Developing Skills

• An activity to sharpen your thinking and improve your writing.

• Develop your generic written communication skills.

• Writing with a particular purpose, structure, and layout, typically in response to a question.

• Written in a formal, academic style.

• these skills will be needed to further our psychological careers.

• Knowledge and understanding (accurate terminology etc)

• Critical Analysis (break down research)

• Reading and referencing (independent reading - is it relevant + referred to appropriately)

• Essay structure

• Use of language (tone / no colloquial language)

1. Analyse the essay title

   • Check the ‘process’ word

2. Develop the main argument (or thesis)

   • What is the big message I want to communicate to
     readers?
     • What is the overall point I am trying to make that
     underpins what I say throughout my essay?

3. Organise your essay in a way to best convey
   the main argument.

Knowledge and understanding:
• The essay demonstrates evidence of sound knowledge of the topic and makes accurate use of the appropriate terminology
• 2(i) “Shows evidence of relevant and sound knowledge and understanding of the topic.”

Example: ‘Assess the usefulness of adult attachment theory for understanding experiences in young adults’ romantic relationships’
• “Shows evidence of relevant and sound knowledge and understanding of
• Adult attachment theory
• Experiences in romantic relationships in young adulthood

Lectures and essential reading as important starting points.

Structure The essay is structured so as to make the argument and discussion clear and coherent.
• 2(i)

• “Structure is clear and supports coherent discussion and argument.

• Is basically logical, but could be more persuasive in places.

• Introduces the aim of the essay, but this may be done
  in a perfunctory manner.

• Comes to a conclusion which follows from the main points of
  the essay, but may not be fully justified or may not fully address the essay title.”

Should balance word counts well:

• intro = 10%

• main body = 80%

• conc = 10%

• references

• Explain how you interpret the questions

• Summarise the conclusion

• Identify issues that you are going to explore

• Give a brief outline of how you will deal with each issue and in which order.

• Define terms where necessary

Basic Paragraph Structure:
1. Introduce the point
2. Discuss the evidence that supports the point
3. Restate the point and relate it to the thesis / section of the main body

Integrated Paragraph
• Transitional phrase or sentence linking paragraph to previous paragraph or thesis
• 1., 2., and 3. of basic paragraph structure
• Transitional sentence or phrase linking paragraph to next paragraph or thesis.

Transitional words/phrases to start a sentence e.g.:

• To illustrate = specifically, for example, as one example, in particular.

Transitional words/phrases to start a paragraph e.g.:

• To present own idea = it seems plausible that, it seems reasonable that, it seems logical that, it could be argued that.
  

• Combining separate elements to form a whole

• Separate elements e.g.,
  • Research studies
  • Concepts
  • Points in an essay

• The whole e.g.,
  • Summary of what is known
  • Conclusion in an essay

Implications:

• How and why are the research findings important?

• What do they mean?

Could be:

• theoretical

• practical

• social

• political

• technological

• State what a study found

  • e.g. McDaniel (2013) found that learning items over time improves memory.

• What the results suggest

  • e.g. results suggest memory is better when spread out, may be due to memory consolidation.

• Recommend something based upon this

  • e.g. students should avoid last minute revision.

• Summarise the argument and main themes

• State the general conclusions

• Make it clear why those conclusions are important or significant.

• In the last sentence, sum up the argument very briefly, linking it to the title.

In-text citation:

• Parenthetical citation:

  • (Fletcher-Watson & Bird, 2020)

  • Med or end of sentence

• Narrative citation:

  • Fletcher-Watson and Bird (2020)

  • Start of sentence

Reference - Journal article:

• Surname, firstname initial. (date of publication). Title. Publisher. Link

• References (not bibliographies)

• Diff formats for sources e.g. books, specific chapters, websites

• Stay consistent

Self-assess the essays structure:

• Is the thesis clearly stated in the inro?

• Does each paragraph address on key point?

• Is the link between each para and the main argument explicit?

• Have the paragraphs been organised in a meaningful way?

• Is there evidence of synthesis throughout the essay?

• Does the conclusion address the essay title?

• Are the references complete and consistently formatted?

• Academic Integrity is a set of values that we uphold to ensure that our work is honest, fair and original.

