APU PSYC300 2019 January All Weeks Forums Latest

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 1 Forum

Below you will find the topic instructions for this forum.  General posting requirements can be accessed via clicking "View Full Description" under each Forum heading.

Our Week 1 Forum topic has two parts.

Part I

Introduce yourself to the class.

Who are you?

Do you prefer to be called by a particular name?

Where are you from and where are you currently living?

What is your interest in the course?

Identify three learning goals you want to achieve in completing PSYC 300.

Part I should be a maximum of 150 words.

Part II

Respond to the forum question below.  

Imagine that you have been a member of a research team conducting an Institution Review Board (IRB) approved study of interpersonal aggression among preschoolers for more than a year. In that time, your team has repeatedly employed a consistent set of procedures to study preschoolers' behaviors.  The procedures involve volunteer mothers bringing their children to your university's child development lab for an observed "play session". So far your young study subjects have been fairly racially homogenous (alike), from middle-class families and recruited (via contact with their parents) from a university preschool, affluent parts of town day-care centers, and a pre-kindergarten program being offered in the neighborhood school district. This means that, much to your frustration, you can't claim that your study results are useful in understanding the behaviors of different race/ethnicity preschoolers and those from varying socio-economic status (SES) and education level families.

But wait...now you have learned that a friend of a friend can help you gain research access to a group of unusually racially diverse preschoolers from varying SES and education backgrounds, if you can do observations of these children really soon and at their day care facility. Several of your team members want to pursue this option and move on it quickly, arguing that there is no time to prepare a formal research proposal before embarking on the study in a new setting.  "Besides the time issue," they argue, "except for happening in a different place, our procedures should go just like all the others we've done and we already had them reviewed and approved by the IRB."

Discuss how your team would be leaving itself open to problems by moving ahead with no revised study formal proposal.

Explain two problems you might encounter with this approach.

Then, provide a possible solution for each of the problems you have listed.

Part II should be a minimum of 150 words.

Place both Part 1 and Part 2 in a single post, labeling each with headings accordingly so everyone can easily see where Part 1 of your post ends and Part 2 begins.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 2 Forum

Respond to all three questions below.

1. Imagine you are conducting a literature review in preparation for a study of expectations regarding the sharing of financial and practical responsibilities among married and cohabiting couples in which both partners are between the ages of 20 and 29.  Conducting a keyword search on “couples” and “responsibility," you generate a lengthy list of research articles.  You decide to shorten the list by eliminating all articles that were not published in prestigious research journals and to only include the remaining articles in your literature review.  What is gained and lost by using that approach.  Is it an appropriate one for a scholarly literature review?

2. While reading a literature review written by a novice researcher in your field, you notice that the researcher seems to have relied heavily oin the Internet in preparing the review. Your hunch is supported when you glance at the reference page and find a long list of web addresses. What goes through your mind regarding the quality and adequacy of the literature review in this situation?

3. Describe two different problems related to research design that are commonly encountered when doing research and for each explain how a complete and detailed research proposal would help the researcher avoid the problem.

Label each answer with the corresponding number accordingly so everyone can easily see where the answer to question 1 of your post ends and answers to questions 2 and 3 begin.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 3 Forum

Briefly describe how quantitative and qualitative research are each valuable in the field of psychology.

In the APUS Online Library, locate a journal article that used a qualitative research approach.

Next, summarize the article you have chosen for this Forum discussion.

Then, evaluate whether the research method was the best way to study the given topic. Explain why or why not.

Finally, describe how you would study your chosen topic in a qualitative way and how you would study it in a quantitative way.

 

 

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 4 Forum

The study of how ideas developed over time is a type of conceptual or psychological historical research.

Identify a key concept within the field of psychology and describe in detail the types of primary sources you could use to understand its history, explaining what each source might add to the study.

Then, explain why conducting rigorous historical research involves more than reading historical documents, taking notes, and organizing those notes.

Provide two examples to illustrate your point.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 5 Forum

Explain three circumstances where a researcher would choose a longitudinal study over a cross-sectional study.

Identify two advantages and two disadvantages of a longitudinal study and a cross-sectional study, giving examples of each.

Then, provide a specific example of a question that could be addressed with a longitudinal study and explain why that developmental design is preferred.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 6 Forum

Explain two advantages and two disadvantages of conducting a mixed-methods study (rather than two or more different studies), to address a single research question.

Then discuss why mixed-methods studies may require special consideration of the ethics involved in conducting the study.

Explain, using an example to support your claims.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 7 Forum

Throughout your textbook the authors return to the importance of interpreting the findings of a research project.

Explain two reasons why this is an essential element in a high-quality research report.

Then, discuss two benefits of examining and understanding the intrinsic meaning of the data.

Lastly, explain three disadvantages of going too far beyond the scope of the data.

 

PSYC300 Research Methods in Psychology

Week 8 Forum

For the past seven weeks, we have been thinking about research methods in psychology and the important role they play in understanding the world around us. Reflect on what you have learned in responding to the following:

What impact might research methods have on the future of the field of psychology?

What is the most important concept you have learned in our time together in class?

As you consider your personal narrative, what tools and insights can you apply from the course to become a more educated consumer of psychological research in your daily life?