PROJECT: Research Methods
GROUP:
Research Methods Project: Experiment 1
Groups will be able to link their data into a single Google Form and we can look at how the participants did across the studies
PROJECT: Psychoactive Drugs
GROUP
PROJECT: Dreams OR An Interview with an Addict
INDIVIDUAL
OPTION 1: The Interview
OPTION 2: Dream Analysis
PROJECT: Cognitive Experiment
GROUP: Cognitive Experiment instructions
PROJECT: Developmental Psychology
INDIVIDUAL: Autobiography via Thinglink or other annotated visual timeline
Using your textbook AND the following link, develop a visual and annotated timeline of your life to this point and project it moving forward through the eight stages of Erikson's psychosocial development. You will likely have to rely on your parents of guardians to help with the early stages.Using one or more of the below formats/apps, develop a dynamic/mixed media autobiographical timeline of your life organized through Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development: Thinglink, iMovie, Prezi, etc.
Expectations of Content/Rubric
GROUP: Research study for Developmental Psychology
Potential Topics to Investigate:
PROJECT: Cognitive Psychology: Experiment 2 -- GROUP
PROJECT: AP Psychology Exam Review: Complete three full length practice exams (100 M.C. test and 2 FRQs) and analyze performance and document studying approach as a function of the performances -- INDIVIDUAL
GROUP:
Research Methods Project: Experiment 1
Groups will be able to link their data into a single Google Form and we can look at how the participants did across the studies
- Experiment 1 planning guide -- group
- Analysis of findings - individual piece; sometimes this is assigned for homework or classwork after you have completed your study.
- Groups are to synthesize the member's individual thoughts of the study's findings and put together a mini-presentation of their experiments for the class. The presentations must include: what they did, how they did it, what they found, and the value of their findings. Be sure to document the experiment using your iPads -- photos, videos, etc.
- The following is the format groups should present their research AND turn in a via Schoology OR hardcopy paper of their research:
- Introduction
- What is the concept your study is investigating?
- Summarize related research to your study
- Identify your hypothesis
- Methods
- Outline how you designed your study: the conditions/variables and control
- Identify your participants
- Outline your procedures
- Results
- Summarize what you found regarding your data? How did the independent variable perform with respect to the dependent variable?
- Labeled graphs or tables should be included
- Discussion
- Interpret your results with respect to your hypothesis
- Identify any methodological issues (things that could have gone wrong, or any confounding variables that could influenced the results)
- How would you compare your study's findings to your related research from the Introduction?
- How could you apply your findings to the real-world?
- Identify any other considerations you can offer.
- Introduction
PROJECT: Psychoactive Drugs
GROUP
- In a small group, select ONE of the psychoactive drugs mentioned in on the following webpage (The Effects of Drugs on the Nervous System).
- Every group member must take notes of the drug and its effects on the brain and behavior. You should have information on how the drug influences our brain and the rest of the body; how it influences our mental experiences and our behaviors; and to what extent is the drug addictive.
- Use Mouse Party to get more specific information.
- Check for understanding with one another.
- Find at least TWO studies online that has looked at this drug and its affects on psychology. This could be an experiment or other method that has scientifically evaluated the drugs effects. These studies must go into your PRJ.
- Develop visuals that help illustrate the main impacts of the drug on our psychology.
- Develop a brief presentation that will inform the class on the drug and its effects on the brain and behavior. SHARE this presentation with each other by posting it to Schoology. Make sure ALL group member names are on the presentation. This should be a PDF or some other easy to follow and open/access format.
PROJECT: Dreams OR An Interview with an Addict
INDIVIDUAL
OPTION 1: The Interview
- Conduct a DETAILED interview with someone who has struggled with an addiction. The questioning should be focused on:
- The influences/causes of his/her addiction with respect to behaviors and cognitions of their addiction, emotional challenges, effects of their addiction on their life (family, friends, work, school, finances, etc.).
- Have they been diagnosed with any other psychological or related disorder or illness?
- How did he/she combat the addiction? Was therapy apart of the getting clean or is it on going?
- What is life like now for them?
- What would they tell their pre-addictive self regarding the drug?
