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. H2University belonging will have a positive or negative relationship with student stress.
PowerPoint Presentation PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY Lectorial 3: Method (and some Introduction Revision) 1 RMIT Classification: Trusted 1 Lab Report Timeline (Available on the last page of intro handout)… Week Relevant Lecture & Lectorial ContentRecommended Activity Timeline 3Lectorial on the Introduction sectionDownload 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 SectionDevelop 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 break 7Lectorial on Results SectionDownload and read Lab Report Results handout prior to lectorial Review results and plan Results section 8 Write up of Results section 9Lectorial on Discussion SectionDownload 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&AWrite Abstract and bring complete draft to tutorial to ask questions Final proofread - complete checklist and self-evaluation with rubric Submit your Lab Report prior to Friday Week 11 at 11.59pm Principles of Psychology 2 RMIT Classification: Trusted Today’s Lectorial… Our Lab Report (briefly revisited) The Introduction (revisited) What’s in an Introduction How to approach your introduction Q & A The Method Section Participants Materials Procedure Principles of Psychology 3 RMIT Classification: Trusted 3 Our Lab Report (briefly revisited) Principles of Psychology 4 RMIT Classification: Trusted Our lab report… (from Canvas Handout p.1) Our lab report brings 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 Principles of Psychology 5 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 correct 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 correctly 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. (2016). We 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. Principles of Psychology 6 RMIT Classification: Trusted 6 Resources to get you started… Starting reference: Schofield, M. J., O'halloran, P., McLean, S. A., Forrester‐Knauss, C., & Paxton, S. J. (2016). Depressive symptoms among Australian university students: who is at risk? Australian Psychologist, 51(2), 135-144. doi: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 rubric. Morris, P. E., & Fritz, C. O. (2015). Conscientiousness and procrastination predict academic coursework marks rather than examination performance. Learning and Individual Differences, 39, 193-198. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2015.03.007 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Poropat, A. E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 322-338. doi: 10.1037/a0014996 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Pedler, M. L., Willis, R., & Nieuwoudt, J. E. (2022). A 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.2021.1955844 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. Principles of Psychology 7 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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. Principles of Psychology 8 RMIT Classification: Trusted The Introduction (revisited) Principles of Psychology 9 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 Principles of Psychology 10 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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. RMIT Classification: Trusted RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 RMIT Classification: Trusted Aims Provide a general statement of the broad 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 RMIT Classification: Trusted 15 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. Principles of Psychology 16 RMIT Classification: Trusted Resource list A PDF Resource list can be found on the ‘Introduction Assignment page on Canvas: The RMIT psychology online library (available via Canvas): https://rmit.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 library referencing page: https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/46393/external_tools/20588 RMIT downloadable APA referencing guide (via library referencing page): http://mams.rmit.edu.au/ajji8gjqjcw2.docx Findlay (2015) text on the library website: RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 RMIT Classification: Trusted Introduction Q&A Principles of Psychology 19 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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 Principles of Psychology 20 RMIT Classification: Trusted 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. (2016) article) 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/10.1080/00313830500372075 (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 brief, 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 referring 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. Principles of Psychology 21 RMIT Classification: Trusted The Method Section Principles of Psychology 22 RMIT Classification: Trusted 3.1 Participants RMIT Classification: Trusted 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. Principles of Psychology 24 RMIT Classification: Trusted 24 3.2 Materials RMIT Classification: Trusted 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)