Please help me with a project and the stats for it.

[brightness]

For my final exam for an undergraduate research course, I am supposed to create a research proposal based on a previous research paper. We have to design an experiment with more statistical awesomeness than a 't' test. So, maybe two levels of a variable or something? a 2x2? I'm unsure of how to match up the statistical design with the variables!
We have to find three journal articles about this topic and then write lit reviews, then write our proposal. Our proposal has to be based on these lit reviews, but has to go beyond what they were studying- it can't be a replication. My problem is, it seems like all the topics I look up- emotion, attachment, depression- link to the most difficult research papers ever, with a ton of variables.
Does anyone have an idea about what variables or subjects would help me design a simple but still respectable research design? I've been going through journals all morning, and I can't figure out what I'm doing here.

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[edieb]

How about using two doses of a psychactive drug or one group receiving the drug and one not receiving the drug? Or you could look up some papers on Dialectical Behavior Therapy or another type of therapy, where one group gets the treatment, and one group does not get the treatment

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

So, what you want to do, probably, is an ANOVA.

For example a 2x2 design could be this:

Drug:
Yes NO
therapy: Yes
No
Here your two independent variables are "Drug" and "therapy" each with two levels (yes and no). Your dependent variable would be what your trying to measure, maybe depression score on some scale.

Some of the best studies (with simple stats) are classic experimental social psych ones. Check out http://www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/resource/seminalstudies.htm for examples

 

[char111]

you want two groups and two dvs:

Attachment style Depression Scale
female X X

male X X

google attachment and depression with regard to gender. choose the most up to date research. focus on studies that have used some sort of scale for attachment and or depression.

hope this helps

 

[char111]

soz, those columns just won't align. each gender group should have two scores (X), one for attachment and one for depression