Every year, students across the country are plagued with what can only be described as a living nightmare… Final Year Dissertations! *thunder crack*
Melodrama aside, I’m actually looking forward to tackling my project and getting into the research. As a Psychology student, I get the option to do some active research in the form of a project, on a topic that I am interested in, rather than doing a dissertation/massive literature review. Do a massive amount of reading and write about what everyone else has already done vs. Look into something not done before, and potentially become a published psychologist? The decision wasn’t a hard one to make.
That being said, it is a lot of work for just one person, what with all the paperwork to be filled, copious amounts of reading and report writing, and the data collection; that’s where you come in! If you are interested in taking part in a psychology project, preferably mine but I won’t judge if you chose others’, then take a trip up to the psychology department and check out the project posters all over the walls. There you can find a number of research projects tackling different subjects, using different equipment, requiring different people. But, this is my blog post, so I’m going to tell you about my project…
My project title is ‘Have your cake, and eat fruit too: Investigating the relationship between food-related Compensatory Health Beliefs, Personality, and Self-Efficacy’ (I love puns, FYI). In simpler terms I am looking at how beliefs about what people eat and what is healthy, how capable and able someone feels they can manage their eating, and someone’s personality traits and eating behaviour are all related, if at all. For those of you who keep up with my blog posts, you should hopefully recognise some of the theory behind this.
Though not nearly as many as some people’s projects, I will need quite a few participants to take part to get enough reliable data to work with. So if you and/or your friends are interested in taking part, you will be asked to fill in a questionnaire that will take up to 20 minutes max. For those of you who are 1st or 2nd year Psychology students, 2 participation vouchers will be available on completion of taking part. The only requirements to take part are that you are a Staffordshire University student, no matter what course you do or are a mature student. However, if you are dealing with/have had a history of eating disorders, I would ask that you do not take part for your own wellbeing, due to the nature of the study, as it may cause some distress.
If you have any questions, or wish to express your interest in participating, please contact me at my student email: k008671c@student.staffs.ac.uk
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