PSY 216 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
Personality psychology is an important course for all students because it provides insight into everyday behavior. Students are able to see themselves, their
families, and their friends in the concepts covered in personality psychology, and are able to adjust their behavior and attitudes based on what they have
learned. Although personality psychology is a research field, social psychologists are often interested in understanding current social problems, and their work is
often applied to improve individual-, community-, and societal-level relationships.
The final project is meant for you to propose a hypothetical study. You are not and should not be conducting human subjects research for this project. It is
not necessary for the purposes of this assignment. All human subjects research requires written approval from the SNHU COCE Institutional Review Board in
order to protect the welfare and ensure ethical treatment of the subjects.
For the first final project in this course, you will examine research presented in the course for how personality psychology has changed, and investigate a
potential gap in the research that has not been addressed. This assessment will allow you to foster and improve your skills at reading, interpreting, and writing
psychological works. It will also help you to learn your place within the field, and how to combine both your personal perspective and opinions with established,
empirical research to make original claims.
Final Project I is supported by two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final
submissions. These milestones will take place in Modules Three and Five. The final research investigation is due in Module Seven.
This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:
 Describe foundational research regarding personality by examining the historical evolution of the field of personality psychology
 Determine appropriate research designs used in personality psychology for application in the study of aspects of personality
 Examine issues of ethics in foundational research in personality psychology for informing appropriate conclusions
 Interpret claims made by foundational research in personality psychology for conveying appropriate conclusions that are supported by peer-reviewed
evidence
 Develop basic research questions supported by peer-reviewed evidence by identifying gaps in the research of personality psychology
Prompt
For your summative assessment, you will conduct an investigation of the foundational research in personality psychology. You will need to conduct a literature
review of the research presented in the course. This research will include both classic and current foundational research from the field. You will analyze the
research presented in the course to determine how what we know about personality has changed over time as well as how researchers have approached the
study of personality. You will also consider the issues of ethics that are or are not addressed in the research. Following your review of the research, you will
identify a gap (or unexplored topic within the research) and develop a research question designed to further explore your gap. This will include how the research
supports your research question and how you would approach addressing your research question.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Literature Review: In this part of the assessment, you will analyze foundational research presented in the course for how the field of personality
psychology has changed over time, how researchers have designed research to study personality, and how issues of ethics have been addressed
historically in the field.
A. Summarize the claims made by the authors of the foundational research presented in the course regarding how personality develops. In other
words, what claims are made by the research about how human personality develops?
B. Summarize the claims made by the authors of the foundational research presented in the course regarding how personality is assessed. In other
words, what claims are made by the research about how personality has been determined by assessments?
C. Explain how the view of personality has evolved over the history of personality psychology. Be sure to support with examples from research to
support your claim.
D. Explain the conclusions you can reach about research in personality psychology. In other words, explain what we know about personality, based
on your review of the research presented in the course. Be sure to support your analysis with examples from research to support your claim.
E. Describe the specific research designs used in the foundational research presented in the course used to address research questions. For
example, what were the specific methods used to address their research question? What type of research design was used?
F. Explain how research designs were used by authors to conduct research in personality psychology. In other words, how did the research designs
used by researchers help in conducting research regarding personality psychology?
G. Discuss how issues of ethics have been addressed in the foundational research presented in the course. For example, how did the authors
inform the participants of what the experiment would entail? How did the authors account for any potential risks to participants associated with
the study?
H. Discuss how issues of ethics in personality psychology have been viewed historically. In other words, how have issues of ethics in the field been
viewed over time? Has this view changed as the field has progressed? Be sure to support your response with examples from research to support
your claims.
II. Research Design: In this part of the assessment, use your previous analysis of the research presented in the course to develop your research design. You
will identify a gap in the research you have reviewed, explain how the research supports further exploration of that aspect of personality psychology,
and develop a research question addressing the gap. You will then determine an appropriate research design and explain how it could be implemented
and how you will account for issues of ethics in your proposed research question.
A. Identify a gap in personality psychology research presented in the course that is unexplored or underdeveloped. For example, is there an
unexplored aspect of personality psychology you believe could be further explored?
