All students enrolled in 3003PSY are expected to write a 2000-word report based on our survey of student stressors, stress, and wellbeing. The report counts 30% of the total marks in this course. The report must be submitted online via the turnitin system. It is due by 11am, Monday, 23rd May (week 12). Please note that penalties of 1.5 marks (5%) per day late are applied for late submission (unless a prior extension has been granted). You are advised to commence work on your report as early as possible (if you have not already done so).

In writing your report, you are not expected to address all possible research questions, or present all the findings from the study. Rather, you should (a) select one (or more) specific research questions and introduce your report accordingly, (b) generate and test your own hypotheses that relate to this/these questions, and (c) report only those results that pertain to your selected question(s). Note that your literature review, aims, method, results, and discussion should all be completely aligned. You should not, for example, state that the aims of the study are A, B, and C, and then go on to report findings pertaining to B, C, and D.

You are required to include as a central part of your report (a) a literature review of some of the factors that predict student stress and/or wellbeing, and (b) statistical analyses relevant to your research question(s). In doing this, all students should:

form composite scales relevant to their research question(s) and hypotheses from items included in our questionnaire (e.g., using the multi-item scales measuring stress, wellbeing, life events, social support (at university, outside university, or a combination of the two), and/or resilience),
include in their report a table to show the number of participants who reported experiencing each of the life events,
include a table containing descriptive statistics (means, SDs), and correlations pertaining to the variables that are the focus of your report, plus other tables and/or figures, as appropriate to describe your data,
use multiple regression to predict variance in one criterion (either student stress or student wellbeing) on the basis of three or four predictors, with at least one of your predictors being a measure of stressor (“life event”) exposure. One obvious choice for your stressor variable is the total number of life events experienced (out of 46). But, alternatively, you could use a variable representing the total number of life events within one or more categories (e.g., stressors pertaining to uni and work as one category, or stressors pertaining to family and friends as another, etc.). If you do use more specific categories like these, you are advised to keep them sufficiently broad to ensure adequate variance,

include a table summarising the results of this regression analysis, and

conduct whatever other analyses (e.g., t-tests) are appropriate to test any other of your hypotheses.

Beyond the common core specified in point 3 above, you may choose to include in your report some other content that you think is interesting and meaningful within the scope and context of the report that you are writing. For example, you may decide to look at one of the following:

Gender, age, country of birth, and/or faculty differences in stress levels
The relative contribution of university-related stressors and non-university related stressors to student stress or wellbeing
The relative contribution of university-related social support and non-university related social support to student stress or wellbeing
The contribution of exercise to explaining variance in student stress or wellbeing

Note that you must include in your Introduction a rationale for the particular (sub-)topic or (sub-)research question/s that you choose to focus on. In deciding what to include, keep in mind the need to write a coherent report, rather than just a list of unconnected points and research findings.

All reports are to be written as prescribed in the sixth (2010) edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) publication manual. Please note, for example, that (a) double-spacing should be used, (b) headings (e.g., Method, Results) should be in bold, and (c), where a Digital Object Identifier (doi) has been assigned to a journal article or other document (this usually appears on the front page), you should include the doi in the reference to the article in the References section of your report. See the Appendix A to this document for examples of correctly listed references. Additional details of referencing style can be found online in the School of Applied Psychology’s Redbook.

Some general advice for writing your report is given below.

In writing your report, you should note the following:

Cover Page

– when submitting your report, you must have a cover page

Title Page

– include a title page, and give the report a suitably-specific title and running head.

– in accord with school policy (see the course profile or Redbook), you must record an accurate word count on the title page.

Abstract

– this is a 100-120 word summary of the entire report

– it is usually best to write this last.

Introduction

– remember: new page, and re-state the title. (NOTE: this heading is not in bold).

– you should introduce the issue being researched. Talk about why it is important, and define key terms.

– you should review background literature relevant to the specific research question(s) that you are addressing. To do this, you need to consult at least some of the papers listed in Appendix A to this document. Note that what you read, and what you report, will depend upon the specific research question(s) that provides the focus for your report. Do not try to cover everything.

– clearly state the aim of the (sub-)study in your own words. Before presenting the hypotheses you have generated, describe the logic behind (i.e., the rationale for) these hypotheses. The rationale should be based upon theory, past research findings, and/or sound (logical) arguments.

– conclude your Introduction by stating these hypotheses.

Method

– make sure you organise this section into the three required sub-sections, i.e.:

Participants. Here you should report answers to three questions: who were the

participants? how many of them were there? how were they selected?

Materials. Here, you should describe the development, and the final form, of the

questionnaire. (Do not call this instrument a “survey”). Note: the demographic and life events questionnaire items are original; they were developed specifically for this study.

The other scales are well established in the literature. You should describe these scales using the words presented in Appendix B to this document. Use of these exact words will not be considered plagiarism, and will not be counted towards your maximum of 2000 words. (Remember to add relevant references to your References list).

