Research Proposal – Mental Health counseling.

Assignment 2: Research Proposal (final draft to be submitted on LiveText and Canvas)

Assignment 2: Research Proposal (final draft to be submitted on LiveText and Canvas)

Assignment Description: Each student will be required to write a research proposal. A research proposal is a clear, concise explanation of the issue to be researched, as well as the plan for implementing the research. It sets up the context, relevance, and aims of the project. It should be clearly defined and well-sourced.

The sections of the Research Proposal are listed, along with an estimate of pages for planning purposes only.

1. Problem Definition– This is a concise statement of the problem you are proposing to study.

Contextualize the problem: frame the research problem in a particular context and provide some background.

Discuss:
• Where and when does the problem arise?
• Who/what does the problem affect?
• What attempts have been made to resolve the problem?

2. Importance/ Justification- Justify the problem as an important issue. Explain what is not known about the problem, how severe or extensive, and why it matters in some way. Provide documentation (literature citation or statistics) if available.

Describe:
• How your research will refine, revise, and extend existing knowledge and
• How your research will contribute to policy and program operation.

3. Literature Review- Review of What is Known About the Problem- Facts included must contain a citation of their source. Include conclusions about what needs to be studied based on the literature. The review should not be comprehensive. It should only document what is the problem and why it’s important.

Discuss:
• prior research, theory, opinions, or practice that relates to the problem,
• what is known about the problem?

**A research source is an article, monograph, book or other publication that presents original research findings. It may be from a webpage if the webpage is sponsored by a credible source of scientific knowledge (such as a professional association or research institute).

**Newspapers, media webpages, journalistic research summaries, or opinion pieces do not count towards the “fifteen professional sources”; but they may be cited to justify the importance of the problem.

4. Summarize Research Question and Conclusions- You must have an explicit research question or hypothesis. This means stating a question that the research would answer. It must be a question that can be answered by empirical data. If you provide a hypothesis, it must be possible to demonstrate whether the hypothesis is false by reference to empirical evidence. Also, include a description of aims and objectives – How do you intend to address the problem?

5. Methodology – How do you intend to address the problem? Provide a detailed procedure for conducting the proposed research project. Please keep in mind that you are not going to be required to do the project but simply to propose it in a comprehensive written document.

6. References – At least fifteen professional references (or research sources) published in the last 5 years and formatted according to the APA Publication Manual, 7th Edition. Newspaper or magazine citations do not count toward the five professional references (or research sources) unless there are no other types of sources at all.
Prepare the final draft following the guidelines provided below:
o The following components are mandatory: definition of the problem, justification of the importance of the research, citation of relevant literature, clear, empirically based research question or hypothesis.
o Professional references (research sources) published within the last 5 years are required
o The final Research Proposal must be prepared in a Word document accordance with APA Publication Manual, 7th Edition Student Paper guidelines.
o The final draft is to be submitted on Canvas