• Plagarism is a form of academic misonduct

• It involves copying someone else’s work/ideas without acknowledging them.

• Presenting someone else’s work as your own.

‘My academic integrity will only be challenged if i have consciously and with clear premeditated intent, copied the work of others’ = FALSE

• Poor paraphrasing

  • Trust your own intellect

• Poor citing / referencing

  • Check lecture notes/library resources

• Poor note taking

  • Use Academic Skills Centre

• Rushing

  • Plan ahead / request extensions

• Poor understanding of academic integrity

  • Check through the resources on Canvas

• Poor understanding of subject

  • Use lecturers’ office hours / discussion boards etc

They use Turnitin to check work against:

• All reports in the same assignment

• All past reports from all assignments to UoB

• Past reports to all unis using Turnitin

• All books in electronic format

• Most books not in electronic format (through past assignments)

• Big part of the internet

Some overlap is accidental:

• Minor part of the sentence

• Multiple sources

• Minor overlap from each sentence

We ignore:

• Instructions

• Citation names

• Everything you say is no yours (e.g. in quotation marks)

What is it?

• When you rely too much on the original source, borrowing instead of paraphrasing text.

Example of poor paraphrasing:

• Use of the same text

• No quotation

• Citation is not enough

1. Read a source (article, chapter etc)

2. Write notes about it on a separate document

   • write the key message in your own words

   • don’t need every detail

   • just notes to explain to yourself

   • NEVER copy and paste from a source into notes

3. Create bullet point structure for essay

4. complete essay using only notes

5. NEVER use original source and essay together

1. Always go from source to notes (paraphrased), then to assignment.

2. NEVER copy with intent to paraphrase later.

3. NEVER write something you do not understand.

4. Always quote + cite when using the exact same words.

• Should not re-use material.

  • NOT allowed to use a past essay / post you wrote a few years ago etc.

• Collaboration is to enhance learning but there are limits

• Submit work that is your own

• Don’t share drafts of your writing with others in your group.

• Submitting an assessment you have not completed yourself.

• An attempt to deceive the marker.

• Serious plagiarism + academic misconduct

• Will be referred to a College Misconduct and Fitness to Practise Committee.

• Can lead to failure of the programme.

• This also applies to Generative AI.

• Helps students realise that it is wrong without a penalty.

What to do:

• Read report carefully

• Figure out what lead to the text overlapping.

• Re-read material and ensure that you know what you did was wrong.

• Talk to your personal tutor.

• Use the resources signposted in the letter.

• There is no assumption of intent to plagarise.

• Meant to be productive + student learn from it.

What to do:

• Read material and report before meeting.

• Make sure you attend the meeting,

  • Make the most out of it even if it a mistake.

• Reduction of mark decided by 2 staff members.

  • Marker is not aware at the time, eliminating unconscious bias.

Responsibilities in international academic community:

• Undertake research honestly + credit others for their work.

• Do original work for each class.

• Demonstrate your own achievement.

• Accept feedback and corrections from your tutor as part of the learning process.

What is a scientific report?

• Concise + objective + precise account of an empirical research project.

Aims to:

• Describe an experiment conducted in the lab.

• To communicate the results of this .

Qualities of scientific writing:

• Objective

• Clear

• Accurate

• Knows audience

• Appropriate terminology

• Follows style guidelines

  • verb tenses + active/passive voice

  • self-reference

  • bias-free

  • parallel form and repetition

  • numbers

Presents the scientific background + rationale + hypothesis.

1. Introduce research problem / question

   • Cite an event/ create fictional scenario

   • Identify scope of previous research

   • Present statistic

   • Cite quotation

2. A concise literature review

   • Summarise knowledge

   • Emphasise relevant findings

   • Highlight methodological issues + major conclusions

   • Brief summary of research (e.g. in a sample of A, method B produced result C)

3. Present study / introduce project

   • Brief overview of your own study

   • State rationale: use previous research to make critical arg for our hypothesis.

A comprehensive description of how you conducted the study.

