describe how you think you will collect and analyze your data. If quantitative, describe what kind of descriptive statistics you might use to describe your sample (age, gender, race, depression scores, etc. with means, medians, etc.).
Subheading: Strengths & Limitations
Identify at least one strength and one limitation of your study, with a particular focus on reliability and validity (see chapter 8 in your text). You may also assess any strength and limitations of your sampling strategy.
Subheading: Ethics Considerations
Describe at least 3 ethical considerations that you have in conducting your study. How does the NASW code of ethics inform your research plan?
REFERENCES
Include APA formatted references. This does not count toward your 5-7 page limit.
