6^th of March

Today as previously advised we got feedback for our grades for our second assignment in this module. People who wanted individual grades were told to arrive at early otherwise we started at 9.15am.  Christine went through a slide show to give back our general feedback, which I thought was better because we had something to look at and read as well as listening.  We also got a sheet with specific feedback to each of us although there was no grade on it; however, it was still a good indication of the general strengths’ and weaknesses of our assignment.

4^th of March

At the start of the class, we heard from three candidates’ for the student union elections, they all gave a quick speech. A few students doing studying a masters in Cyber-psychology also joined us to practise their presentations for the PSI Student Congress. Each of them discussed their research, which was very interesting and I think they all did a good job, especially in keeping my attention.

18^th of February

Today we received general feedback on our assignments, which I did not find that helpful because the majority of the class did a different book and only a very small number picked ‘The Lucifer Effect’. I do prefer individual feedback because it is focused on what I have done however, I do understand that some other people can find it helpful. After this, we were told about the journal hand in and the requirements for this. This worried me because I have not been using the journal tool on blackboard and feared this would affect my grade. The reason why I never did was that I do not always get a chance to write it straight away so decided to keep a personal copy on my computer along with a blog I had already set up in first year for another assignment; this way I was able to post when I could and edit them more easily. Another reason for this is I do not think I perform well under pressure, and felt a bit when having to do an assignment like this.

8^th of February

Today we handed in our second assignment for this module based on our thesis. This assignment was very hard though it was not that much extra work because it was all basically needed for our thesis but with a few additional previsions.  At first when we were given this assignment, I was not happy because I felt I did not have enough time to get it done due to being delayed with ethics.  However, I got all my participants within a week and was able to start analysing my results. I struggled at first with figuring out what tests I wanted to carry out, though with the help of my supervisor I figured it out and got it all done. The results were difficult to write because I wanted to try to write them as perfectly as possible; again with the help of my supervisor she gave me a few tips. I probably would do things a little different with what I know now obviously to correct my mistakes, though I guess this is all in the process of learning.  Overall, I was happy enough with my assignment that I handed in because I put a lot of effort and hard work into it.

16^th of January

Today at the start of the class, one of the other students Liam asked us to participate in his data collection.  He gave out his questionnaire on the environment and then we had to watch a short clip. Christine then started by handing out two sheets of PowerPoint slides on two way ANOVA’s. This was definitely helpful for me because I wanted and needed to do these kind of tests for the second assignment to do statistics like this.

9^th of January

Today Cliona took over this Wednesday class to let us peer review others assignments on the book review. We were given two essays each, some got a review on the same book because there was not many who did a review on the ‘The Lucifer effect’. After reading each essay, we had to fill out the rubric on the marking scheme. I feel I was fair with my marking and think the two essays that I marked were well written however, not perfect. Although that is why this is a good task to let students do this so we can see how the marking is carried out and more important learn what is the way.

7^th of January

Today was the hand in for our assignment of the book review. This took some time, as we had to sign in two copies of the essay.  At the end of the class, one of the girls in our year Louise carried out her data collection for her major research project. Of course, I participated in her study because everyone is in the same boat and needs all the participants they can get.

26^th of November

Today’s topic was on marking essays; we were all given an essay, which we had to mark according to the marking scheme attached to the essay. The whole class had a general agreement of the grade and discussed why we had given mark, such as it was unstructured and there was a lot of informal language. Next, we got a second essay and had to do the exact same thing, however this essay was a lot better and so I gave it a better grade, as did the others in the class. Again, as before we discussed why this grade was given reasons were it was well-structured, good focus however, there were still errors such as justification of points made and things mentioned but not explained. I was surprised to hear that both essays were from the same person and the progress made by them is evident in the second essay.  It would be interesting to see how everyone in my year has progressed from first year until now and is it evident in our assignments’?

