Final Project Health Behavior Change
Proposal Components

There are two parts:

1.     The
Research Proposal: think conference proposal or research grant. Write in a
style according to your expected audience. In this case, Academia driven so
think theory and research driven.

2.     The
Program Evaluation Plan: think community grant proposal or funding source
justification. Write in a style that is less academic driven. Think process and
outcome driven.

Note that I will most likely not know which part you
completed first. You will no doubt have tons of repetitive information. Cut and
paste as needed and reword to suit the context of the proposal or plan.

•       Little
if any information/narrative should be in outline or bulleted information.

•       Graphs
and tables are fine. When in doubt, reference it!

Part 1: The Research
Proposal

Research Proposal components:

1.     Introduction: Should include a purpose
statement, that answers the following:

a.       Why
is this needed?

b.      What
is this significance/why is this significant?

c.       What
is your hypothesis? (if given X, Y will occur)

d.      What
is the intervention?

e.       What
is the target behavior?

f.       
What will be the limitations of this proposal?

g.       What
are the assumptions of this proposal?

h.      What
theory will be applied?

i.       
Define/explain the theory and why you chosen it
for this proposal.

THE INTRODUCTION IS ALREADY COMPLETED IN RED IN THE ATTACHED FILE 

None of these should be answered with
“because I had to for this course.”

2.     Methods:

a.     Subjects/Participants: Describe the
demographics of the subjects/participants/population. 

•       How
many, how old, what is special about them?

•      
What criteria was used for inclusion/exclusion?

•      
How, where, and why were the subjects recruited?

•      
Were there any rewards for participation given?

b.     Definitions: are there terms which need
to be defined. For example, if you were to be applying a theory to increase
exercise, you would define exercise as you defined it for your participants
here. Of course, a reference of some sort would be needed for that definition
or if you had your participants in your pilot define it, and you then used that
as your definition for your proposal/project’s working definition—great! Just
say that.

c.     Instrumentation/Data Sources: Survey?
Observation? What tool or technology will be used to collect the data? Is there
a data collection sheet? (A sample copy of the actual data collection sheet
should be included in the appendix). Will you introduce education? Will you
pre/post-survey or interview? Who developed the data collection method? Has the
survey been previously used and/or published? Were the forms used piloted?
Other documents discussed here would be consent forms, permission slips, or
written permission from an organization to conduct the study/project.

d.     Procedure: Pilot, yes or not? What is
the protocol or sequence of events? How long is recruitment? How did
recruitment take place? Was there any training involved for data collectors or
for participants? How was training developed? Place any training guides in the
appendix.

This is your recipe of how, when and where
your proposal happens. Imagine if someone wanted to reproduce exactly what you
are proposing, this section would give them a step by step of how to do what
you are proposing.  

3.     References: Listed in APA style 
minimum of 15 references needed for this proposal

Part 2: The Program
Evaluation Plan

You may find it helpful to review Chapter 15 and 16 of the
textbook to get grounded in what is involved in engaging with a population.

Program Evaluation Plan Components:

PARTS OF THE EVALUATION PLAN ARE ALSO ALREADY COMPLETED IN RED IN THE ATTACHED FILE 

1.     Executive Summary: Sort of an abstract.
This is done after all other parts are completed. Usually a one pager that
says, “we were asked to do this because ABC, so this is what we did, and this
is what happened. We do or do not suggest changes the next time something like
this is done.”

2.     Introduction: Describe the overall
project. For example, “we wanted to increase the stair taking at this facility
because our health insurance will give us a discount if we have wellness
activities on site at the workplace.” This is where you would describe an
entity or organization that the participants or subjects are coming from or why
this program is important for this population. This is somewhat brief as you will
have a purpose section after the needs assessment.

3.     Needs Assessment: Describe how you
decided on the target behavior you have chosen. Who did you talk to? What data
that previously existed confirmed that you were matching a real need (data
driven) with a perceived need (what the population or company or organization
wanted).

4.     Statement of Purpose, Program Goals, and
Objectives:

a. Statement of Purpose: “the purpose of
this program is X”

5.     Program Objective: “the objective of
this program is to ABC,” think outcome. Describe how this objective was decided
upon. For example, “after a needs assessment of GHI and blah blah blah, the
program manager decided that HIJ objective would fit the company’s goal while
meeting the employee’s needs.”

6.     Intervention: Describe what theory this
intervention is based on. Describe the theory briefly with an emphasis on the
construct you will be using or measuring. Describe the intervention for the
program. See Intervention section in the “do before you begin section” at the top
of this document.

7.     Resources: Are you getting help
(volunteers, data collectors, educators etc.) to accomplish this program? If so
describe any and all resources that will be assisting you. Maybe it’s a
situation where the city will be maintaining the park where your program is
offered.

8.     Marketing and Recruitment: How will you
recruit for participation? Look at the “Methods” section of your research
proposal.

9.     Implementation: Describe what you are
going to do. Are there any concerns (legal, medical, recruitment, costs,
logistics, recordkeeping, training, or safety)? List concerns and possible
strategies in place or in planning to deal with these concerns. See the
“Limitations” section of your research proposal.

10.  Evaluation Plan: Think Methods and
Analysis, what will you do and why and how. Include data collection
(self-report, direct observation, existing records, meeting attendance). A
sample of evaluations will likely be a subset of your full target population so
if you have a population of 15 you may only evaluate 25% of randomly selected
participants to evaluate. Some evaluation plans will include all participants.
Whatever your plan is, justify it narratively.

11.  References (15): If all references are the
same (I don’t think they will be but I’m open to otherwise) you may simply
state that the references are the same as the research part of your project.
Either part, research proposal or program evaluation plan, could have
references the other part does not need.