Psychology: Experiencing Live Research Design as a Participant Before Following Project Progress & Research Outcomes – Seminar 2 with UEA, Birkbeck & Ispa
November 11 @ 11:10 - 12:00
Seminar 2: Research Hypotheses, Identifying Gaps in Our Understanding & Our Methodological Approach
With Dr Louise Ewing, University of East Anglia, Dr Inês Mares, Ispa – Instituto Universitário, and Professor Marie Smith, Birkbeck, University of London
What happens in Seminar 2?
By the time they complete this second session, students will have taken the role of participants in our experiment and had a chance to speculate about the aims of the study. During the seminar we will share background information about the study, reveal our true aims, and explain why we have made our specific hypotheses – based on theory and evidence (i.e., what do we already know). We will highlight the need to be critical consumers of information in order to evaluate the strength of the data that is currently available and identify gaps in our understanding that need to be filled. We will also provide background information about our methodological approach. We will explain how and why our various measures were designed to robustly (but perhaps somewhat indirectly) capture the constructs of interest.
Putting Seminar 2 in Context – About The Overall Programme
In this exciting Psychology programme with UEA, Ispa and Birkbeck, students will get the chance to learn more about psychological research by being participants in a live experiment that is tackling a cutting-edge topic relevant to brain processes in late adolescence.
Across four interactive sessions taking place during the 2026-2027 academic year, Dr Louise Ewing, Dr Inês Mares and Professor Marie Smith will ‘pull back the curtain’ on the 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.
Students will be asked to complete the research task following the introductory session on 7 October and before the second session on 11 November.
What is the project focusing on?
In the research project, we will characterise different elements of social behaviour during this developmental period (late adolescence) and explore how they can be influenced by different factors in 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 task 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: 7th October, 11:10-12:00 – Introducing the Research, Design Considerations & The 3 Seminar Programme
- Seminar 2: 11th November, 11:10-12:00 – Research Hypotheses, Identifying Gaps in Our Understanding & Our Methodological Approach
- Seminar 3: 27th January, 11:10-12:00 – Identifying General Patterns in Data, Statistical Analyses & Insights into How Research is Now Conducted in The Social Sciences
- 3rd February, 16:15-17:00 – Studying Psychology at University – Classes, Teaching & Assessments, Developing Research Skills/Experience & Careers
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: 16+ pre-university students 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 (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 the process of 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 a few 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: No preparation required.
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: