PowerPoint Presentation
PRINCIPLES
OF PSYCHOLOGY
Lectorial 3: Method
(and some Introduction Revision)
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Lab Report Timeline
(Available on the last page of intro handout)…
Week Relevant Lecture & Lectorial Content Recommended Activity Timeline
3 Lectorial on the Introduction section Download Lab Report Introduction handout from Canvas
Read starting references
4 Read Relevant Findlay Chapters (2 & 4)
Locate and review additional literature
Begin write up of Introductions section (draft)
5 Lectorial on Method Section Develop hypotheses in your own words
Download Lab Report Method handout from Canvas
Complete lab report questionnaire prior to Sunday Week 5 11.59pm
6 Continue to locate and review additional literature
Begin write up of Method section (draft)
Mid-semester
eak
7 Lectorial on Results Section Download and read Lab Report Results handout prior to lectorial
Review results and plan Results section
8 Write up of Results section
9 Lectorial on Discussion Section Download and read Lab Report Discussion handout prior to lectorial
Begin write up of Discussion section
10 Complete first draft of lab report
11 Lectorial on Finalising Your Lab Report and Q&A Write Abstract and
ing complete draft to tutorial to ask questions
Final proofread - complete checklist and self-evaluation with ru
ic
Submit your Lab Report prior to Friday Week 11 at 11.59pm
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Today’s Lectorial…
Our Lab Report (
iefly revisited)
The Introduction (revisited)
What’s in an Introduction
How to approach your introduction
Q & A
The Method Section
Participants
Materials
Procedure
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Our Lab Report (
iefly revisited)
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Our lab report…
(from Canvas Handout p.1)
Our lab report
ings together a number of important aspects of the content and process of this course:
Many students experience challenges adjusting to the social and academic aspects university life
University belonging has important implications for wellbeing and academic performance.
Personality traits have also been demonstrated to be predictive of performance at university
Personality and university belonging appear to have important implications for students who are at a particularly important stage of social and academic development.
Given the disruption caused by COVID19, now seems like a (very) important time to investigate these relationships
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What is the aim of our lab report?
The aim of this study is to explore how personality and belonging at university relate to psychological stress with respect to adjustment in the first year of university. You should utilise BOTH of the below hypotheses. You will also need to select one of the Big-5 traits for hypothesis 1 (H1).
H1 YOUR CHOSEN PERSONALITY TRAIT will have a positive or negative relationship with student stress.
H2 University belonging will have a positive or negative relationship with student stress.
Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that the hypotheses and research question are consistent with co
ect APA style. You will need to determine the direction of the predicted relationships (i.e. you must choose either positive or negative) in your hypotheses and rephrase them co
ectly where necessary. See Findlay (2015, p. 62) for further information about appropriate ways to state hypotheses.
Our study will involve a partial replication of the method of Schofield et al XXXXXXXXXXWe will also be using a measure of personality, specifically the five-factor model. You will receive more information on this in the ‘Method handout’ and in lectorials. By completing the questionnaire yourself you will have an important opportunity to engage with psychological research as a participant.
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Resources to get you started…
Starting reference: Schofield, M. J., O'halloran, P., McLean, S. A., Fo
ester‐Knauss, C., & Paxton, S. J XXXXXXXXXXDepressive symptoms among Australian university students: who is at risk? Australian Psychologist, 51(2), XXXXXXXXXXdoi:10.1111/ap.12129 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
The following articles have also been used in this handout and are provided for your convenience. You will also need to locate and utilise your own relevant articles to include in your Lab Report. The references included in this handout will not be included in the six (6) articles minimum, as suggested by the ru
ic.
Mo
is, P. E., & Fritz, C. O XXXXXXXXXXConscientiousness and procrastination predict academic coursework marks rather than examination performance. Learning and Individual Differences, 39, XXXXXXXXXXdoi: XXXXXXXXXX/j.lindif XXXXXXXXXX (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Poropat, A. E XXXXXXXXXXA meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), XXXXXXXXXXdoi: XXXXXXXXXX/a0014996 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E XXXXXXXXXXA sense of belonging at university: student retention, motivation and enjoyment. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(3), 397–408. https:
doi.org/10.1080/0309877X XXXXXXXXXX
NOTE: These papers are useful for developing an understanding of the areas under investigation. This list is intentionally limited, you will need to find additional relevant articles to include in your Lab Report.
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The survey…
A link will be come available to the Lab Report Survey on Monday August 14 at 9am
There will be a link in the menu “Lab Report Survey”
There will also be a link placed on both the lab report assignment page & the lab report survey assignment page
You must complete the online survey before Sunday 11.59pm Week 5 (August 20)
Please do not complete the survey in the presence of your friends.
The anonymous data will be collated and summarised for you.
We will discuss the findings in detail in our week 7 lectorial.
Your completion of the lab report survey (or the alternative assignment) contributes 10% of your overall result.
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The Introduction (revisited)
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Title (on title page)
Abstract: provides a concise summary of the study’s focus, methodology and results
Introduction: a review of relevant theory and research and a rationale for the study
Hypotheses: specific predicted outcomes
Method: what you did, with whom and how
Results: what you found
Discussion: were your hypotheses supported? What does it all mean?
Reference List - relevant details of any materials paraphrased or cited in the report
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What you are demonstrating..
Title: You know the key variables and can think (a little) creatively.
Abstract: You know what the most important aspects of: what you did, how you did it and the implications of what you found. Writing concisely!
Introduction: That you know how to identify literature and to synthesise what you have found and to communicate that (critical thinking).
