The Psychology Research Companion

From student project to working life

Jessica S. Horst

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138785311
• eBook ISBN: 9781317664864
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The Psychology Research Companion: From student project to working life not only gives you the skills and confidence to conduct your psychology research project at university, but is the first book to show how these skills will help you get ahead in your first job in the workplace.

Jessica S. Horst, an American psychologist teaching in the UK, takes you through every step of the research process; from conceiving your research question and choosing a research methodology, to organizing your time and resources effectively. The book includes sections on ethics, data management, working with research participants and report writing, but each chapter is also informed by the wider aim of providing a toolkit for working life. Each chapter is packed with tips and skills that can be taken into the workplace, including working collaboratively and organising your workload, as well as discussing your research project in interview situations and when applying for jobs.

This invaluable guide will appeal to all undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students whose aim is to learn a set of transferable research skills as well as to obtain a good degree result.

1
Introduction and starting out

You may or may not continue to do research in psychology – and that’s OK. Fortunately, a lot of the skills you will learn by doing research are transferable: you can apply these skills to the next thing you do. Sometimes it may not seem immediately apparent how these skills are transferable or how you might spin them to answer a question in a job interview. I’m hoping that after you read this book, the transferability and marketability of these skills will be much clearer. Along the way I hope to give you tips and advice to help you hone these skills so you can do your research (and your next job) to the best of your ability.

This is a book about transferable skills

This book is not meant to be a statistics textbook, an overview of the best empirical research methods out there or a complete guide on how to write academic articles well. There are already some excellent books on those topics – and I list some recommendations at the end of this chapter. This book is meant to be a companion to help you with the other aspects of conducting psychology research, from actually recruiting participants to data entry to organizing the big stack of journal articles you will read. My goal is to help you with these aspects while showing you how you aren’t just doing busywork: these aspects of your research are teaching you transferable skills that you can use later, whether or not you continue doing psychology research. There are a couple of chapters on writing and presenting data, but that’s because clear writing and data presentation are important transferable skills.

I have asked former students about how they have used the skills they learned doing undergraduate and masters-level psychology research after they graduated. I have included these comments to show you the wide range of jobs in which you can apply these transferable skills. Some of these former students also provided other helpful tips for you.

“A final year project is not just something that has to be done because your university tells you to do one. It is an important piece of research that can help you make important steps in your pursuit of a career.”

—Camilla, BScAssistant Psychologist (National Health Service)

I have also included some information that you might be too timid to ask someone about in real life, because it is a “dumb question.” I once took a very challenging class and heard myself ask questions every week that started with “this might be a dumb question …” or “maybe I’m not getting this, but …” I really thought it was just me. Then, several weeks later, one of my classmates confided in me: “I’m so glad you always ask questions. I have a lot of the same questions, but I don’t want to ask them in case it’s just me [not understanding].” After that I realized that if one person has a question, it’s likely that many others have the same question but just aren’t asking it. As you read this book, there may be times when you see a paragraph answering a question you don’t need answered (either because you have already learned that tidbit or because it doesn’t apply to the kind of research you do): just move on to the next paragraph, but know I’ve included that information for the reader who may be too timid to ask someone about it in real life.

If you do feel like you have a lot of dumb questions: first, believe me that this is normal. It really is. (You can even look up “imposter syndrome” to see how common it is.) Second, keep in mind that if you already knew everything, you would already have the degree you are working toward: you are supposed to be learning, and you are supposed to not yet know everything – and quite honestly, even people who already have degrees are still learning and also don’t know everything! You might even consider yourself to be in good company: Socrates, a pivotal figure in the history of philosophy, is famous for saying, “I know that I do not know” (Plato/Fowler, 1995). Finally, keep in mind that there are people you can talk to about specific advice, including your supervisor, other lab members and peers, as well as your campus writing center if you have one.

“This may be the first time you are collecting data, speaking to participants and actually running a study. It’s fine to be nervous in this situation. Your confidence will develop with time. You shouldn’t think you aren’t doing a good job just because you’re nervous or under-confident about doing something for the first time.”

—Naureen, BSc Education Center Manager

Structure of the book

I’ve tried to write this book so you can either read it in order or dip in and out of it when you want more information about something as you encounter it. To this end, I’ve ordered the chapters to cover the research tasks and skills in the order most students will encounter them, but I’ve also tried to use meaningful and memorable subheadings so you can find things you may want to wait to read later when you really need them.

Box 1.1: Phases to a research project

Your project will advance through several phases, which are roughly:

1. Getting the go-ahead (finding a supervisor/mentor, getting permission to do a project)
2. Planning (designing the study and obtaining ethical approval)
3. Data collection
4. Data analysis
5. Writing and presenting (although you can write some sections earlier)

This introductory chapter covers the things you may want to know before you begin and includes my comprehensive research project checklist.

