Psychology: Cutting Edge Research – Taking Part & Going ‘Behind The Scenes’ – Seminar 4 With UEA & Ispa
1st May 2025 @ 11:30 - 12:20
Seminar 4: Findings, Our Analysis Approach, Revisiting Our Original Hypotheses, Limitations, Final Conclusions & Dissemination
With Dr Louise Ewing, University of East Anglia & Dr Inês Mares, Ispa – Instituto Universitário
What happens in Session 4?
During this fourth session we will focus on the findings of the experiment in which the students took part. We will walk them through our analysis approach and explain key elements of our results in relation to the statistical concepts covered during session 3. We will discuss the extent to which what we have found supports (or fail to support) our original hypotheses, and aligns with other evidence previously reported in the literature. After considering the limitations of our experiment, we will draw our final conclusions and invite the students to propose future directions for research. We will also discuss how we could and should disseminate these findings, e.g., to our participants, other direct stakeholders like their parents and schools, as well as broader stakeholders like the media and policy makers etc.
Lecturer Profiles: Dr Louise Ewing & Dr Inês Mares
Putting Seminar 4 in Context – About The Overall Programme
In this exciting Psychology programme with UEA and Ispa, students will get the chance to learn more about psychological research by being participants in a live experiment that is tackling a cutting edge question relevant to late adolescence.
Furthermore, across five interactive sessions taking place during the 2024-2025 academic year, Dr Louise Ewing and Dr Inês Mares will ‘pull back the curtain’ on this research process to highlight the issues that must be considered and addressed in order to design, conduct, analyse and interpret studies with human participants that are theoretically important, ethically sound, and empirically robust.
Ideally, students will complete the research task following the introductory Session 1 on 10 October and before Session 2 on 14 November.
What is the project focusing on?
In this research, we will characterise different elements of social behaviour during this developmental period (late adolescence) and how they can be influenced by different factors of our daily lives. We will look at the interplay between individual traits (internal factors) and external environmental factors on shaping social behaviours that are key for our role in society. Further details will be made available to teachers in advance and full details will be revealed to participating students in Session 2, once the research activity has been completed.
We invite student groups and individuals to join us to develop their knowledge, understanding and research skills. Students will gain the most by taking part in the research itself and by joining us for each of the seminars in the programme, listed below. Having followed the research process through, the final session is a chance for students to find out more about studying Psychology at university.
The Seminar Programme comprises (Click for further details):
- Seminar 1: 10th October, 11:30-12:20 – Introducing the Research, Design Considerations & The 5 Seminar Programme
- Seminar 2: 14th November, 11:30-12:20 – Research Hypotheses, Identifying Gaps in Our Understanding & Our Methodological Approach
- Seminar 3: 27th February, 11:30-12:20 – Identifying General Patterns in Data, Statistical Analyses & Insights into How Research is Now Conducted in The Social Sciences
- Seminar 4: 1st May, 11:30-12:20 – Findings, Our Analysis Approach, Revisiting Our Original Hypotheses, Limitations, Final Conclusions & Dissemination
- Seminar 5: 19th June, 16:30-17:15 – Studying Psychology at University – Classes, Teaching & Assessments, Developing Research Skills/Experience & Careers (Details & Registration Open from Easter).
Our events are designed so that a group of students can take part from a classroom or students and teachers can take part as individuals, either from school or from home. There is no charge to take part.
As a live, participative event, this session will not be recorded but slides and other resources will be shared after the event, where available.
Suitable for: Key Stage 5 students (and equivalent) studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Psychology and related disciplines. Due to the nature of the research involved, this is limited to 16 to 18 year old students. Student groups as well as students and teachers joining individually are very welcome.
Ethics/Consent: Students involved in the seminar series will have the opportunity to complete the live experiment (ideally between sessions 1 and 2). By doing so they will have the opportunity to see what it is like to be a participant in a study, seeing first hand what the experience is like providing informed consent, completing tasks online (which are influenced by things like their own motivation, conscientiousness, fatigue, etc.) and then receiving basic debriefing information (which we will expand upon during the seminar sessions). This research project has been approved by the School of Psychology Research Ethics Subcommittee at the University of East Anglia (approval code: ETH2324-2878).
Given that participants will be aged 16-18 and in post-compulsory schooling they will be assumed to be Gillick Competent and thus able to provide consent for themselves**. The ethics/consent process will therefore involve schools distributing the experimental participation link directly to the students themselves (to read the information materials provided, provide consent if they wish to proceed, and confirm at the end of the study if they are happy for their anonymised responses to be included in our data set).
After consent has been provided each participant will complete two brief experimental tasks and two questionnaires online, taking no more than 45 minutes. It will be made clear that even if consent is provided, students can withdraw their consent at any time during the study up to the end of their participation. But because the data are being collected anonymously, after they participate, the research team will not be able to locate their data to remove it.
**We are aware that some schools/colleges will prefer to additionally obtain parental consent, alongside student consent, which can be done prior to the first session or between Sessions 1 and 2. Schools are in the best position to design and manage the process of parental consent but, hopefully, the additional information we will provide to teachers about the research will be helpful.
Preparation/Pre-Reading: Students may wish to consider the research in advance and questions they have.
The IT Setup: The events will be run on Zoom and participants will be able to join using laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. If you are joining as a school group, we recommend connecting with one device and projecting onto a whiteboard. You will be able to interact with the speaker via typed comments and questions and/or via a microphone. Full details will be sent to those who have registered (see below) prior to the event.
Booking a Place: This is free for schools and colleges. If you would like to take part in this programme of events, please register your interest using the link to the registration form below: