Capstone Project Proposal  

Name of student: Date:

Teacher: Block:

The Capstone strand I have chosen is

Proposed title for my Project Proposal​: (​write the proposed title for your Capstone Project in one
clear sentence):

Social media influences on the psychological well being of individuals.

Choose one of your stored inquiry questions from grade 9 or create a new inquiry question that
interests you for further research. It should be a question that connects with a purpose, passion
or personalized area of interest for you.
My inquiry question​ ​is:

To what extent does social media have a negative influence on the psychological well
being of individuals in Langley, BC?

Rationale/context​: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain ​WHY​ you are
choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect
to your passion(s), purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

Social media has a largely significant influence in the world we live in today and will continue
to grow and gain more power over people. No matter what career path I may take, social
media will play at least a small role in it and will most certainly continue part of my personal life
as well as the lives of the people around me. This is the reason why I am interested in
researching how and why it has become so big and how that may impact our psychological
health as it is going to be a part of my future. I am interested in going into health for my future
career, which is another reason why I am interested in researching a different aspect of
health, psychological health, that I have never truly in depth analysed.

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Background​: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this
area of inquiry?

I am currently in IB Psychology (HL) second year as well as IB English Literature (HL)

therefore I have background knowledge on psychological topics as well as argumentative
essay writing skills.

Career connections​: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What
connections does this inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

I am interested in going into the health services,however,I am not too sure of a specific job
and I think this would help me determine if psychological health is where I want to go. This
connects to my personal life because social media has and will continue to have a strong
impact on my life and the lives of many people around the world as well. Being in IB
Psychology would help with this project as I already have basic psychological knowledge and
it would also help me with the class as I would be practicing the subject.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections​: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

Subject areas: Psychology (thinking and decision making), health and English
(research/argumentative paper)
Core competencies: Communication: Communicating the information I collected, my thoughts
and ideas of it through writing. Thinking: Critically thinking on how social media impacts the
cognition and health of individuals and creatively thinking on how to research this information.
Personal and Social:Researching an aspect of my social life through digital media as well as
the one of the people around me

Capstone Presentation medium​: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to
present your project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once
completed. You may use a combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation

I can use Google Slides to make an electronic presentation of my capstone project for my
capstone presentation. However, I will also be making a physical research paper as my
sample.

Description of my Capstone project. ​Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what
will you research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced
at the end of this project for evaluation. Write a ​one-page description​ outlining your

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proposal.

For my capstone project, I want to do an academic research/experimental paper on the

influences that social media can have on the mental health of individuals, or more specifically,
how it can negatively impact one’s psychological well being. I want to investigate how social
media affects the people around me, being the people of Langley. From this, I formed the
most relevant question to this topic, being to what extent does social media have a negative
influence on the psychological well being of individuals in Langley, B.C.?. This means that my
method of data collection will be convenience sampling as I am using the people who are
conveniently around for my project, this will more specifically be explained in the methodology
section of my research paper. In order to do this, I will need to do an online survey as it is
easy to make and have many people fill out so that I am able to get statistics. However, before
I can begin making a survey, I will need to research the general topic and specifically
investigate what makes one more prone to the negative influences on social media. This is
because from this, I can brainstorm and figure out potential survey questions that will help me
appropriately answer my research question. This background research will also be added to
the introduction section of my paper where I will explain the topic of this paper as well as begin
to construct several ideas that will be developed throughout the paper. I can easily make this
survey through google forms as I am already familiar with this specific site. I am aiming to
have around 100 responses from my survey of people from different age groups so that I can
have quantitative data. I plan to get people to fill out my survey by one, asking them in person
to fill out the survey and two, promoting the survey through social networks. My concern here
is the possibility of people filling out the survey inappropriately and potentially messing up the
data, which is why I will need to be very careful and aware of the people filling out my survey. I
am planning to analyse the survey responses by placing them onto google sheets and making
graphs that help answer my inquiry question by significantly supporting or contrasting my
hypothesis.The graphs that are the most relevant and bring the most striking information will
be placed in the presentation and analysis section of my paper where I will explain and
analyse each graph specifically as well as connect it back to the research question and
continue to develop ideas that were previously introduced in the introduction section of the
paper. I will then create an evaluation section in my paper where I will reflect on the strengths
and limitations of my research as well as possible extensions or changes that I could have
done to be more successful in the purpose of accurately answering the inquiry question. I will
summarize and wrap up all the ideas developed throughout the paper in the conclusion
section as well as state whether or not my hypothesis, stated in the introduction, can be
accepted or rejected and why. My paper will also include an annotated bibliography of the
works cited and appendices that will show samples of the survey.

Project Design Team:​ who needs to be on your project design team to make this
project/research effective? To support your work? Outline the team and their roles.

Survey participants: people who answer the survey based on inquiry questions. I am aiming to
have at least more than 70 people fill out my survey preferably of people of different age
groups.

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Resources/ Technology/Skills​: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and
skills you will need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to
access/learn all of the resources necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail
your plans.

Finding reliable articles online that will help me research information specific to my inquiry
question. I will also need to use Google Forms to create and conduct a digital survey in order
to ask people certain questions based on the study that will get me statistical data. I will need
to prepare the questions asked in the survey accurately so that the answers can have a clear
connection to my inquiry question. I will also need to use Google Sheets to be able to analyse
the data and create graphs that will help me develop ideas to answer my research
question.The skills that I will need the most for this project are essay writing skills along with
along critical thinking as well as creative thinking in order to come up with ideas to answer my
inquiry question, create and analyse graphs that support my arguments and explain it all
thoroughly and appropriately.

Mentors/Community Connections​: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will

you need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you?
What is your plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this
project?

I will need a mentor who is reliable as well as prepared to give me appropriate feedback and
criticism on my paper. I am hoping to get a mentor who I can feed off of for both ideas,
motivations and ways of improvement. Because of this, I would prefer to have a mentor who is
not a complete stranger to me as that foundation of trust would already be built, which is why I
am highly considering family friends or instructors that I have had for several years in my
extracurricular activities.

Project limitations: ​What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee
that might affect progress with your Capstone Project?
Some limitations of this project is that I would be using a digital survey to collect my data.
Doing a survey does not allow for me to have full control of exactly who (trustworthy, honest
people who will take it seriously) participates.Another issue with a survey is the possibility of
not enough people filling out the survey to get statistics as well as not getting enough variety
between ages and genders.

Other considerations​: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about
your project that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

I need to figure out sources that will allow me to create a digital survey and then move that
data into sheets so that I am able to build graphs, however I am highly considering using
Google forms and Google sheets as I am already familiar with using it.

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References​: Provide a literature review or links for 5-10 references: research, videos, etc.
that offer some preliminary research you have done for your project that shows you are able
to access the key information that you will need to be able to complete this project/work.

https://www.psycom.net/social-media-teen-mental-health

https://instituteforpr.org/science-influence-social-media-affects-decision-making-healthcare-tra
vel-retail-financial-industries/

https://today.law.harvard.edu/experts-explore-how-social-networks-can-influence-behavior-an
d-decision-making-video/

https://medium.com/rta902/the-negative-impacts-that-social-media-have-on-our-self-esteem-5
6347f7a00ae

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-impact-of-social-media-on-our-mental-wellbeing/

Project Plan & Timeline​: Plan the steps for your project with a timeline of when the work
needs to be done.

Complete the attached ​Capstone Project Action Plan​ or create your own timeline to show
steps and dates needed for completion.
Capstone Project Action Plan/Timeline 
 
Project Title  Social media influences on cognition and health

Capstone Strand  Academic research paper

Design Team 
Members 
Survey participants: people who answer the survey based on inquiry question. I am
aiming to survey at least 70 people preferably from a variety of ages (teen-adults)
and genders.

Objective(s):   Date of Completion:  

 
To investigate how and why social media has become such a significant   
part of our social and personal lives as well as how it affects our mental  Beginning of April 2020 
well being. Researching the topic from reliable articles but also 
collecting personal data from the people in the community.   

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Resources Required: 
Google Forms to create a digital survey 
Google Sheets to be able to create graphs from the data from the survey 
 
Essential Skills Required: 
Research skills 
Argumentative writing skills  
Analyzing skills  
Data collection skills  
Social skills : persuading people to fill out survey 
Time Management  
Critical Thinking 
Organization  
 
Mentors/Community Connections: 
I have chosen a family friend who I have known a long time and can rely on. This individual is a 
business owner as well as a foster parent so therefore this person is skilled or capable, patient and has 
sufficient background knowledge on mental health specifically in younger teens.  

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Develop Timeline for the overall Project: 

Action Plan Steps:  

What needs to be done​? (add  Who will do this  By when?  Done: 

rows as needed)  part? 

- Create survey with specific questions Me with the Beginning of January January 3rd
related to the topic and ask people to fill guidance of my 2020 2020
it out mentor
-Research articles and begin to make
main points (outline) : use this
information to write introduction and
methodology section of paper

-Begin writing paper using articles Me with the Beginning of March 2020 March 10th
researched guidance of my 2020
-Collect data from survey, begin playing mentor
around with it (patterns, graphs, etc.), to
analyze and connect back to question
- Create and select graphs to include in
the presentation and analysis section of
paper

-Write Conclusion and evaluation section Me with the Beginning of April 2020 April 8th 2020
of paper guidance of my
-Go through and edit anything that could mentor
be made better
-finish final copy of paper
 
Other considerations:

Required check in dates: ​Students will refer to the list of published due dates which were
provided in September and are available on the class website.

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