- What would they tell others about it? Life lessons from their struggle?
- Offer YOUR personal conclusions about addiction from the interview
- Presentation options:
- Video/documentary
- Written summary and analysis
OPTION 2: Dream Analysis
- Follow the instructions and complete this project guide.
- Over the course of two different nights: prior to going to sleep, complete a brief journal entry regarding the primary events, emotions, and thoughts of the day. Consider what occupied your mind during the day. Title this journal entry as Day 1 .
- Calculate when you should be in a NON-R.E.M. sleep cycle -- perhaps 30-60 minutes into sleep. Set your alarm for that time. NOTE this time.
- When you awake, record whatever dream you recall, no matter how brief, in the journal under the title: Night 1, NON-R.E.M. Dream.
- If you had a dream move onto the analysis. If not, try again but for the next cycle, so perhaps try again in another hour.
- Day 2: follow the same instructions as day 1 but rather than wake up during non-REM, set your alarm for a latter REM cycle.
- Wake up and record your dream.
- After the two dream, complete the assignment guide linked above and turn it in. Good luck!
PROJECT: Cognitive Experiment
GROUP: Cognitive Experiment instructions
PROJECT: Developmental Psychology
INDIVIDUAL: Autobiography via Thinglink or other annotated visual timeline
Using your textbook AND the following link, develop a visual and annotated timeline of your life to this point and project it moving forward through the eight stages of Erikson's psychosocial development. You will likely have to rely on your parents of guardians to help with the early stages.Using one or more of the below formats/apps, develop a dynamic/mixed media autobiographical timeline of your life organized through Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development: Thinglink, iMovie, Prezi, etc.
Expectations of Content/Rubric
- Each of Erikson's stages are explained via the student's life experiences.
- The conflicts that define each stage are considered and applied to the student's life -- how each result of the conflict may be have been possible.
- A judgment should be made regarding how the student believes he/she resolved the conflict.
- A clear connection of influence is offered between each stage -- how the outcome of one conflict influenced the experience of the next stage/conflict.
- The claims at each stage are detailed, explained well, and thoughtful.
- Visuals or videos are included for each stage.
- The project is well organized, neatly made, free of grammatical errors, and in an appropriate format.
GROUP: Research study for Developmental Psychology
- In small groups select a topic from developmental psychology (see below for ideas) and develop a clear and specific hypothesis or research hypothesis
- Design a survey, experiment, field observation, other method that will investigate your hypothesis or research question.
- CLEAR the study by the instructor and/or make any requested revisions
- Research related studies via the internet and briefly summarize their findings
- Develop all instruments and procedures for the investigation
- Plan when the data will be collected and arrange for that collection with any identified teachers
- Collect data
- Analysis of the data
- Present findings and interpretations -- MUST include: hypothesis/research question, previous studies, methods, results, interpretation of the results, possible applications to the real world, and strengths and limitations of your study.
Potential Topics to Investigate:
- Parenting styles -- this would require a dual survey -- one for parents and one for their children
- Gender differences in:
- Social media use
- iPad use
- Sources of stress
- Learning styles
- Female body image
- Male insecurities
- Video gaming
- Erikson's stage for teens and measurable conflicts: identity vs. role confusion
- Cell phone use and anxiety
- Age differences amongst 9th through 12th graders
- Moral reasoning and development (see pages 515-517)
- Media studies on gender: gender roles/expectations, social learning, sexualization of girls, gender stereotypes and their influence on development
PROJECT: Cognitive Psychology: Experiment 2 -- GROUP
PROJECT: AP Psychology Exam Review: Complete three full length practice exams (100 M.C. test and 2 FRQs) and analyze performance and document studying approach as a function of the performances -- INDIVIDUAL
The Final Exam: Applied Psychology
This purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to perform your own original research. The parameters are broad and flexible allowing you to study your interests and perform research that you would be intrinsically interested in seeing succeed.
It is strongly recommended that your take some time to brainstorm research topics. Avoid performing or rejecting research ideas based on level of difficulty. If you are interested in what you are studying, the assignment will be much easier and tolerable.