• Written in past tense

• Detailed enough to permit replication

• Be specific about:

  • ppts, materials, equipment etc

  • the steps in the process (chronological order)

Describes the findings of the data analysis

1. Restate hypothesis in conceptual terms

2. Reword hypothesis in operational terms

3. State findings plainly

4. Summarise what was found

• Supplement the text with tables and figures as appropriate.

• Describe the findings, but do not interpret them.

It was hypothesised that 1st year students would have more
difficulties settling into the first semester than 2nd year
students. Specifically, 1st year students were expected to have
lower CAT scores than 2nd year students. As shown in Table 1,
1st year students had higher CAT scores than 2nd year students,
on average, t (85) = 5.38, p = .005. Thus, although a
significant difference was found the hypothesis was not
supported.

Interpret the results.

1. Address the research problem / question

   • General statement of the findings in conceptual terms

   • State whether the hypothesis was supported or not

   • Don’t include statistical information here

2. Account for the findings

   • Compare your findings to those cited in the introduction

   • Implications - Explain what your findings mean: How do they fit with existing
     theoretical ideas? What new knowledge has been gained?

   • Offer tentative explanations for unexpected findings

3. Limitations: Evaluate your study

   • Discuss threats to the study’s internal validity, inadequacy of measurement,
     etc.

   • Discuss the extent to which the findings are generalisable

   • Future research directions

4. Conclusions

   • State the potential implications for research, theory, and/or practice

   • Link back to the research question or problem.

5. Directions for future research

   • Propose specific and original directions

   • Examine limits of the findings

   • Test implications of the findings

   • Apply to a different area of investigation

A brief but comprehensive summary of the key elements of the study.

• Must be able to stand alone

• Write 1-2 sentences about:

  • Key aspects of the lit review

  • Research problem

  • Hypothesis

  • Methods used, sample size, design etc

  • Study results

  • Implications - importance, applications

• Captures topic area, aim, and research question

• Informative and specific, includes key words

• Concise (approx. 10-15 words)

What is feedback:

• A process '“through which learners make sense of information from various sources
  and use it to enhance their work or learning strategies”

Aim:

• To reduce the gap between current and desired performance.

Formative:

• Provides indicators on your performance and helps identify areas for improvements

• Received before you submit the assignment.

Summative:

• Is evaluative and measures your performance against the module learning outcomes.

• Is usually accompanied by a mark or grade and is used to determine degree classification.

Feedback used as feed-forward:

• Helps identify what you need to do to improve in future assessments.

Specific, targeted tutor feedback, e.g.:

• Written summative comments on an essay.

• Indication of achievement against various criteria on a rubric.

Whole class feedback e.g.:

• Post-summative submission.

• Responses to exercises.

Automated feedback e.g.:

• Tests on Canvas.

Feedback from others e.g.:

• Peer or self-feedback.

Informal feedback e.g.:

• Comments from lecturer at end of lecture.

  • Comments from a lecturer via canvas.

What can effective feedback do?

• Raise your consciousness of the strengths of your work.

• Boost your confidence and self-concept regarding your personal strengths and abilities.

• Provide guidance on areas for further development of skills and enhancement of work.

• Enhance your own judgment, understanding of assessment criteria, and ability to self-audit your own work.

Features underpinning student feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018)

Appreciate feedback (recognise the forms) + make judgements + manage affect (avoid being defensive)

= Take action (draw inferences from range of feedback for continuous improvement).

1. EoSW: All submissions logged.

2. Module lead organises marking loads.

3. Marking team calibrate; marking scrutiny panel reviews feedback.

4. Marking.

5. Module lead reviews marks, writes report.

6. Quality advisor moderates sample.

7. Administrators log marks.

8. Marks and feedback returned to students.

1. Check you understand why the tutor wrote each comment. Highlight comments that could be useful for other assignments.

2. Create a table with major issues and minor issues as the column titles.

3. List the comments from 1. under the different columns (major vs minor issues).

4. Compare the list to previous work.

5. Number the items in order of priority.

• Observe behaviour

  • either in real time

  • or by examining record e.g. newspapers, ads (archival)

• Lots of people asked questions about their thoughts or behaviour.

• Need a representative sample.

• Framing of questions important.

• Generate conditions that differ in only one respect (IV)

• Investigate impact of these manipulations on another variable (DV)

• Change in IV = Change in DV

• Ensure observed effects are only due to the IV - not another factor.

