EVALUATING RESEARCH IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY INSTRUCTIONS OVERVIEW When proposing a study in psychology, it is important to evaluate the research on your topic and determine what is already known and what remains to be known on your topic. The Problem Statement is the section of a proposal that tells the reader how your study will advance what is known about your research topic and comes from a thorough evaluation of the research on your topic. It is written in a way to summarize and evaluate what is known on your topic and introduce the gap in the research literature that your study will fill. It is written in a concise, clear, and logically convincing way. INSTRUCTIONS In this assignment, you will evaluate your research area and complete a “Problem Statement” on your research topic. This section should be about 300-500 words and provide an overview (with citations) of what is known on your topic and a clear and logical evaluation of the research gap that your study will fill. Please note that lack of research on your topic does not justify the need for a study. The justification must be logically, theoretically, or biblically grounded. Please see the “How to Write a Good Problem Statement” resource on Doctoral Commons for more tips on how to write a good Problem Statement. For this assignment, please evaluate the research on your topic and prepare a Problem Statement for your proposal. For this assignment, you must include the following: 1. A title page with proper APA formatting 2. A completed Problem Statement 3. A reference page in current APA style. References must be current, with at least 80% being from the past 5 years. 4. Current APA style must be used for title page, headings and subheadings, and all references. Be sure to review the criteria on the Evaluating Research in Social Psychology Grading Rubric before beginning this assignment. Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.