Research Experience
- How has your process for doing academic research changed since the beginning of the semester? Be specific. Give examples.
- At the beginning of the semester, the way I would approach any kind of research is just by looking up generic topics that would fit the thesis. But after having practice and guidance in how to find sources I am not only more confident but I also now have the skills in searching for the best kind of sources for my research and for any future projects. When I am looking for sources now, I automatically look for journals that are not only peer-reviewed but journals that pertain to the topic of the paper. An example is the sources I used were journals made for sociology and psychology research.
- Describe your process for evaluating and selecting sources for your research assignments. How did you decide which sources to use and which not to use? Did you add or change sources for your final assignment after turning in your annotated bibliography? If so, please explain why.
- When I was looking for sources for my research the first thing I did was find sources and research that was aimed at college students and college campuses. I chose peer-reviewed journals that followed the themes of my research. As I progressed I had to find more sources to help support any progressions that had been made or supporting any new data.
- What challenges did you encounter when doing research for your assignments in this class? What strategies did you use to overcome them? Be specific. Give examples.
- One challenge I had to face when doing research for certain assignments is the formatting. There are certain rules to formating and writing in APA and these challenges will over time disappear as I become more comfortable with it. Formatting is an important factor in any assignment, especially research. So as this project is one of my first actual research assignments learning how to format correctly was difficult but worth it. Some strategies I used to overcome this particular challenge is by actually doing research on formating, especially APA.
- Have your attitudes and perceptions (confidence level) about doing research changed over the course of the semester? Be specific. Give examples.
- As a psychology major, I have been learning about what research is and how to do it but I never felt comfortable with it. This year I dived into doing research and at first, I wasn’t confident but as the semester progressed I was excited and assured with the steps I was taking in the research. When I sent the survey out to groups of students I felt awkward and uncomfortable in asking people to do it but after the first couple, I was ready and eager to send it out to anyone. Another example is when I was doing the literature review I was nervous and uncomfortable with writing it in general but also doing the research for it. But as I progressed through my research and final paper I was comfortable with not only finding more journals but also in doing research. In the future when I do research I will have so much more confidence not only when I start but through the entire project.
- Think about the research you’ve done this semester, and describe what you think it means to “Think Like a Researcher?”
- Before this semester “Thinking Like a Researcher” just meant someone who was a critical thinker but now after doing research, I have gotten a better understanding. Being a researcher is more than being a critical thinker, it’s about understanding and seeing every aspect. This semester when I was deciding on how and who I was going to send the survey to, I had to look at every angle so that the population pool would give the most representation. A researcher has to think in a way that is open and able to continue even when their hypothesis is proven wrong. Thinking like a researcher is more than anything I have listed, it is having observations in the project and honestly, any situation in an unbiased way but also simply just trying to find the truth.