• e.g.

• Random selection: every ppt has an equal chance of being selected.

• Random assignment to condition: ppts are randomly allocated to groups.

Summary:

• There are many pitfalls that we must aim to avoid with experimental investigation, but the tool it gives us for examining causal relations makes it invaluable to psychologists.

• This is why interpreting experiments constitutes the vast majority of this course.

Considerations for children:

• Boredom / motivation

• understand instructions

• motor skills / language skills

• cognitive capacity

special populations:

• domain-specific knowledge is useful here

• e.g. autism and attention

• matched controls? matched on what? representative sample.

Hume:

• ASSOCIATION: C and E must have temporal and spatial contiguity

• DIRECTION: C must precede E temporally

• CONSTANT CONJUNCTION: If C, then E for ALL situation

however this is not always the case:

• The effect of something can be caused somewhere far away, e.g. by pressing a button / making a phone call.

  • E.g. sending an email but setting a timer for it to be sent in a year.

David Kenny:

1. Time Precedence

2. Relationship - C and E are variables with at least 2 states.

Can a published piece of research be trusted?

NO - something published in a peer-reviewed journal = other scientists judged it suitable for publication.

However:

• they may be biased (e.g. friends)

• may not have spotted the errors

Passive: Accept the article at face value.

Active reading:

• Each section in article creates expectations in reader (author wants you to believe the message)

• The active reader is aware of these expectations

• The active reader checks that all expectations are fulfilled.

Critical appraisal requires active reading - note what ISNT there as well as what is.

Knowledge needed to produce research:

• Domain knowledge

• Methods knowledge

Knowledge needed to critique research:

• A sound understanding of the limitations and strengths of the methods used.

• In depth knowledge of the research domain is not required.

Critical analysis is a practical skill:

• Learning theory only goes so far

• Practical aspects only learnt through practice

• That’s why the course is mix of lecture and active critical thinking

1. Establish the facts:

   • What did the researcher do?

2. Evaluate the article against its central themes, with a balanced commentary

   • Does the data support the article’s conclusions?

3. How would you improve it?

Establishing the facts

1. Intro: What research question is paper addressing? Does it specify a hypothesis?

2. Method: What variables are investigated? What did the subjects actually do? How were subjects selected?

3. Results: Draw up table summarising results. What analyses were used? What was main result?

4. Discussion: What conclusions were drawn?

How would you improve it? Use knowledge of the shortcomings to reduce them.

• sample size (is bigger always better?)

• Examples:

  • ‘Can neonates perceive colour?’

  • ‘Can chimpanzees communicate with symbols?’

• Establish an effect and rule out rival explanations for that effect.

• Can chimps communicate with symbols:

  • Demonstrate passing of info between chimps

  • and that info was passed via symbols

• Examples:

  • ‘What are personality characteristics of anorexic girls?’

  • ‘What are the child-rearing practices of drug-addicted mothers?’

• These surveys are typically addressed through survey research.

• Research must show that characteristics are peculiar to the thing being described.

  • child-rearing in drug-addicted mothers and not addicted mothers should be contrasted.

• Examples:

  • ‘What are the components of personality?'

  • ‘What factors make up executive functioning?’

• These questions require the whole being broken down into parts.

• Examples:

  • ‘Is honesty related to socioeconomic status?’

  • ‘Is performance on the Tower of London Task related to executive functioning?’

• Relevant statistical techniques include correlation and multiple regression:

  • Many ppts required

  • Sample must be representative

  • Interpretation must remain cautious (correlation is not causation)

• Example:

  • ‘Do younger people have better memory than older people?’

• Groups under consideration differ by one variable related to an attribute of the group (e.g. by age)

• Identified but not manipulated by researcher.

• Statistical tests for comparing means (e.g. ANOVA)

• still, correlation does not equal causation.

• Example:

  • ‘Does taking ecstasy affect executive functioning?’

• the exp group should be under control of experimenter but assignment to it = random.

• Control group should be treated equally

• Standard statistical tests for comparing means

• Samples may be small, but must be representative.

• Example:

  • ‘Does counselling prevent delinquency more than group activity in girls but not boys?’