Hypotheses: That your introduction reaches some argued (informed) guesses about what you will find
Method: That you know what was done and how to present information (follow instruction).
Results: That you know what tests to perform was found and how to present information (follow instruction).
Discussion: Your capacity to think critically and to evaluate – to show you understand.
Reference List: Follow formatting conventions.
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Opening sentences
Introduction should guide the reader from the general context of the study to the actual aims and hypotheses of this study.
Do not jump straight into the specifics of this study
The study is relevant to a real-world problem or issue – set the scene!
Don’t start with cliché or meaningless statement:
“Ever since humanity came down from the trees, psychologists have been interested in…” (Findlay, p.56)
Define the area under study…
Briefly outline and define key concepts or theories
Assume some general psychology knowledge = no need to define “personality”, but it may be useful to define the Big Five model of personality.
Writing a Lab Report Introduction: Structure
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Previous research
What has relevant previous research found?
It may be relevant to describe:
What theoretical approach they used
What population they tested (university students? Older adults?)
What conclusions they drew
Only describe relevant information! (no absolute rules for this; it requires your judgement)
Describe generally (relevant) previous research, then specific (relevant) research
There needs to be a logic, and flow through these paragraphs, guiding the reader towards why your study will be conducted
Do not use direct quotes
There is unlikely to be an exception to this rule
Put it into your own words to demonstrate your understanding
Writing a Lab Report Introduction: Structure
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Aims
Provide a general statement of the
oad aims of the study
Is this a replication of another study?
Are there particular aspects of this study that are improvements of previous research?
What does the study, in general, hope to investigate?
Hypotheses
Concise and specific statements on what you expect to find
Hypotheses should be logically derived from your description of previous research
All aspects of your hypotheses should have already been mentioned and discussed earlier in the Introduction
Written in terms of the operationalisation of your variables
For example, conscientiousness, rather than naming the scale used
Not listed in bullet points, always prose (they are sentences that flow from the aims)
Written in past tense
Writing a Lab Report Introduction: Structure
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H1 YOUR CHOSEN PERSONALITY TRAIT will have a positive or negative relationship with student stress.
H2 University Belonging will have a positive or negative relationship with student stress.
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Resource list
A PDF Resource list can be found on the ‘Introduction Assignment page on Canvas:
The RMIT psychology online li
ary (available via Canvas): https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/46393/external_tools/20588
Essential databases:
PyschINFO: https:
search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/psycinfo/index?accountid=13552
Google Scholar: https:
scholar-google-com-au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au
APA referencing and writing
RMIT li
ary referencing page: https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/46393/external_tools/20588
RMIT downloadable APA referencing guide (via li
ary referencing page): http:
mams.rmit.edu.au/ajji8gjqjcw2.docx
Findlay XXXXXXXXXXtext on the li
ary website:
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What your lab report Intro should cover
A PDF Checklist can be found on the ‘Introduction Assignment’ page on Canvas:
This has detailed information about what your lab introduction should include. You can check these things off as you go.
For example…
An opening sentence
Logical progression of ideas
Includes the aim
Hypotheses have been re-worded
Word count is under 500 words
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Introduction Q&A
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Help, I can’t find any research!
Research does not have to be identical to ours
Research does not need to include all the variables, it may focus on some e.g.
University students & stress/mental health wellbeing
University students & personality
University students and belongingness / Social Connectedness
What is similar about these examples?
You may also include research that examines these constructs in other populations – although we need to make sure it is relevant!
Let’s take a look…
https:
search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/psycinfo/index?accountid=13552
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Difference between psychological stress and distress
Hi! In my research for our first assignment I have come across many studies measuring psychological distress in university students (most of these were referenced in the Schofield et al XXXXXXXXXXarticle) and I am just wanting to clarify if this is the same as the psychological stress that we are measuring in the study for this lab report?
I've also come across a study that makes a differentiation between the two (Per Nerdrum, Tone Rustøen & Michael H. Rønnestad (2006), https:
doi.org/10.1080/ XXXXXXXXXX (Links to an external site.)) which has made me a bit confused.
If there is a difference, are we measuring stress or distress amongst first year University students and would we need to define both or just the one we are measuring?
Thanks!
In
ief, people often use terms interchangeably. For example, terms such as stress, distress and psychological stress are used as synonyms. Similarly, terms such as wellbeing (or the US spelling well-being) are used as antonyms of these terms. If you are confused by that, which many people are, an important thing is to clearly define what you are refe
ing to and what is included - for example, that the terms stress, distress and psychological stress are all used to refer to a particular construct that you define.
The next thing you can do with this piece of information is think critically about the implications. As you may have already identified, definitions are very important in research. As a relevant example, people often discuss wellbeing and then use scales of psychological distress to measure that construct, and vice versa.
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The Method Section
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3.1
Participants
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Participants
In the Participant sub-section of your Lab Report, you need to provide information about the demographics of our participants (you!) and how they were recruited.
Dara for the Participants section will be provided in our next lectorial (week 7) once we have analysed the data contains all of the key information that you will need to include in this section.
# of participants, sex, age, and degree (program) of the participants in this study.
You should use the information to write the Participants sub-section of your Method section.
Please note that our data set includes data from students completing Principles of Psychology, at both the City and Bundoora campuses. For the purposes of your Lab Report, you do not need to report this; it is sufficient to state that all participants were students enrolled in first year Psychology at RMIT University.
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3.2
Materials
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Materials
It is standard practise to include the following information about measures in this section:
Full name and reference for the scale
Purpose of the scale
Number of items in the scale
Description of the subscales (if any)