dissertation planning session
DESCRIPTION
Session for 2nd yr UGs or those beginning 3rd yr UG on the beginning stages of choosing a dissertation topic, a study to carry out and mapping information available in your interest areaTRANSCRIPT
Getting startedDissertation preparation
Today....
2
Thinking about topics
Narrowing your topic
What to do with Literature at this stage? Finding tests, extra databases you may not have used etc ...
INFERRING – from one context to your context
Alerts in your interest area(s)
Where to find referencing information
3
Preparation
Picking your topic
4
What are you interested in?
Did any essays/lectures/articles particularly spark your interest? Were there ideas or aspects of the topic you’d like to explore in
more detail?
Are there particular groups of people you would like to look at in relation to this topic?
Look for gaps in research (NOT voids!)
Picking your topic 2
5
Not interested?! What did you get the best grades in?
Which subjects came easier?
Remember this is just the planning stage – thinking like this will help you narrow to look at topics within one area
Still lost? Placements – those doing placements think about people you will work
with, any studies they may be already doing from which you could re-use data or data you may be able to collect through organisation
TOP TIP: Keep a notebook/word file where you can add anything which takes your interest and any ideas which could be candidates for diss topics
Be practical
6
Most common mistake is that people’s ideas are too big!
Remember this is real – not fantasy! The study you propose you have to carry out =
No studies interviewing battered wives or sex offenders please!
Remember the participant groups you will have ready access to = students and staff at MDX, people you encounter on your placement etc
You can also re-use data from other studies (do a secondary analysis) - this can come from another study which you want to follow up on or from data your placement organisation
Be Practical 2 – find a balance
7
You will need to do some literature searching for journal articles in your area – this will help you figure out how feasible your study is
You need to find a balance between:
Your interest
Information available
Just the right amount of literature
8
Think how studies work and what options are open to you and importantly - NOT OPEN TO YOU!
You want a GAP in literature NOT AVOID
What does this mean? – Goldilocks theory!
Not too much (Too big) Not none (Too small)
Some literature on OR AROUND your topic (just right!)
Narrowing your topic
9
There’s a whole pre-set of options for narrowing a large topic area or interest down
People/participants: Racial/cultural/nationality groups Age Type of participant (will explain)
Way you measure something
Think about all the sub-factors that fall under your topic
Example: Media effect on self esteem can be broken down into: Fashion and Beauty media Effect on body image/ effect on self worth Among Women / students Among students in UK/Dubai/Mauritius
Look at what others have done – study other studies! AND ask a member of staff from the Psychology department!
Exercise 1 - Narrowing your topic
10
1. “Exploring religious and cultural factors in health seeking behaviour among Nigerian migrants in the UK”
Too specific (and too big at the same time!)
2. “Exploring religious and cultural factors in health seeking behaviour “
WAY too big
3. “Exploring factors affecting health seeking behaviour in the UK”
Still too big!
What are the problematic parts? Why are some impractical?
How can we make this question the right scope?
Exercise 1 - Narrowing your topic
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What have I done to narrow these questions/make them more practical?
Exploring factors affecting health seeking behaviour among African migrants in the London Borough of ....
Exploring factors affecting health seeking behaviour in African migrants in the UK
Exploring factors affecting health seeking behaviour in Nigerians/British Nigerians in the UK
Exploring (cultural) factors affecting health seeking behaviour in international/migrant student populations
12
Literature Searching
Just START searching
13
You only need to START searching....
You do not need to do a full lit review now!
You are feeling things out to see how practical and possible your ideas are
The most important thing is to keep a record of everything you look at/find which MAY be useful –then if you need it later you do not need to repeat yourself
Databases
14
Remember you will need to use more than one database to see what is out there on your topic
As well as PsycINFO .....