B. Develop a basic research question addressing the identified gap. In other words, create a question that you could answer in potential research
to further investigate your identified gap. Be sure to support your developed research question with examples from research to support your
claims.
C. Determine an appropriate research design that addresses your research question regarding personality psychology and explain why it was
chosen. Be sure to support your response with examples from your analysis and the research presented in the course that supports the
determined research design.
D. Explain how you will account for issues of ethics associated with your proposed research. In other words, how will you ensure that issues of
ethics associated with your proposed research have been managed appropriately? Be sure to support your analysis with examples from research
to support your claims.
E. Explain how your approach to accounting for issues of ethics was informed by your review of the research presented in the course. In other
words, what did you learn from the research presented in the course in terms of how to address issues of ethics that you were able to
incorporate in your own design?
Milestones
Final Project, Milestone One: Literature Review Draft
In Module Three, you will prepare a draft of the literature review due as part of your final research investigation using the three articles for your track that you
selected in Module One. Use the Literature Review Template to complete this task. Refer to the Literature Review Example to assist you. This milestone is graded
with the Final Project Milestone One Rubric.
Final Project, Milestone Two: Designing a Research Study
In Module Five, you will participate in a discussion in which you present the research design you will be using in your final research investigation. You will also
assist your classmates in refining their own research designs. This milestone is graded with the Final Project Milestone Two Rubric.
Final Project Submission: Research Investigation
In Module Seven, you will submit a document containing a polished literature review and research design. The full adapted literature review will include a review
of five articles. Combined with the research design, the final document should be 4–6 pages in length. Both the literature review component and the research
design component should incorporate the feedback received in the milestones and should reflect all the critical elements in the Final Project I Rubric below. Use
the Final Project Paper Template as a guide when writing your final research investigation. This document should be formatted in APA style. Refer to the SNHU
Online Writing Center for guidance on how to properly format sources in APA style. Consult Chapters 3 and 4 of the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association for guidelines for writing in APA style, including punctuation and spelling rules. Also, consult the tutorials at the Smarthinking Online
Tutoring Service to assist you in your writing. This final submission will be graded using the Final Project Rubric (below).
Final Project Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Your research investigation should be 4–6 pages in length, using 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, one-inch margins,
and APA formatting.
Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information,
review these instructions.
Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (85%) Needs Improvement (55%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Literature Review:
Personality Develops
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
analysis demonstrates an astute
ability to interpret claims made in
psychological research
Summarizes the evidence in the
foundational research presented
in the course regarding how
personality develops
Summarizes the evidence in the
foundational research presented
in the course regarding how
personality develops, but
summary is cursory or contains
inaccuracies
Does not summarize the
evidence in the foundational
research presented in the course
regarding how personality
develops
6.33
Literature Review:
Personality Assessed
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
analysis demonstrates an astute
ability to interpret claims made in
psychological research
Summarizes the evidence in the
foundational research presented
in the course regarding how
personality is assessed
Summarizes the evidence in the
foundational research presented
in the course regarding how
personality is assessed, but
summary is cursory or contains
inaccuracies
Does not summarize the
evidence in the foundational
research presented in the course
regarding how personality is
assessed
6.33
Literature Review:
History
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
explanation demonstrates keen
insight into how the view of
personality has evolved over the
history of the field
Explains how the view of
personality has evolved over the
history of the field using
examples from the research
Explains how the view of
personality has evolved over the
history of the field, but
explanation is cursory or lacks
examples from research
Does not explain how the view of
personality has evolved over the
history of the field
6.33
Literature Review:
Personality Psychology
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates an astute
ability to interpret claims made in
psychological research
Explains the conclusions that can
be reached about personality
psychology, based on analysis of
the research presented in the
course using examples from the
research
Explains the conclusions that can
be drawn about personality
psychology presented in the
course, but explanation is
cursory, contains inaccuracies, or
lacks examples from research
Does not explain the conclusions
that can be drawn about
personality psychology
19
Literature Review:
Research Designs
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates an astute
ability to interpret psychological