• Causal interaction qs = introduce a 2nd IV

• Statistical analysis normally takes the form of ANOVA

• Care is required in interpreting results:

Demographics:

• Are all groups matched on age, sex, ethnicity etc.?

Extra-experimental changes in ppts:

• in longitudinal studies, are any groups more prone to extra-experimental changes?

Motivation and role perception:

• Did all ppts receive the same reward?

• Did all ppts perceive their role similarly?

Communication between ppts may influence results.

Ppts in all treatment groups should have the same experience (as far as possible):

• is the experiment of similar duration for all groups?

• were all groups tested at a similar time of day / location?

• could procedure / wording influence the diff groups in diff ways?

The same measuring instrument should be used for all groups:

• We need to be sure that the measuring instrument does not introduce systematic bias.

Where judges are required to rate a behaviour:

• They should be adequately trained to ensure they can discriminate behaviours.

• They should be unaware of the hypotheses or the treatment groups.

• More than one judge should be used and inter-rater reliability should be reported.

Some variables are completely beyond the control of the experimenter:

• perhaps one ppt has a toothache, while another lost his watch that day.

Random allocation of ppts to treatment groups should ensure that such variables:

• are distributed similarly across treatment groups.

  • are sufficiently rare that any effects amount to noise in the data.

• Practice: could performance in a second condition improve because of task practice?

• Fatigue / Boredom / Motivation: could performance in second condition decline because of these?

• Multiple Treatment Interference: Could performance on one condition interfere with performance on the next?

Counterbalancing order can limit these effects.

• Select participants based on unusual performance in one test.

• Apply treatment then retest ppts

• Performance may now be closer to the OG group mean but not due to the manipulation.

Statistic Selection and Presentation:

• The reader should be able to guess which test will be used from the method section (have they?)

• if not, have convoluted procedures been used to get a specific result?

Multiple analyses and Type 1 Error

Planned Comparisons and Post Hoc tests

• were additional stats test exploratory or based on hypotheses?

Presentation - distortion of scale / meaning

• scale - Y axis being spread out shows a larger difference

• meaning - using percentage higher rather than numerically show different graphs

Why do we need critical thinking?

• need to be able to sift through info / args to choose the best ones.

• We need to be sure we are not accepting an account that is untrue.

• We need to be sure we are not allowing our biases to influence the facts / evidence.

• We need assurance that we are not deluding ourselves over the evidence.

• To decide whether to adopt / reject ideas or opinions we have to consider only whether they are likely to be true or not.

What is critical thinking?

• Critical thinking is about applying a level of ‘constructional doubt’.

• Method to examine and evaluate.

1. What question are they trying to answer / what are they trying to do? Is there existing work? Are their criticisms of other work justified - otherwise why are they doing this?

2. What did they do? What is not their? e.g. exactly what instructions did the ppts get? How were they greeted?

3. What did they find?

4. Are their claims justified?

• Are you familiar with the source? Is it legitimate?

• Has the source been reliable in the past?

• Read further - headline does not tell whole story.

• Check your biases.

• Check a fact-checking website.

Making improvements:

1. Select a few priority issues from each list (major vs minor) to work on in next piece of work = realistic targets.

2. Consider how to deal with each item on the list.

3. Understand why you received the feedback.

4. Re-read the guide.

5. Ask tutor if you do not understand comments.

6. Ask tutor how to improve ‘priority areas’.

7. ask what gets good marks.

8. Ask your tutor for examples of work they’d like you to produce.

reflection:

• how well do you use your tutors’ feedback?

• Is there feedback for whole class?

• How can you make better use of all of the advice and feedback?

lab report = communicate in a clear, systematic and standardised way. Should include:

• Why did I do this?

• How did i do it?

• What did i find?

• So what?

Format of lab report:

• Title - max 12 words

• Abstract - 150-250 words

• Intro

• Method

  • Ppts

  • Materials (opt)

  • Design (opt)

  • Procedure

  • Scoring (opt)

• results

• Discussion

• References

• Appendix (opt)

Reliability = get the same result over and over again

Validity = does it measure the thing you think it does?

Accuracy = does it give you the right answer?