The Impact of Domestic Violence on Emotional Contagion: Do Children Mirror Their Mothers’ Emotional Responses?

ABSTRACT
Your abstract should be a brief, comprehensive summary of your paper. It should concisely
describe the following: the research problem, the participants, the procedure, the major finding,
and the conclusions and implications, all in less than 250 words. The abstract is on its own page,
following the title page.
INTRODUCTION Page guideline: 5-8 pages
Your introduction must provide a cohesive story (or argument) that leads the reader to naturally
wonder about the question you are addressing in your current study. In other words, the aim of
the study should naturally follow the arguments you make and the research you review in the
introduction. Each sentence of your paper must naturally flow from the one prior to it, and each
idea in your paper must naturally flow from the previous idea stated in your paper. This flow
can rarely happen when you quote extensively, so as a general rule, scientific writing does not
rely on quoted material. Only quote someone else’s work when it cannot be summarized or
paraphrased. Otherwise, avoid quotes. What is the major issue being investigated? Why is the problem interesting· What is the theoretical background for your study? That is, what has previous researchabout this topic shown, and what possible explanations can be found in the literature that
might help you predict what the outcome will be? Make sure the articles you cite are
relevant to the study at hand.
· As you describe prior work, describe the limitations of this previous work (that make
further work necessary). For example, “Although these prior studies provide important
information about ABC, they have not directly studied XYZ.”
· Present an overview of the current study. What knowledge can be gained from the
current work? What is the major question (restated)?
· Briefly describe how this knowledge will be gained by providing a brief overview of how
you’ll address the research questions – do not detail all of your methods.
· End by listing your specific hypotheses.
METHOD Page guideline: As needed, so that someone could replicate the study
Because this is a proposal, the method section should be written in future tense (note that when
you write up the study for publication, the methods are changed to past tense). The following
subsections are merely an example of how to structure the methods section. The subsections in
your paper may differ depending on the exact nature of the study you are proposing.
Subjects/Participants. 5 points
Explain both the demographic information (intended total number of participants, targeted age
range, targeted gender breakdown, other relevant descriptions of your proposed sample) and the
method of selection (how will you recruit and select participants, how will you assess for the
presence or absence of the disorder(s) you are testing, what are your inclusion and exclusion
criteria for the study, how will subjects be assigned to conditions if there are multiple conditions,
etc.). If you have some small-scale pilot data that you have collected for this study, please
include the means and standard deviations for your demographic and clinical data. Otherwise, do
not include that information if you do not have any data collected.
Design. 3 points
Clearly specify independent and dependent variables. If your IVs and DVs are not clear (or
are incorrect), you will lose these 3 points.
For each independent variable:
· How many levels were included? What were the levels (unless it’s obvious, e.g., the two
levels of gender)?
· Was each variable manipulated independent or a repeated measure?
· If you have a factorial design, describe the design.
For example, “The study utilized a 3 (Task Condition) x 2 (Diagnostic Status) mixed
design, with diagnostic status as a between-subjects factor, and Task Condition as a
repeated measures within-subjects factor. . .”
For each dependent variable:
· How was it measured?Materials.
· Describe any materials used, including psychological screeners or measures.
How were they constructed? How were they used in the experiment?
· Samples of stimuli (or questionnaire items) should be included. These examples may be
presented in a table, if appropriate. Complete lists of stimuli (or complete forms of
questionnaires) can be included in an Appendix.
Procedure.
Summarize each step in the data gathering procedure. Be sure to include:
· Complete instructions to participants (verbatim or paraphrased)
· Formation of experimental groups
· Specific experimental manipulations
· Any control features of the design: randomization, counterbalancing
Brief Description of Data Analysis.
How were the raw data converted for analyses (e.g., scores, proportions, etc.)? What computer
programs were used in the data analysis? If data coding procedures were used, explain the
coding scheme. If you are proposing the collection of data requiring advanced computing
analysis (such as brain imaging data), please describe the procedures for analyzing the data.