research
Describes the specific research
designs used in the foundational
research presented in the course
to address research questions
Describes the research designs
used in the foundational research
presented in the course to
address research questions, but
description is cursory, contains
inaccuracies, or response does
not reference specific research
designs from the research
Does not describe the research
designs used in the foundational
research presented in the course
to address research questions
6.33
Literature Review:
Conduct Research
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
explanation demonstrates keen
insight into how researchers use
research designs to better
conduct research
Explains how research designs
were used by authors in the
research presented in the course
to conduct research
Explains how research designs
were used by authors in the
research presented in the course
to conduct research, but
explanation is cursory or contains
inaccuracies
Does not explain how research
designs were used by authors in
the research presented in the
course to conduct research
6.33
Literature Review:
Issues of Ethics
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
discussion demonstrates keen
insight into how the authors of
the research presented in the
course addressed issues of ethics
Discusses how issues of ethics
have been addressed in the
foundational research presented
in the course using examples
from the research
Discusses how issues of ethics
have been addressed in the
foundational research presented
in the course but discussion is
cursory, contains inaccuracies, or
lacks examples from research
Does not discuss how issues of
ethics have been addressed in
the foundational research
presented in the course
4.75
Literature Review:
Viewed
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
discussion demonstrates a
nuanced understanding of how
the views and approaches to
ethical issues in the field have
changed over time
Discusses how issues of ethics in
personality psychology have been
viewed historically using
examples from the research
Discusses how issues of ethics in
personality psychology have been
viewed historically, but discussion
is cursory, contains inaccuracies,
or lacks examples from research
Does not discuss how issues of
ethics in personality psychology
have been viewed historically
4.75
Research Design: Gap Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates keen
insight into an unexplored or
underdeveloped area of
personality psychology based on
the research presented in the
course
Identifies a gap in the personality
psychology research presented in
the course that is unexplored or
underdeveloped
Identifies a gap in the personality
psychology research presented in
the course that is unexplored or
underdeveloped, but
identification contains
inaccuracies
Does not identify a gap in the
personality psychology research
presented in the course that is
unexplored or underdeveloped
9.5
Research Design:
Research Question
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
research question demonstrates
a keen insight into how to
develop research questions that
address the identified gap
Develops a basic research
question addressing the
identified gap that is supported
by examples from the research
Develops a basic research
question addressing the
identified gap, but developed
research question is cursory,
contains inaccuracies, or lacks
examples from the research
Does not develop a basic
research question addressing the
identified gap
9.5
Research Design:
Research Design
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
response demonstrates a
sophisticated awareness of the
research design that would be
most appropriate in addressing
the research question
Determines an appropriate
research design that addresses
the research question and
explains why it was chosen, using
examples from the analysis and
the research
Determines a research design
that addresses the research
question and explains why it was
chosen, but determination
contains inaccuracies or
explanation is cursory or lacks
examples from previous analysis
or research
Does not determine a research
design that addresses the
research question or explain why
it was chosen
6.33
Research Design: Issues
of Ethics
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
explanation demonstrates an
astute ability to interpret
psychological research
Explains how issues of ethics
would be accounted for with the
proposed research, using
examples from the research
Explains how issues of ethics
would be accounted for with the
proposed research, but
explanation is cursory, contains
inaccuracies, or lacks examples
from the research
Does not explain how issues of
ethics would be accounted for
with the proposed research
4.75
Research Design:
Informed
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
explanation demonstrates keen
insight into how the personal
approach to accounting for issues
of ethics was influenced by the
research presented in the course
Explains how your approach to
accounting for issues of ethics
was informed by your review of
the research presented in the
course using personal thoughts
and examples from the research
Explains how your approach to
accounting for issues of ethics
was informed by your review of
the research presented in the
course, but explanation is
cursory, contains inaccuracies, or
response is not supported by
personal thoughts and examples
from research
Does not explain how your
approach to accounting for issues
of ethics was informed by your
review of the research presented
in the course
4.75
Articulation of
Response
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and organization
and is presented in a professional
and easy-to-read format
Submission has no major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that negatively impact readability
and articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
that prevent understanding of
ideas
5.02
Total 100%