designing experiments

speedy2007

Hi

im currently doing an undergrad and in my cog psych course i have to design my own experiment in a topic of interest to me, something im sure everyone on here who has done/is doing a psych degree has done before.

Here's my problem - i am not at all creative and im struggling to come up with something semi-original. When i read all these journal articles of experiments they are so clever and i wonder how on earth did they come up with this stuff

Is this something that gets easier over time, or do you really have to have a somewhat creative mind. I'd be excited to do this project if i could come up with an idea, but its sooo hard. Is this a sign im just not cut out for research or is this something all undergrads find difficult during their degree

Odysseus

speedy2007 wrote: »

Hi

im currently doing an undergrad and in my cog psych course i have to design my own experiment in a topic of interest to me, something im sure everyone on here who has done/is doing a psych degree has done before.

Here's my problem - i am not at all creative and im struggling to come up with something semi-original. When i read all these journal articles of experiments they are so clever and i wonder how on earth did they come up with this stuff

Is this something that gets easier over time, or do you really have to have a somewhat creative mind. I'd be excited to do this project if i could come up with an idea, but its sooo hard. Is this a sign im just not cut out for research or is this something all undergrads find difficult during their degree

Personally I would not worry about it too much. I only did a small amount of cognitive science during my degree, I'm a psychotherapist not a psychologist, I think we shared two modules of it with the psychology class. However, the block you appear to have reminds me of my first thesis, I was already working within the area I want to at that stage, the addiction field.

I was a third psychoanalysis student full of Freud and Lacan, working in the area I wanted to and I had a good knowledge of addiction for the stage I was at in my career. I wanted to tackle the addiction area in my thesis, but just could not get started. I trawled through past theses on the topic, but could not find a way in for myself.

However, with perseverance I finally got started and the problem was stopping then. I ended up getting a first for the thesis, two years later I finished my MA by Research coming in around 55,000 words. So my point is just starting throwing ideas out there, you will get rid of the junk and find something creative.

At this stage in your profession development I would worry too much about not being suited to the area. Remember, you experiment does not have to be of the same standard as the published ones your reading. I know for me it was quite intimidating to get started. I don't know if my experience of theses helps you with your experience, but best of luck with it.

hotspur

Is it that you can't think of any questions you would like the answer to or can't conceive of how to go about answering such questions?

If it's the former then I would have to guess that you are not cut out for research. If it's the latter then it's just a matter of trying to understand basic methodology.

Perhaps you are putting yourself under pressure with the idea that the experiment has to be original? Originality is very rare at undergraduate level. If you are really stuck then just take one of those interesting simple pieces of research that you read about and change it slightly.

I have to say that I very rarely read a psychology journal article and think "Wow, that was really creative, clever, and original." Most research is boring and superfluous imo. Although I'm currently very heavily into positive psychology and that research is a joy to read.

looksee

While I know nothing about formal psychology, your problem seems to be with the creative/design/think of something new side rather than the actual psychology. So it is possible that a creative exercise used by designers and artists might be a help to you.

If you just 'think' of subjects your mind doesn't have time to absorb the ideas and you reject a lot of them without considering them, because you assume they are not original, or not interesting.

So try this exercise. Rule a couple of columns on a sheet of paper, then in the left hand column put in all the words that come to you that could possibly relate to psychology. Include words that describe emotions, actions, attitudes, not just technical words. Don't be too picky about whether they are 'psychology' words.

Don't debate about how relevant they are or whether they are interesting for now. If as you write, an angle occurs to you about one of the words, put it in the second column.

Leave it for a while. When you come back, go down the list again and let your mind float over each word. Don't just read them thinking 'I wonder is there a beer in the fridge', pay attention to the words. If anything occurs to you write it down. Don't argue or debate it yet, just write it down.

Have a thesaurus handy and look up words - sometime the synonyms spark an idea that the familar word does not.

You should get to a stage where either an idea has come out of the notes you have written, or you will find something comes to you apparently unconnected with the list, but you have been opening your mind to possibilities and that may be all you need to produce results.

This may sound completely batty for an academic application, but you have nothing to lose, give it a try.

krankykitty

+1 for Looksee's idea of writing down the words.

Myself and a pal did a similar exercise when we were trying to come up with our thesis topics, did our own lists first and then looked at the other persons list and suggested words/angles that came in to our minds. In the end I actually chose something way off what we had done in the exercise, but I do believe it helped spark the thinking process. It's easy to get bogged down in this and end up thinking you'll never come up with anything, but you will, trust me. Most of my class also had the same problem with coming up with their topic, so you're not alone. Even in those who did know what topic they wanted to do, they still had trouble deciding what angle to take on it.

And if all else fails, you can find a piece of research that you really admired, and see if there's an angle you can take with it to develop your own, for example, doing the same research on a different population or such.

speedy2007

Thanks everyone for all the replies

hotspur wrote: »

Is it that you can't think of any questions you would like the answer to or can't conceive of how to go about answering such questions?

we were given a choice of topics and i picked the topic area i found most interesting. The problem is that ive thought of some stuff to test but then when i research i find its already been done, so its coming up with something in that area that hasnt been covered before thats the problem. Ive read so many journals at this stage that i dont have to heart to change topic, but to be honest im guessing i'd have this same problem no matter what topic i chose. I knew at the start of the year that this was project was going to be very difficult for me

@looksee - thanks for that idea, im going to give it a go and try to come up with loads of words relating to the topic area ive chosen. Ive read so much about it at this stage that ive got a good grasp of the theory behind it but its like you say, i need to find a new angle with it.

krankykitty

I reckon at undergrad level you don't have to come up with anything particularly "new" or groundbreaking, well so we were told by our lecturers anyway, that the purpose at this level of doing such research is to demonstrate that we can perform research following correct methodology.

hotspur

speedy2007 wrote: »

I knew at the start of the year that this was project was going to be very difficult for me

This is slightly off topic, but the above is a very pessimistic style of thinking. Likely you are being hampered by certain ways of thinking about yourself and how you stand in relation to the task.

If you take a look at a book such as Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman (can be "obtained" online as a pdf) and go to Part III Changing from Pessimism to Optimism and read chapter 12 it may help. It's a question of explanatory styles. Dimensions of it are personalisation, permanence, and pervasiveness.

Personalisation - To what extent are you attributing the success / failure to yourself? You said "I am not at all creative."

Permanence - How permanent are the reasons. You said: "I knew at the start of the year that this was project was going to be very difficult for me."

Pervasiveness - How specific / general do you consider the reasons to be. You said "To be honest I'm guessing I'd have this same problem no matter what topic I chose."

So you are exhibiting a highly personalised, permanent, and pervasive negative explanatory style for the problem. That very pessimistic style of thinking is apt to undermine you irrespective of your actual ability to do the project well.

If you do some reading up on CBT techniques about thought records and challenging maladaptive thinking then you might be able to give yourself a break and stop telling yourself that you are uncreative and were bound to find tasks such as this difficult. Just because you have the belief that you are not creative doesn't mean it's true. And even if it were, I seriously don't think that creativity plays much part in designing an experiment at undergraduate level.

You sound like you're undermining yourself somewhat.