DATA ANALYSIS PLAN WITH PREDICTED RESULTS (12 points) Page guideline: As
needed
Present the predicted findings as if you were telling a story. If you are proposing a pre-post
clinical trial design with 2 or more groups, you MUST indicate the anticipated results (within-
groups, between-groups, interaction) from a 2-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA, if
appropriate. Each of these three statements is worth one point (so 3 points total).
· State the hypothesis or question in conceptual terms. For example, “Our first hypothesis
suggests that it is easier to withhold button press responses for sad faces compared with
happy faces or neutral faces.”
· State the hypothesis or question in operational terms. For example, “To address this
hypothesis, we will use a one-way repeated measures ANOVA to examine accuracy for
the inhibition of button-press responses for the three different emotional expressions. We
will use p<.05 as the threshold for statistical significance.”
· Give the predicted answer. For example, “We predict that the ANOVA will show
significant differences in the inhibition accuracy for the different emotional facial
expressions.”
· Support the answer with additional comparisons, such as post-hoc pairwise tests. For
example, “To determine the nature of the accuracy differences between emotions, we will
use post-hoc paired samples t-tests with p<.05 as the significance threshold for each
pairwise comparison. We expect to see that accuracy for happy faces is greater than
accuracy for either fear faces or sad faces.”
· Elaborate or qualify the overall conclusion, if appropriate. For example, “We predict that
accuracy will be higher for sad faces compared with happy faces, but the comparison of
sad faces to neutral faces will not reach statistical significance, nor will the comparison of
happy faces to neutral faces.”13
· Summarize where things stand: “Thus, it appears as if it is easier to withhold responses to
sad faces compared with happy faces, but not easier to withhold responses to either sad
faces or happy faces compared with neutral faces.”
· Lead into the next section with a transition sentence. For example, “We predict that the
neuroimaging data will reveal an interesting pattern that should coincide with the
behavioral performance results. Specifically, comparisons of the three different emotion
conditions will show that there is increased activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
for the inhibition to sad faces condition compared with the inhibition for happy faces
condition.”
Tables and Figures (only if needed for your paper. Otherwise, you can skip).
· Include tables and figures in your paper, as appropriate. Use a figure when findings
cannot be simply stated in a few numbers, and to show examples of the cognitive or
behavioral task used in your study design.
· If using a graph, label both the independent and dependent measures clearly and
completely on the axes, and put values on the axes.
· Include a figure caption to explain in a sentence or two what is depicted in the figure.
· In the text, refer to the table or figure at the appropriate point, and guide the reader
through the figure.
DISCUSSION Page guideline: 3-5 pages
· Recap in plain English (but don’t repeat) your anticipated results. Do not include p-
values or talk about significance levels.
· Do your results support your hypotheses? Present clear statements of support or non-
support.
· Don’t just restate the predicted findings – think critically about the findings and draw
your own conclusions about what they tell us about how people behave in specific
situations
· What inferences or implications can be drawn from the findings? What are the study’s
theoretical implications and significance? Practical implications and significance?
· How do your results relate to those of other investigators?
· What are the specific strengths of your study design? For example, does your study
include a large, well-constructed sample or perhaps the introduction of a specific control
condition that had not been used in prior work?
· What are the shortcomings/limitations of your study? Is there something that makes it
difficult to generalize your results to the complete population you wish to study?
· What questions remain unanswered? What are some future directions for research on this
topic?
· Why does your study make an important contribution? Make a concluding statement.
REFERENCES
Use APA format (you do not need to include the doi). Make sure all citations in the text are in
the References section and vice versa. References should be high quality, peer-reviewed
published papers or professional books (e.g., no websites or Dissertation Abstracts
International). References can include papers describing the results of individual studies or
projects, and papers that review and summarize the current state of the literature on your topic14
and/or put forward new theories or viewpoints. Other acceptable references include chapters of
professionally edited handbooks or reference books (e.g., the Cambridge Handbook of
Psychology, Health, and Medicine), or books authored by professors that are geared toward
professionals or an informed general audience (e.g., Joseph LeDoux’s Anxious). Self-help
books or websites are not acceptable sources of information. If it is unclear to you whether a
particular source of information is acceptable
18 articles: it has to be peer-reviewed and academically reviewed