Social Sciences Citation Index/Web of Knowledge is VERY useful as you can cross search Sciences and Social Sciences
ScienceDirect will also be very useful for the more health focused topics
Remember you can personalise Google Scholar to recognise and link to MDX library resources – ask me/take handout
Key reminders for searching
15
Watch out for spellings US/UK =
behavior / behaviour
Counselor / counselling
Truncate your term* =
Offend* = will find offending, offender, offenders
Counsel* = will find counselling, counsellor, counsellors
Keep phrases together with speech marks “substance abuse”
Follow the trail – citations and references online
16
In SSCI records look for (right hand side)
Finding Tests you could use
17
You need to consult the department test library UniHub > PSY subject area folder > there’s a word doc with all tests and
subject areas they relate to (use ctrl+ f or cmd +f on a mac to search the document)
I am hoping to have PsycTESTS (an online database of Psychological tests) for you for next academic year
Finding tests from previous studies in journal articles: 1. Do a lit search on your topic
2. Find articles similar enough to your interest area and kind of study you’d like to do
3. Look at the abstract/methodology section (if we have full article)
4. Make a list of different methods and tests used
5. Assess how practical they are and whether you could replicate on a smaller scale
6. Find the test – department tests library OR Google (make sure legitimate!) OR emailing academics who designed test
INFERRING! Or how to infer ....
18
There may be no research on your very specific disstopic
DON’T PANIC – keep calm and ask the librarian!
But there may be studies which are similar but with a different participant group or
And there may be studies which address each element of your topic separately
Example: The effectiveness of mentoring on young homeless people
19
There were a NO articles for this so the student had to infer from the contexts below:
Mentoring and young people
Mentors and homeless people
Studies of homeless people /support for homeless people getting out of homelessness
SO – don’t panic if there’s nothing matching your question exactly – you just need enough around the elements of your topic to construct a lit review and discussion of your resultsTOP MARKS! This also gives you room to say something original! Joining the dots between different research or pointing out areas for further exploration in the field.
Example: Peer, media and family influences among African and Afro-Caribbean women and the effects on self esteem and body image
20
There were a few articles for this but mostly this student had to infer from the contexts below:
Media influences on women and their self image Peer/family/cultural influences on women and their self image
Media influences on Black/Afro Caribbean populations and their confidence/self image
Peer/family/cultural on Black/Afro Caribbean populations and their confidence/self image
Media influences on people’s self worth and body image
So you widen your searches and take a little bit of information from each context to construct a research-jigsaw-puzzle
21
Cutting Edge?
Staying up to date in your area
22
In Social Sciences Citation Index or PsycINFO
you can set up an account and then set up alerts or RSS feeds for searches you’ve done
Staying up to date – citation alerts
• In Web of Science databases (SSCI and SCI) • For articles particularly significant to your work/dissertation get an alert every time it is cited in new research
Zetoc alerts service – get info as it’s published
24 • Access as you would any of the other databases (MyUnihub)
25• Create an alert and name it
26
• Now add searches or journals to the alert
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• You can build a list of searches – by keywords or author • You can also add searches by journals and be emailed every time a journal is released
Excercise 2 - Zetoc
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Set up some alerts and add searches relevant to your log books for this module
Remember you can add multiple searches for each of the synonyms for your search term to your alert
Grab me if you need a hand or help picking search terms.
29
Attribution
Referencing Is very important
Acknowledges other people’s work (avoids plagiarism)
Shows you’ve read around the subject
Supports your discussion and arguments
Gets you better marks!
Enables others to find your references
As dissertation students it would be useful to use a referencing software like RefWorks or Mendeley as you go along
Referencing tools
31
Refworks is an online site to manage your references subscribed to by the University – you access it like any other database through logging into MyUniHub> My Study > scroll down to ‘My library’ > databases
Mendeley is a free to use Open access website to which you can sign up and store and organise all your references http://www.mendeley.com/
Referencing guidehttp://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/plagiarismreferencing
Psychology Library subject guide
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This and other powerpoints and helpsheets
My contact details – please make appointments with me!
Access via MyUniHub > My study > My library > library subject guides