Week 2 First Impression Prompts – Research Methods

Hand writing on a notebook

Regardless of which prompt you choose, please use the Tag “Research Methods” on your post. Here are the prompts for this week:

Option 1

For this week’s discussion, I want you to design a research study about a topic you find interesting in psychology. You can choose any topic you would like as long as you relate it to something from our textbook. In your post make sure to do the following:

List your research question
State your hypothesis (what you think the outcome would be and why)
Describe your procedure (what you would have participants do, how you would recruit participants)

Make your research idea something feasible that you could actually do as a student researcher. In other words, assume you have a fairly small budget and a limited amount of time. If you’re a psychology major or minor, you will eventually take Research Methods and have to conduct a research project, so this is great practice to start thinking about what you might want to do.

Option 2

Mythbusters is a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel which tests popular ideas using scientific methods. Select one of the mini-myths (short clips from the show) below and critique the methods used to test the myth. Remember, critique means list the strengths and the weaknesses. For each weakness, discuss why it is a problem and suggest a solution.