5^th of November

Today’s’ topic was focused on academic writing, such as writing styles, introduction to writing a thesis, critical thinking, and common mistakes. We did an exercise on free writing, which we had to write as much as we could on our thesis or a psychology topic in five minutes, however, I did not find this very helpful and I was only able to write about a paragraph in the time that we were given. We were also asked to prepare a piece of free writing similar to the one we did today for next week’s class, for this however I did on a computer and was able to write a lot more than in the class. After the first exercise we had to re-write a paragraph into formal writing, I found this to be easy enough until I saw the example of how it could be written and listening to others in the class, I was amazed to see how one paragraph could be written so differently in so many ways. I thought this lecture was very helpful and useful because of the year that we have, and I think it would be better to keep the classes focused around topics like this.

22^nd of October

In previous weeks, we got into groups and had to pick between different readings and prepare them for the next week and then talk to people who read the same article as well as fill out a worksheet. I read the ‘Visual Cliff’ by Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk, which was about 36 infants between six to fourteen months to see how well they perceived depth at such a young age. I did read a little about this before so I was glad I could read the whole article as I think it was an interesting study. This week involved us going back to our original groups and discussing each of our articles with one another. Today we also got our first assignment for this module; it involves picking between two books either ‘Mans search for meaning’ by Victor E. Frankl or ‘The Lucifer Effect by ‘Philip Zimbardo. I am thinking about picking ‘The Lucifer Effect’ because I think it sounds the most interesting and I have wanted to read it before so this is a good excuse to start it now. The only thing I am worried about is getting it finished in time because I have heard it is a hard book to read and I have little time as it is, as well as being capable of analysing and evaluating the book.

17^th of October

Today we were asked to write about our major research project. For example, we had to write about the Research question, Measures and Hypothesis. We then discussed this with others in our class. This class seemed very straight forward but I felt there was a bit of waiting around and a lot of talking, which was not all on the topic.

8^th of October

Today we had to come to class with ‘Behavioural study of obedience’ by Stanley Milgram read. We had to try to fill out a workout on the study and then we got into groups of about four or five to discuss the study and to see if we could add in any more information to our sheets. I thought this was a good exercise because filling out a workout like this really made you think and in fact help you remember it in the future. We were also presented with some additional questions such as ‘wording’ for instance in this case the articles language seemed dated; ‘Methodology’, which was very thorough, and replicable; ‘Ethics’ today this study would not be done because it could cause harm to the participants and involves deception.

3^rd of October

Today in class, Christine went over Hypothesis for basic statistics. I found this quite helpful and good because she talked about the different types of research questions for both quantitative and qualitative methods. In other words, the basic things we need to know to start any kind of research. It was a good reminder of what we had learnt in previous years and especially for the kind of year we have ahead of us.

26^th of September

Today in conjunction with the Monday lecture we discussed ‘Little Hans’ and filled out a worksheet on it in groups of two or three. The worksheet we followed was on Christine’s PowerPoint slideshow, which asked for example the Research question, Hypothesis, Design, Variables, Procedure, Measures, statistics done and conclusion.  I think this was good to link the two classes together especially in the Wednesday class because it is easier to get more practical work done; as well, if you feel that you have any problems it is easier to ask a class mate or the lecturer. The worksheets from both classes that we were asked to fill out was a good idea and I think it should be used from first year right through to fourth year. It is a good way of getting all the important information out of an essay and having it altogether in one place so you do not have to go looking through the essay each time for it.  

24^th of September

Today we discussed ‘Little Hans’ by Freud, which is basically an analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy. I found this piece of research by Freud a bit bizarre however, all of his work is. I did find it interesting, what Freud said about Little Hans’s dreams and what they could mean although I would not and could not take them seriously. I considered this useful because it was a reminder of what we had done previously on Freud. We were able to explore this topic with a bit more knowledge then before and use what we had previously read and studied on Freud. We discussed ‘The Psychoanalytic Theory’: the tripartite structure of the personality; how unconscious conflict can be resolved, such as dreams, neurotic systems or defence mechanisms; the five psycho-sexual stages of development: The Oral, The Anal, The Phallic, The Latent and The Genital. We discussed in depth how different behaviours might relate to the different stages and as well as the Oedipus conflict and the Electra conflict. As I said above I do find Freud interesting but I would find it hard to quote him, as most of his research is a bit bizarre.