hello. i am in my senior year at st joes and its time to write my senior thesis. so i need to pick a topic in psych to explore and propose an study/experiment. i am so lost and stressed over what to write about! i've been searching psycharticles and psychinfo for ideas, but i am coming up short. i have to write a 3 pg detailed proposal by monday. i am interested in topics related to elementary school age children. i found some good stuff on relational aggresion in girls, but i don't know what type of study i could propose. ugh. please, if there are any psych people out there i would love to hear some suggestions!!! i need to find something with lots of scholarly articles out there to use for sources and something that can be easily measured. help me please! (if i sound desperate, its bc i am!) ~lacey
Jackie&Justin
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Re: psych thesis help
HEY! I am in my senior year too at st joes too. what psych classes are you taking this semester?
sophie78
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What specifically interests you? Do you need to carry out the study? If so, you need to think about who your subjects are going to be?
I have my PhD in psych. So I can help if you answer questions.
dpli
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The NYU child Study Center might have some projects you could research.....
hey i was a psych major there too!!! is this for Dr. G's class??
February05
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ok.. we need to narrow it down a little more... is it a clinical psych course? social? I did mine in social psych ( i studied attraction- initial and long term based on 'desireable' characteristics blah blah blah)... but what are you thinking about regarding elementary school aged children? behavior or success in class? interaction? social development? environmental factors affecting achievement (i.e social status; family demographics; parents level of education; etc...).
what interests you the most? what area do you REALLY want to gain understanding in from this research? b/c honestly, i chose a topic that was VERY hard to find supportive articles on, But it interested me so much, that it really was worth the extra effort.
lacey&mark
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hello. i am in d'elena's thesis class. other psych courses i am taking this semester are school psych, child psych and behavior mod.
the topic can be in any area, the class is senior research seminar. i am looking for a topic that there will be a wealth of info on and tools to measure whatever i would need to measure. regarding elementary school children, i think i am more interested in their behavior. i found some articles regarding aggression in children, particularly relational aggression in girls that i found to be interesting, but i don't know what my original hypothesis would be and what i would measure. i am also interested in child witnesses of DV but i haven't found too much on it. i don't know why i am having so much difficulty with this, grr. i feel like once i have the hypothesis, the rest will be much easier.
any suggestions? what did everyone else do?
oh and i do not have to carry out a study, just propose the study and include all materials needed for one.
~lacey
lacey&mark
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if i do relational aggression in childhood leads to depression, how do i test this and what measurements would i use? what stats are needed? help please!!!!!! ~lacey
February05
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do you need to make up your own 'mock' study?
... leads to depression when? in adulthood? i would start searching for some studies or artciles published on the topic, and see if that may help you get a more focused topic... b/c then you'll get to see what kind of data is out there (and what methods they used to measure). how long does it have to be?
lacey&mark
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i have to write 3 pages on my reason for interest, research question(s), hypothesis, design, and variables. the design and variables is the confusing part. ugh. i found a lot of articles about relational aggression, but not really anything about a link to depression later. just 1 or 2 mentioned it leads to poor mental health later in life. i don't have to carry out the study, just propose one. i am so stressed out :( i don't know why i am having so much difficulty. i am not even crazy about the topic, but it seems like it has the most info. i searched psycharticles and psychinfo for various topics to get ideas, but i am coming up short on original hypothesis. i feel like i've got 96 credits, tons of A's, and i don't know anything. grr. ~lacey
sophie78
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If you want to measure depression in children you can use BASC or CDI.
lacey&mark
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basc will tell depression in children??? what is cdi? unfortuately, i can't connect to the mental measurements yearbook on the sjc library website, its not working. thanks so much, keep the suggestions coming! i feel so overwhelmed right now. i haven't felt this way about a class/project before. what stats would i use to show a correlation? thanks~lacey
sophie78
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BASC and CDI are both instruments that measure depression in children. You can't determine what kind of stats you are going to use until you design the study.
February05
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what about checking any Case studies for patients admitted for severe depression- the background information may show households where DV was present, etc.
(sorry, i did my thesis 5 years ago, so i'm trying to remember as much as i can. i think i still have mine- somewhere- but if you already know your basic format, it probably wouldnt help much beyond that).
lacey&mark
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as far as thesis format, i will be checking out past student theses in out college library. i think that will help me get going when i start the chapters.
ok, so i think i am going to stick with relational aggression in children and see if there is a correlation with depression. what measurement tools measure specifically depression in children? what statistics are used to show a correlation? t tests?
here is my first paragraph of the proposal... Research on childhood aggression has often focused on boys, based on the assumption that girls are not aggressive. Previous research defined aggression as direct physical or verbal abuse that is intended to hurt another person. However, new research shows that girls do show aggression, but in more subtle ways than boys. Girls tend to use relationally aggressive behaviors to harm others rather than overtly. Relational aggression can include withholding friendship, ignoring others, spreading rumors, gossiping, and eliciting peer rejection of another child.
so i will continue on about how research suggests poor mental health for relational aggressors and suggest a link with childhood derpression. but i don't know how to specifically test for depression and how do i determine which child participants are relational aggressors? any suggestions?
ugh. i know once i have it on paper and discuss it in class (as much as i dread this part) my professor and classmates will help me focus my idea, but i hate not knowing the specifics he has asked for on this assignment.
thanks~Lacey
sophie78
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I just told you to use the CDI or BASC. That measures depression in children. T-tests compare means of two groups. That is not a correlation. A correlation is a correlation (like pearson's correlation).
lacey&mark
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thanks. i will propose to use the CDI to test for depression in children. i guess i have to create a test to determine whether or not the child participants are relational aggressors. here are my second and 3rd paragraphs, tell me if this makes sense.
Studies show that relationally aggressive children tend to be more socially and emotionally maladjusted than non-relationally aggressive children. Relationally aggressive children report significantly higher levels of loneliness, depression, and negative self-perception than non-relationally aggressive children. Based on such findings, I suggest that relationally aggressive children are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms than do non-relationally aggressive symptoms (Crick, Casas, & Mosher, 1997). To test my hypothesis, I propose that a sample of children in the 6th grade is to be given the CDI (Children’s Depression Inventory) to assess key symptoms of depression. Also, a test to determine whether or not the children use relationally aggressive behaviors needs to be created and given along with the CDI. According to my hypothesis, children who are determined to be relational aggressors will score higher on the CDI than would children who are non-relational aggressors.
statistically i am lost :( i am comparing the means of the scores on the CDI of 2 groups (relational aggressors and non-relational aggressors)...so that means T-tests??? also, do i have variables? i don't even know. i feel like a 'special' psych student right now :( please help me. thanks~lacey
Ronkonkomonga
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I wasn't a psych major -
But I love topics that deal with the differences between boys and girls.
I've seen work done with girls being overpowered in the classrooms by boys. They don't raise their hands as much, they are more cautious before they speak etc.
In girls agressive behavior is repremanded, while in boys is encouraged.
It does affect girls later in life.
What about a study on that.
sophie78
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why don't you observe relational aggression on the playground. Categorize them into low, middle and high aggressors. Then see if the three groups differ in levels of depressive symptoms. Since there are three groups you would use ANOVAs to compare the means on the CDI.
lacey&mark
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thats a great idea. but would i have to create an inventory to categorize them? how would i differentiate from low, med, and high relational aggressors?
if i kept it with just the 2 groups, what would i write about the stats?
thanks for your help, i really do appreciate all suggestions!!! ~lacey
