Your Undergraduate Psychology Project: A Student Guide

 ‘ This book provides an accessible and informative introduction which will be invaluable to undergraduate students carrying out their final year projects.  From finding a research topic, to planning, right the way through to writing up, the book offers practical advice on how to avoid common pitfalls and how to produce a project that not only succeeds in terms of good marks, but also facilitates the student in carrying out a worthwhile and original piece of research .’— Dr Julie Hulme , Discipline Lead for Psychology, The Higher Education Academy, UK Getting started on your final year psychology research project? Not sure where to look for extra help? Terrified at the prospect? Your Undergraduate Psychology Project: A Student Guide has been designed with the needs of the student in mind. Packed with hints and tips, and written in a simple, informal style, this ‘second supervisor’ is designed to ease you further into the world of research. The second edition has been completely revised and updated with new material on focus groups and ethics, and includes a new section entitled ‘How to Lose Marks Instantly’. A host of special features allow you the best possible chance of success: Structured chronologically around planning a project, carrying it out, and then writing it up Gives practical advice on how to deal with day–to–day problems, such as software failures or uncommunicative interviewees Written in consultation with a number of experienced academics and students of psychology

Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii 1. Planning Research 1 Choosing a Research Topic 1 The textbook method 2 The television method 3 The pub chat or coffee bar method 4 The internet method 5 The lecturer method 5 Think again! 5 Self–interest 6 Replication versus Novelty 7 Pure versus Applied Research 8 Researching the Project: Finding Literature 9 Using internet search engines 10 Snowballing and searching via citations 10 Using electronic databases 12 Boolean operators 12 Narrowing searches 13 How many references? 15 Statistics on the internet 16 Choosing a Method 16 Single–case designs 17 Case studies 17 Choosing qualitative methods 18 Differences or relationships? 21 Primary or secondary data? 22 Observational methods 23 Protocol analysis 24 Multiple methods 25 Control Groups 25 Matching Methods to Analysis 26 Power Analysis 27 To Pilot or Not to Pilot 28 Developing Materials 29 Experimental stimuli 29 Questionnaires 31 Looking professional 35 Interviews 36 Cross–cultural studies and translation of materials 39 ‘Borrowing’ Materials 40 The Internet as a Research Tool 40 Managing Time: Keeping on Track 42 Start early 42 Match the project to the time available 42 Overplanning 43 Plan B 43 Response rates 45 Your supervisor’s time 46 Project milestones 46 Tips on managing time 47 Writing a Proposal 51 Research Ethics 52 Informed consent 53 Undue pressure 55 Deception 55 Protection of participants from harm and ‘acceptable’ risk 55 Incentives 56 Withdrawal 56 Confidentiality 56 Debriefing 57 Personal safety 57 Obtaining Ethical Clearance 58 Getting Started 59 2. Doing Research: Collecting Data 61 Student–Supervisor Relations 62 Pilot Studies 65 Dealing with People 66 Being an ambassador 67 Working with participants 70 When participants don’t understand or make mistakes 75 Conducting Interviews: The Practicalities 76 Focus Groups 77 Observational Studies 78 Relying on Equipment 81 Making Back–ups 81 Adjusting Your Project Milestones 82 Taking Part Yourself 82 Revisiting Data 83 Transcribing Interviews 84 The Paper Trail 85 Knowing When to Stop 86 Data Preparation 86 Conducting Statistical Analyses 87 3. Writing Up Research 91 An Overview 92 Notes on Style 93 A Note on Plagiarism 94 Section by Section 96 Title 96 Abstract 99 Introduction 100 Method 103 Replicability 112 Results 113 Discussion 120 Generalising your findings 123 References 124 Appendices 128 Qualitative Reports 129 The first person 129 Introduction 130 Methods 130 Results/Analysis/Discussion 131 First, Second and Third Drafts 132 Common Mistakes 133 Affect and effect 134 Data 134 Experiment and study 134 Joining words together 134 Incorrect apostrophes 135 Incorrect sentences 136 Latin phrases and other borrowings 137 Non–significant 137 Number and amount 137 Prefixes 138 Presenting numbers 139 Proof 139 Reporting probabilities 140 Separating words 140 Significant diff erences 141 Spelling IV and DV 141 When It’s All Over 143 4. How To Lose Marks Instantly 145 List of Things NOT to do! 145 Go it alone and ignore your supervisor’s advice 145 Be precious about your work 146 Ignore the required format 146 Conduct research with no point to it 146 Bite off more than you can chew 147 Ignore relevant literature, or fail to look hard enough for it 147 Run out of time 147 Use the wrong reference format 148 Argue yourself out of a perfectly good result 148 Plagiarise 149 Conduct the wrong analysis 149 Collect data without ethical approval 149 Set out the entire project with a massive design flaw in it 150 The Moral of the Tale 150 References 151 Further Reading 153 Index 155

Mark Forshaw is Director of Endpoint Development and Outcomes Assessment at Adelphi Values, UK, having previously been a Principal Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Psychology at Staffordshire University. He is Chair of the BPS Membership Standards Board, and a Trustee of the BPS, and the winner of the BPS Division of Health Psychology Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advancement of Health Psychology 2011. He is the author of many books, including Critical Thinking for Psychology: A Student Guide (Wiley, 2012) .