PSY2005 Psychological Research Methodology II: Assignment 1 Essential Information

Submission deadline: 12:00 noon Monday 28th November 2022.

Maximum word limit = 2000 words

• Any words included over this limit will not be read or assessed.
• The word limit DOES NOT include end references, the title or quotes from the transcriptions.
• The word limit DOES include in-text citations and sub-headings.

Formatting:

• 12 point ‘Times New Roman’ font.
• Line spacing = 1.5
• Margins = 2.54cm

Page numbers should be included.

In-text citations and end references:

• In-text citations and end references should be formatted using APA referencing style.
• End references should be on a separate page.

Penalties

• 1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted with the wrong submission title.
• 1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted with no cover sheet.
• 1 mark will be deducted for incorrect formatting.
• 1 mark will be deducted for assignments submitted without a time management reflection sheet.

Penalties will also be applied for late submission, as follows:

Number of working days late	Penalty Mark reduced by 5% for each working day work is late	Calculation Multiply the original mark by…	Mark awarded when reduced by 5% per late day
			Example A Original mark = 64	Example B  Original mark = 54
1	5%	0.95	60.8	51.3
2	10%	0.90	57.6	48.6
3	15%	0.85	54.4	45.9
4	20%	0.80	51.2	43.2
5	25%	0.75	48	40.5
6 or more	Not completed	NC	NC	NC

Submitting your assignment

• Download the ‘PSY2005 Assignment 1 Cover Sheet’ document and make sure this is included in your assignment when you submit.
• Save your document with a title that includes the module code, followed by your registration number in the following format: PSY2005_registrationnumber (e.g. PSY2005_123456789).
• Submit your assignment via the ‘Assignment Submission’ link on Blackboard in the PSY2005 Blackboard site.

 

Guidance on Structure of Assignment

Assignment 1 is a qualitative lab report that you are expected to write using data from a set of qualitative semi-structured interviews that you have been provided with (see ‘Data for your lab report’ below for further details).

• You are expected to develop a research question based on the data (see ‘Step by step guide to writing your lab report’ below).
• You have been provided with a ‘Qualitative lab report writing guide’ with detailed instructions on how to structure and write your lab reports.
• Your lab report must include the sections and sub-sections for qualitative lab reports detailed in the qualitative lab report writing guide.
• You have been provided with a transcript to work from and video recordings of the interviews.
• You are required to transcribe a minute of these interviews yourself, and add your transcript to the appendices of your lab reports. You do not need to include line numbers for your transcriptions.
• You are expected to analyse the data using reflexive thematic analysis based on 2 or 3 themes that you identify from the data, or one theme with 2 or 3 sub-themes.
• Your introduction should be based on your research question.
• As you did not collect this data yourself, the details that you need to complete your methods section are included below (see ‘Data for your lab report’).
• You should use the following sub-headings in your qualitative lab-report:
  • Title
  • Introduction
  • Method
    • Methodology
    • Participants
    • Procedure
    • Analytic Procedure
    • Ethical Considerations
  • Analysis
  • Conclusions
  • References
  • Appendices

Data for your lab report

The data you should use for your lab reports is under the ‘Assignment 1: Information and Submission’ link in the PSY2005 Blackboard site. You should use the transcripts and videos of 2 qualitative interviews about friendships as the basis for your lab reports.

As you did not collect this data yourself, the details you need for your Participants, Procedure and Ethical Considerations sections are included below. The Methodology and Analytic Procedure sections should be based on your own approach, and therefore no details are provided for these sections.

Although bullet points are used here, you should make sure that your Methods section is written using prose (i.e., full sentences and paragraphs, not bullet points).

Participants

• 2 undergraduate students at Liverpool John Moores University.
• Similar ages, ethnicity and employment status.
• Received course credits and a £20 book voucher for taking part.

Procedure

• The data was collected using semi-structured interviews that were video recorded.
• The questions asked participants to talk about their friends and what friendship means to them.

Ethical Considerations

• The names of people or places were edited from transcripts and recordings.
• Participants were given pseudonyms.
• Participants were provided with details of the research and interview process a few days in advance of the interview.
• Participants were shown the consent form before the interview began and asked to sign it after the interview.
• Participants were given the opportunity to review the transcripts of their interviews, edit any aspects they were unhappy with and given the opportunity to withdraw at this point.
• It was made clear to participants that once the materials became available online, they could not withdraw.
• Ethical approval for the research was granted by ethics committees at York St. John University and Liverpool John Moores University.

Step by Step Guide to completing your lab report

You will find videos of interviews and transcripts on Blackboard in the Assignment 1 section of the PSY2005 Blackboard site.

You will conduct a reflexive thematic analysis on data from two interviews. You will be provided with transcripts to work from, but you will be required to transcribe a minute of these interviews yourself and add your transcript to the appendices for your lab reports.

The steps you should follow to conduct an inductive analysis, develop your research question, and perform your literature review are detailed below.

Step 1: Transcribe a couple of minutes of the interview

A short piece is missing from the transcriptions you have been provided with. You are required to transcribe this (using play script transcription) and add the transcript to your report in an appendix. You do not need to include line numbers for your transcriptions.

Step 2: Familiarise yourself with your data

Develop descriptions of the data from which you can form codes and themes.

Step 3: Use thematic analysis to analyse the data

Follow the six phases for analysis by Braun & Clarke, your lectures and the textbook chapters in the resources section of Blackboard to guide you in conducting this analysis.

Step 4: Select 2 or 3 themes from your analysis for your report

There are many themes that can be developed from this data; however, you should only select 2-3 themes or 1 theme with 2-3 sub-themes to include in your report.

Step 5: Finalise your research question

Your research question should be based on the 2 or 3 themes that you have decided to include in your analyses. Remember qualitative research is flexible, and your research question may change throughout the process.

Step 6: Conduct a literature search

Conduct a literature search based on your final research question for literature to include in your introduction. You can use qualitative and quantitative literature in your introductions.

Step 7: Write up the lab report

Use this document and the ‘PSY2005 Guide to Writing a Qualitative Lab Report’ to help you structure and write your report.

Plagiarism

It is important that your assignment is in your own words.

• Assignments that copy written or spoken material will be penalised and you will be asked to attend a disciplinary meeting.
• Make sure you understand what counts as ‘plagiarism’ and ‘collusion’. Check the following website for details
• You can revise these concepts via this online tutorial on ‘Understanding Plagiarism’ available here.

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