Research involves the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of empirical data to discover facts, test theories, or evaluate programs. This chapter explains research opportunities available to students, provides an abbreviated guide for writing papers in APA style, and describes research courses in the Sweet Briar Psychology Department.

Teaching and research are complementary academic activities that reinforce and strengthen each other, and the department considers student/faculty research collaboration to be an essential component of an undergraduate education in psychology. Opportunities for such collaboration are available in a variety of areas including student learning issues, program evaluation, social psychology, psychophysiology, and developmental psychology. Psychology students conduct original research and attend conferences to present their results to their peers from other institutions. In recent years students have presented at regional psychology student research conferences in Alabama and in New York, the meeting of the Virginia Psychological Association,  the National Undergraduate Research Conference and the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Conference of Undergraduate Scholarship (MARCUS). Below is a list of topics of recent student research.

"Stereotypes of Adolescents: Perceptions of Delinquency"

"Sex Role Bias in the Perception of Attorneys"

"Stereotyping Victims of Violence"

"The Relationship Between Perfectionism and Depression"

"The Types of Lies We Tell and To Whom Do We Tell Them"

"The Role of Distinctiveness and Attractiveness in Facial Recognition"

"The Word Letter Phenomenon"

"The Relationship Between Gender Stereotypes and Self-Esteem With Regards to Women"

""Attractiveness Ratings of Females by Body Shapes"

"Stereotypes and Prejudices: The Role of Personal Opinion in Public Policy Judgments"

"The Psychology of Eyewitness Testimony"

"Awareness of Sexual Stereotypes and Negative Sexual Experiences as Predictors of Depressive Problem Drinking in College Age Women"

"Integrating a Goal-Orientation Approach in the Study of Depression"

"Reducing Optimistic Bias"

"Beliefs About the Causes of Success in Sport: Athletes versus Non-Athletes"

Recent research projects (on-line summaries)
- The Effects of Confiding on Stress
- Regulating Mood with the use of Music
- Absenteeism Within the Classroom
- Type I Diabetes Mellitus, Depression and Disordered eating in an adult population
- Mother/Daughter relationships and the role of perceived physical attractiveness
- The effects of stress and self esteem on eating behaviors
- Influential factors on female college student's mathematical abilities
- A test of the Rural-Urban Hypothesis
- The Chameleon Effect
- Physical Attractiveness and Same-sexed Friendships
- Examining Physiological Responses during Movie Viewing

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A PAPER IN APA STYLE

A. GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Papers are to be word-processed with one-inch margins left-right and top-bottom.

2. A cover sheet should include the title, author, course, instructor, and date.

3. Use centered headings to separate major sections of a paper and left-justified and underlined headings to separate sub-sections within major sections.

4. Use the spell- and grammar-checkers in your word processor to help you proofread.

5. Have a friend read your paper and point out parts that are unclear.

6. Secure the paper with a staple. Do not use report covers.

7. Keep a copy of your paper. Do not submit a paper unless you have a copy.

B. HOW TO CITE REFERENCES IN THE BODY OF A PAPER

1. The last name of the author(s) and the year of publication of a reference are inserted in the body of a paper at appropriate points to give credit for ideas other than your own. This may be done in the following ways:

a. If an author's name appears in a sentence, cite the year in parentheses:

1) Daugherty (1992) concluded . . .

2) Wittekind, Hingtgen, Gheen, and Appleby (1991) found . . . (first citation)

3) Wittekind, et al. (1991) also found . . . (subsequent citations)

b. Otherwise, both the name and the year appear in parentheses:

1) . . . has been found (Camp & Appleby, 1989).

2) In a recent study of retention (Plascak-Craig, 1991), it was found that . . .

c. If different authors are cited at the same point, use the following format:

1) Recent studies (Adams, 1987; Camp, 1986; Wittekind, 1989) show . . .

2. If a paper includes a direct quote from a reference, enclose the quote in quotation marks and cite the source including the author, year, and page number:

a. "Dreams reveal facets of an individual's personality" (Wittekind, 1989, p. 43).

b. Wittekind (1989) stated that, "Dreams reveal facets of an individual's personality" (p. 43).

C. HOW TO CITE REFERENCES IN THE REFERENCE SECTION

1. Books

Adams, R. W. (1977). Leaving academia. Phoenix, AZ: Liberation Press.

2. Journal Articles

Carlson, C. W. (1984). The power of advertising. Consumer Psychology, 17, 62-69.

3. Magazine Articles

Trexler, L. D. (1994, August). The injured brain. Psychology Today, pp. 56-59.

4. Articles or Chapters in an Edited Book

Hingtgen, J. N. (1986). Opera-induced deafness. In B. Sills & L. Pavarotti (Eds.), Progress in musical psychology (pp. 239-252). New York: Academic Press.

Note: An ampersand (&) is used to connect multiple authors in the reference section and within parentheses in the body of a paper.

(These guidelines are a modified version of those written by Dr. Michael Stevenson of Ball State University.)

Research methods are discussed in every course in the Psychology Department. Computer simulations of research are used in Introductory Psychology, and in Cognition. Observational methods are taught in Developmental Psychology (101). In Social Psychology, students conduct a literature review which later may form the basis of a research project. In Physiological Psychology, students conduct beginning-level individual projects.

In addition, individual courses provide the skills needed to develop one’s own research ideas and conduct one’s own project. Research skills form the core content of Introductory Statistics, Experimental Psychology, Developmental Research Practicum, and Research in Psychology. In Statistics, students learn the basics of data analysis. In Experimental, students learn research design. They conduct literature reviews, learn APA format writing style, and as a group design, conduct, and present their own projects. In Developmental Research Practicum, students work on the current research projects of the Developmental faculty of the Psychology Department. In Research in Psychology, students design, conduct and present their own individual projects. The course description of each of these courses is included below:

Psyc 119 (3) -- Introductory Statistics (REQUIRED FOR THE MAJOR)

An introduction to those descriptive and inferential statistics most often used in psychological research. Topics include probability, standard normal distribution, measures of central tendency and variability, sampling, correlation and both parametric and non-parametric tests of significance.

Psyc 210 (4) -- Experimental Psychology (REQUIRED FOR THE MAJOR)

Prerequisites: Psyc 007 and Psyc 119. A study of experimental methodology, design and data analysis in selected areas. Three hours lecture and discussion and three hours laboratory.

Psyc 221 (2) -- Developmental Research Practicum

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. Directed experience in empirical psychological research. Laboratory and field work with young infants and children on different research projects conducted by faculty members.

Psyc 205 (3) -- Research in Psychology (REQUIRED FOR THE B.S. MAJOR)

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. An overview of statistics and psychological research methods, focused literature review, with an emphasis on the design and execution of a research project. Two hours class meeting plus individual tutorials..