Procedure. In a few sentences, describe the implementation of the survey. Include a statement that the main study was preceded by a pilot study that used a convenience sample of nine students (55% female; ages = 20-35 years; all were undergraduates (in years 1 to 4 inclusive), both full- and part-time, from three Griffith University faculties).

.

The data set made available to students is not actually the “raw” data. Several changes have been made to this data set prior to its release to students. Details of these changes are given in Appendix C of this document. It is not necessary to include any of these details in your report of the survey.

– your task is to report, in a clear and concise manner, those results that are most important to your research question(s), in ways you deem to be most clear. Be careful to give appropriate emphasis to those findings that are directly relevant to the hypotheses being tested.

– the results must be presented in a logical order, using full sentences and appropriately labelled tables and figures. You should include a table to show the number of students who reported experiencing each of the life events. (No need to include in this table, any life events that were experienced by none of the respondents). If relevant to your hypotheses, this table should also include columns for sub-groups of the sample (e.g., by sex, age, or year level at university) that reported each of the life events. In addition, as noted above (point 3), also to be included are (a) one table containing descriptive statistics pertaining to your main study variables, and correlations between these variables, and (b) one table containing a summary of the regression analysis results. So, in total, your report will (probably) contain three tables.

– You will need to conduct your own analyses of the data. All students are required to show evidence of having appropriately used multiple regression analysis. Use of t-tests, ANOVAs, etc, may also be appropriate, but it is not required – unless, of course, one or more of the hypotheses you are proposing should be tested using these statistics.

Discussion

In this section you should:

– summarise and interpret the main findings

What, overall, was found? Were your hypotheses supported? If not, why not?

– compare with past findings and suggest reasons for any surprising results

– suggest possible weaknesses of the current research, and possible improvements

for adoption in future research.

– discuss the implications of the findings

– draw appropriate conclusions: what, overall, has been learned from this study?

References

– list all works to which you have referred, using APA (sixth edition) style.

Appendices

– none is required.

Beyond this general advice, students should seek additional clarification from their tutor (rather than from people who tutor other groups). Remember: It is your tutor who will mark your report, so follow that person’s instructions and advice.

Marking of the Reports

Marks will be allocated to the various sections of the report as follows: Title page/ references (mark out of 2), Abstract (2), Introduction (8, including 2 for the statement of your chosen research aims & hypotheses), Method (3), Results (7), and Discussion (8). Criteria are as indicated in the preceding section, that is, you will be awarded marks to the extent to which, and quality with which, your report does as specified in point 5 above.

Important Administrative Matters

Extensions

– Applications for extensions should be made on the School of Applied Psychology Application for Extension form (available on the 3003PSY course learning@griffith site), and should be accompanied by appropriate documentation. They should be submitted to Graham Bradley (not Michelle Hood, or anyone else), as soon as possible, but certainly before the time the reports are due.

– Extensions made after the due date will have late penalties applied

– Extensions will be granted for appropriate and documented reasons only. The duration of the extension will be commensurate with the size and/or duration of the factors affecting your ability to submit on time (e.g., sickness on the weekend before the report is due, with a medical certificate, will likely be granted one day’s extension; sickness for the preceding 2 weeks, will likely get a longer extension).

– Extensions will not be granted because of competing course work, or for a heavy course load, or for discretionary paid employment commitments, or for social commitments. It is your responsibility to organise your workload so that deadlines are met.

Plagiarism

– You must work on your assignment independently and ensure that the work you hand in reflects your work and not that done wholly or partly by other students

– While aspects of the Method, and possibly the Results, will be similar in all reports, you must write these up yourself and not with another student. If two students submit work that is overly-similar, half the awarded mark will be allocated to each of the students. Please be advised that cross checking between tutorial groups is routinely performed in this course. Also remember that the turnitin system has a function that allows matching of the text submitted by different students: excessive text overlap between students may be considered evidence of plagiarism.

– You are expected to generate your own research questions/hypotheses. While it is likely that students will choose to focus on the same variables, it must be clear that your introduction (including the rationale and the wording of the questions/hypotheses) reflects your work and not that done in collaboration with another student
– Failure to cite the source of material included, or use of direct quoting without in-text citing, is plagiarism, and will be penalised accordingly.

Word Length
– Part of the generic skills you are developing in this course is the ability to write for a purpose and to a length limit. Therefore, exceeding the word limit will be penalised.

– The length of your report must be no more than 2,000 words (exactly). This word count includes the abstract, all headings, direct quotations, in-text references, etc. It does not include your title page or reference list. For this course, because of the quantity of data to be analysed and content to be reported, the following will not be included in the word-count:

verbatim description of the stress, wellbeing, social support and resilience scales, as provided in Appendix B below
words included in tables and figures.

– Markers will not read beyond 2,000 words.

– Remember to conduct a word count on the body of your report (excluding tables and figures, and descriptions of the scales, as per Appendix B below), and specify that number of words on your title page. NOTE: inaccurate reporting of your word count is considered an act of academic misconduct.

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Posted on May 17, 2016Author TutorCategories Question, Questions