You are free to work in groups OR individually. My expectations for groups, however, include:
o The group submits ONE final write up of their research
o ALL members are responsible for major tasks that are listed and presented to me
o ALL members will receive individual grades
o Any member that fails to fulfill my and the group’s expectations will be removed from the group and expect to perform the assignment independently. There will be NO deadline extensions for group members who have been forced out of the group.
OPTIONS of Methods for Research
1. Experiments: determination of the effect of a variable controlled by the investigator on some other variable that is measured; the only method that can inform us about cause and effect.
2. Naturalistic Observations: description of behavior under natural conditions
3. Correlation: description of the relationship between two variables that the investigator measures but does not control.
4. Survey: study of attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors based on answers to questions
5. Meta Analysis: the synthesis of multiple studies surrounding some topic and reporting on the findings
This purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to perform your own original research. The parameters are broad and flexible allowing you to study your interests and perform research that you would be intrinsically interested in seeing succeed.
It is strongly recommended that your take some time to brainstorm research topics. Avoid performing or rejecting research ideas based on level of difficulty. If you are interested in what you are studying, the assignment will be much easier and tolerable.
You are free to work in groups OR individually. My expectations for groups, however, include:
o The group submits ONE final write up of their research
o ALL members are responsible for major tasks that are listed and presented to me
o ALL members will receive individual grades
o Any member that fails to fulfill my and the group’s expectations will be removed from the group and expect to perform the assignment independently. There will be NO deadline extensions for group members who have been forced out of the group.
OPTIONS of Methods for Research
1. Experiments: determination of the effect of a variable controlled by the investigator on some other variable that is measured; the only method that can inform us about cause and effect.
2. Naturalistic Observations: description of behavior under natural conditions
3. Correlation: description of the relationship between two variables that the investigator measures but does not control.
4. Survey: study of attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors based on answers to questions
5. Meta Analysis: the synthesis of multiple studies surrounding some topic and reporting on the findings
FINAL DRAFT: the final draft of this research project should include the following
Title Page
Section 1: Introduction
Section 2: Methods
Sub Heading: Design
Sub Heading: Participants
Sub Heading: Procedure
Section 3: Results
Section 4: Discussion
PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH
YOUR study is DUE the day of the final exam! So plan it out carefully!!!! Your study is turned in via presentation -- PPT, Key Note, or other format. You MUST email me the file.
ALL work must be original. Any un-cited text will cause all members to FAIL the final exam.
Title Page
- Title of the study
- Your names
Section 1: Introduction
- Relevant psychological concepts are defined and connected to the research
- Summaries two or more studies that are related to your research
- The significance of these studies is explained
- Hypothesis OR research question is clear and related to the previous research – make clear how it adds to the current body of research
Section 2: Methods
Sub Heading: Design
- Explain the structure of your study: experiment and its conditions, variable, etc.
- Define any operational definitions
Sub Heading: Participants
- Describe sample: number, gender, age etc.
Sub Heading: Procedure
- The procedure is clear and easily replicable.
- This section should be a clear explanation of the order of operations regarding the developing ad carrying out of the study.
- (The idea here is, if someone wanted to replicate your study, they could follow these steps)
Section 3: Results
- If applicable, descriptive statistics are reported: means, medians, and modes.
- Graphs are accurate and appropriately labeled
- Explain your charts and graphs. What do they mean? Refer to them as Figure 1, 2, etc. and create a Figure 1 heading outside of your charts (“Figure 1” is not a title of the chart or table)
Section 4: Discussion
- Explain to what extent your results support or fail to support the hypothesis. OR offer to what extent your results answer the research question
- Explore possible reason why your study may be flawed:
- Theorize why you found what you found with psychological analysis
- Connect your ideas back to the studies you mentioned in the Introduction
- Suggestions for future modifications or improvements are appropriate – these should go beyond correcting for your research mistakes
PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH
YOUR study is DUE the day of the final exam! So plan it out carefully!!!! Your study is turned in via presentation -- PPT, Key Note, or other format. You MUST email me the file.
ALL work must be original. Any un-cited text will cause all members to FAIL the final exam.