The next two chapters cover the day-to-day stuff for actually starting a study and collecting data (Chapter 2: All in a day’s work) and managing your time (Chapter 3: All in good time [management]). The time management chapter follows the data collection chapter because it is often not until students really get going that they begin to wonder if they are using their time well. However, read them in the order you think is best for you. The daily work and time management skills covered in these chapters may serve you very well after you graduate.

The next chapter (Chapter 4: Make your computer work for you) covers computer skills that aren’t usually taught in classes. It’s about clever ways to get the computer to work harder so you don’t have to. This will free up more of your time and mental energy for the things your computer can’t do (like explain how your data provides evidence supporting Theory X). So, on some level this chapter is also about time management.

The final two chapters cover writing (Chapter 5: The write way) and presenting your work (Chapter 6: Presenting your findings). The writing chapter includes useful phrases and real examples of how to make your writing clear and concise. The final chapter covers figures, tables, presentations and interviews.

Box 1.2: Terminology in this book

Different departments and programs sometimes have different names for the same things. Here are the terms I’ll use throughout the book:

• Project, also known as, Senior Project, Capstone Project, Experiment, Study, etc.
• Dissertation, also known as, Project Paper, Research Paper, Thesis, Honor’s Thesis, etc.
• Mentor and supervisor are used interchangeably because the faculty member assigned to work with you should serve as both a mentor and a supervisor. Also, “mentor” is more widely used in the United States and “supervisor” in the UK. Some departments use advisor, and you may also hear principal investigator (PI, the faculty member or post-doc who is ultimately in charge of the project and likely earned external funding for it).
• Ethics Committee, also known as Human Subjects Committee, Institutional Review Board (IRB), etc.

Throughout this book you will also find both American and British terminology. I’ve written this book to contain advice for both North American- and European-style universities. I know firsthand what’s involved in student research on both sides of the Atlantic because I was a student and grad student in the United States, and I am a faculty member in the UK. Where the terms/phrases differ dramatically I’ll use both forms, e.g. “page protectors (document wallets).”

Pick and choose

You likely have a lot of choices ahead of you, ranging from choosing a mentor and topic to choosing your method to choosing which colors to use in your figures. Whether you choose your project supervisor/mentor or topic first will depend on the spread of research interests in your department and how much thought you have already put into your research project topic.

• If you have narrowed your interests down to a (general) area of psychology (e.g. social psychology, unconscious bias research, etc.), you may want to find a mentor and then hone in on the exact topic.
• If you already have a research question in mind, you may want to approach the faculty in that broad area or who do research on that topic (topic Æ mentor).

Choosing a supervisor and mentor

Choosing who will supervise your project is one of the biggest decisions you will make about your research. You want to choose a mentor whose supervision style and personality work well with your own and who conducts research in a general area you find interesting. The most common way to choose a supervisor is to consider which classes you have enjoyed most and then approach the faculty who taught those classes and topics.

Some faculty are very hands-on and approach student projects as an active collaboration. Other faculty view the student research experience as an apprenticeship, where the goal is to impart their knowledge to the student until the student can work independently (in so far as scientists work independently). With this style you might actually work under a PhD student or post-doc. And other faculty are very hands-off and consider student projects as a chance for students to demonstrate what they have already learned. You should think about what style of mentorship and supervision will be most beneficial for you and aim to find a mentor who has that approach (though often you can speak up and say, “I need more guidance” or “I want to first try this part independently” as your project progresses).

One thing you will want to consider is how busy the potential supervisor is. It is easy to see how much time faculty members spend in lectures, but it’s harder to see how many other preexisting commitments they have (e.g. editing journals, writing grants, etc.). Just because people are busy or famous doesn’t mean they won’t be outstanding mentors, but you want to ensure you have the same expectations. It is very awkward if a student expects to work closely with a faculty member for several hours per week but finds that most of the guidance is coming from a PhD student and the official faculty mentor only checks in every other week. The student may still be getting great mentorship and supervision; it’s just not what the student originally envisioned. Some departments have policies and guidelines for how much time you can expect your supervisor to spend with you. Some faculty also have their own habits (e.g. my undergraduate mentor met with me once each week for one hour). When you approach potential faculty mentors, ask how much time they typically spend with their research students. If they do not know, try to ask one of their current or former research students.

“There are many different kinds of supervisors out there, and choosing one on the basis of how you want to be supervised is very important. Some of my friends chose their mentors on the basis that they were a ‘big name’ in the field but not on the number of contact hours they would have. For me, I learned that I can work relatively independently but that I need guidance and support at regular intervals. I also...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction and starting out
• 2 All in a day’s work
• 3 All in good time (management)
• 4 Make your computer work for you
• 5 The write way
• 6 Presenting your findings
• Index