The Initial Agony
The clock ticks away and still you haven’t thought up a design or even a topic for your coursework - a psychological investigation on an issue of your choice. Many students come to me in the agony of not knowing what to study for their investigation with its impending deadline. Some say things like, “Well, I want to do something on eyewitness testimony but I don’t know exactly what.” On further questioning it appears not that they haven’t spent hours thinking about it, but rather they haven’t spent time asking themselves the right sort of questions. So, if you are in this position, listed below are a number of steps that will turn your agony into ecstacy (well maybe not ecstacy but certainly a sense of achievment).
Step 1: An Everyday Observation
The first step (which seems the easiest) is to make an observation of someone else’s behaviour (or your own) in a situation that holds some fascination or interest for you. This can be anything from the behaviour of your cat, to the behaviour of your boyfriend, to the accuracy of your own ability to remember something. Although, I said this seems to be the easiest step, it is not so easy to find an observation or issue that can be readily studied. How do you know if your idea can be studied easily? The answer is to test it against the next few steps. If it fails to satisfy one step then return to step 1 and try again. You’ll soon be able to identify an idea worth pursuing.
Step 2: Read an Article on the Issue
Having identified an issue or a behavioural observation, the next step is to read up about it. Ideally, you should read a journal article - you can find many of these on the web and also in Ezine articles. Just type in your key terms in a search engine and look for any research that has been done that is related to your issue or observation. Note that you should read research articles and not Joe Blogs’s home page. As intelligent as he may be, his ramblings won’t impress your examiner or marker; however, a published article by a reputable academic psychologist will, even if he is dumber than Joe Blogs (so a rule of thumb is to try to access genuine sites, such as a university’s website or a publisher’s online database of articles).
Step 3: Identify the Explanation
In reading the article what you are looking for is an explanation for the behaviour you are thinking about as a result of step 1. The explanation will be a theory of the hows and the whys of the behaviour (that is, what causes it).
Step 4: Read About the Problems with the Explanation
You may ask yourself why you are looking for an explanation for the behaviour you are thinking about. After all, isn’t your study suppoosed to do that and if there is an explanation then why go on? Here’s the rub: There is no explanation in psychology that is (a) a perfect account of the thing it’s trying to explain, and (b) universally accepted. It follows that explanations are themselves the targets of further study. It is true that theories provoke more research than the initial observations they attempt to explain (well, at least in psychology it is so). So, try to read about the problems with the theory or you could even find its problems yourself if you think carefully about it.
Step 5: Does One Explanation Appeal to you More than Another? Your Research Question
Remember that in step 1 you thought of an issue that aroused your curiosity. Now ask yourself whether one or any of the explanations you have read satisfies you. Where are the gaps? What is there that makes you feel uncomfortable about accepting it? Are there any assumptions in the explanation that you don’t agree with? Decide to address one of these questions. This will be your research question.
Step 6: Read About the Research Design and Choose Yours
In reading around the issue, you should by now have an idea how it is studied. Usually the method of investigation is one that has been used many times, although with a slight variation each time. It is NOT wrong to borrow such a research design, but you will usually be expected to modify it in some way - indeed, if you are following these steps then of course you will. Previous studies may have used an experimental method, a correlational study, a survey, a case study, or a naturalistic observation. This is the junction at which you need to marry the research question with a particular methodology. Some of these may not appeal to you or may even be out of bounds. If you simply CANNOT or don’t want to use the most obviously appropriate research method then you need to return to step 1 and try again. Otherwise if you feel comfortable with the method then continue to the next step.
Step 7: The Participants and their Task
Having identified the method you need to think about who the participants should be. The easiest route is to choose fellow students as they can be readily recruited. However, these may not be the most appropriate. If you need a specific population (e.g., the elderly or children) you must think about how you are going to obtain volunteers. The two problems here are (1) it isn’t always easy to find such volunteers (2) there may be ethical reasons why it is best not to use the population (especially children as you will need ethical approval for your study from the school, the parents, and the kids themselves). If only one type of group of participants are appropriate and you can’t or dare not attempt to obtasin them then go back to step 1. If you can then you should think about the task that you will set them. If this is an experiment then it should be desinged to test the hypothesis - and this should be derived directly from your research question. You can borrow a design from another study but you must modify it in some way so as to be original. If you are asking a new question about a particular explanation then it follows that your desing will also be original.
Step 8: Evaluate Your Design
Having thought about your design, take a break and come back to it later. Then read through your outline and ask yourself whether the design would answer the research question you thought up in step 5. “Possibly” or “maybe” are not good enough. Your design should put a theory to a stringent test, it should take no prisoners! So at this stage you may need to revise your design a little so that it could in principle directly answer your research question.
Step 9: Your Analysis
Before you finally reach that moment of ecstacy, remember that you may have to collect and analsye data. You must think about how to analsyse the data so that it reveals whether the hypothesis will be accepted or rejected. In other words, you should always think about how you are going to analyse the data before you start testing or interviewing participants. It is a common mistake for a student to have a wheelbarrow full of data and no clear idea what to do with it. This is a nightmare situation because you may discover that you have been asking the wrong questions or giving the wrong task to your participants. If you can’t see how you could possibly analyse the data from the design you have created then rethink your design until you can. For example, if you thought about using a t-test then you should gather data appropriate for this test, no more, no less.
Step 10: You May Begin
When you reach step 10 (without having returned to step 1 too many times, I hope) you can begin refining the design (e.g., prepearing the materials) and then start to test you participants. If you have followed the advice here then you are in a much better position to get the grade you really deserve than if you began your investigation without giving it much thought. Good luck!
Prof. Eamon Fulcher is currently a visiting professor at the University of Murcia, Spain. An experienced university lecturer, e-learning consultant, and researcher, he has written several texts for psychology students, including ‘A Guide to Coursework in Psychology’. You can visit his website at
for some great online resources for learning psychology or if you just want to ask him a question.
