You are free to propose whatever type of study you wish (as long as it is relevant to the behavioral sciences), but If you are thinking of using this proposed research for your capstone course you may want to ask a question that can be feasibly carried out here. That means you may want to avoid research designs that would require the use of protected populations such as children, prisoners, the elderly, mentally disabled individuals, etc. (see the IRB guidelines for more details on this). The IRB will also not allow questions about illicit drug use or other illegal behaviors. In the capstone course you will be restricted to studies that can be carried out in 12 weeks available and you will be responsible for any monetary costs associated with the study, so keep these in mind.

For this assignment you should answer the following using complete sentences:

What is the research question your study seeks to answer?
A good research question must be specific so that it can be answered with a research project. For example, “what causes depression?” is too broad and could not be answered in a study. “Is sunlight exposure related to depression?” would be a good research question because it is specific enough to be answered in a study. For this course, your research question should focus on the relationship between only two variables related to psychology or the behavioral sciences.

Be careful with the language you use in your research question. Terms like “effects”, “impacts”, “leads to”, etc. would all imply a causal relationship, which would only be appropriate if your study employs an experimental design. If your study is nonexperimental, your research question should instead use terms like “relationship”, “correlation”, “is related to”, “predicts”, “is associated with” etc.

What is the hypothesis for your study?
A hypothesis indicates the specific predicted relationship between the variables in a study. If you are investigating a correlation, indicate the predicted strength and direction of the relationship. If you are performing an experiment indicate the expected causal relationship.

What are the variables you will explore in your research question?
A variable is any measurable event, situation, behavior, or individual characteristic that varies (has at least two values). In your study you will be looking at a relationship (either causal or correlational, depending on your research design) between two variables.