User:Jenny O/Assessment reflections

Research Participation
Research participation forms a small (5%) component of our overall mark for this unit. The research is usually survey research conducted by postgraduate psychology students. I do not agree with the practice of awarding marks for research participation for the following reasons:.
 * Participating in research per se is not an item of assessment (However it could be assessed – within an exam, a reflective journal, e-portfolio, written work etc).
 * Although it may engage us in our learning, it is not consistent with the purposes of assessment, particularly for students at this University (i.e., to provide feedback, to provide evidence of reaching a standard, and to demonstrate learning achievement p.5. Available for download at: UC Assessment Policy 2008)


 * It contradicts the notion that research participation is voluntary
 * It can perpetuate and condone the fundamental problems of using student samples in psychological research (e.g., unrepresentative convenience samples, lack of external validity) [Having said that, I also appreciate that student research is more about the process than the outcome]

However, I also believe that our participation in this research is more than just contributing research data, and has benefits for both the researchers and the participants. Research participation can make a meaningful (albeit small) contribution to the work of others. It also offers the participant the opportunity to learn more about the research process and the topic under investigation. For example, this learning might be achieved by considering factors such as:


 * The topic being explored
 * The measurement tools used and the type of questions asked, and considering how these relate (or at times, don’t seem to relate) to the research topic
 * How the researcher would account for any questions (or answers) that were ambiguous, poorly worded, didn't make sense, or may not apply to me as the participant. (I often wonder if some of the surveys have be pre-tested e.g. via a pilot study or simply asking a few friends to do the survey to identify any irregularities)
 * The possible outcomes and implications of a study. (I usually ask for a copy of the report, hoping to learn something more - but I have never received one! I do know some of research takes a long time to complete!)

Actively participating in research in this way also enables you to develop a participant’s perspective, which can inform your own research (e.g., thinking more carefully about the wording in a question, its possible ambiguity or possible responses).

Overall, I agree that we should participate in other students’ research but I do not agree that this constitutes an assessment activity. However, from a social psychology perspective, I comply with this assessment task for pro-social reasons (obedience and public conformity due to normative social influence), but also in an effort to co-operate with fellow students, to learn and possibly contribute to psychological knowledge.

Essay
Question:

To what extent is social psychology theory and research dominated by Western perspectives?

Social Psychology Category: Culture / General

This essay was quite hard to get into perspective. I do not enjoy writing – it is such a grueling process. Initially I was swamped with content I could have included, and the many tangents I followed. The topic was very broad – referring to social psychology theory and research. There is always a possibility of being too general or too specific, or not striking a balance. I often sat back and wished I had just focused on a narrow topic with one or two clear-cut relevant theories and associated research, but that’s not much of a challenge, is it? There were a few concepts that I had to explain in the lead up to the discussion (e.g., What is Western and therefore what is non-Western). It was also necessary to include descriptive information (which is not really valuable in essays) as the "99% hole of humanity" (Rozin, 2001) not included in Western social psychology doesn’t really have a voice. If you’re arguing against a methodology, how can you use research to support it if the other side don't use research? It also seemed to me that the argument actually occurred on a number of levels, one being the strong methodological issues relating to Western science (or just Western science in itself) and how that is conducted, and the other about cultural differences. As a result, I attempted to incorporate them both – probably not quite as well as I had hoped. The topic may have been better managed had it been limited to the difference between East and West, or indigenous and non-indigenous social psychology. Indigenous psychology is an interesting topic that I didn’t know much about before I did this essay. That would be a good essay topic for next year!

The abstract and references are posted at the following essay link:

Link: Western domination of social psychology

E-portfolio
When we first set out in this subject, I was very ambivalent about the online component. I wasn’t sure I wanted to expose my work to the world, and I didn’t know if I would have the time to become proficient at it. (If you’ve had James as a lecturer before, you know he packs a lot into a semester). I really suffered from lack of feedback at the beginning, and was unsure of the path I'd taken, but soon realised all I had to do was ask! However, now that I’ve come to the end I think this e-portfolio is one of the best educational tools I have ever used, and probably the best exercise I’ve done during my degree (Well done, James!).

An extraordinary amount of work went into the production of these pages, but I think this process has enabled me to gain a deep understanding of social psychology (time will tell). Adapting to the technology wasn't as hard as I anticipated and after a while (and quite obviously) I became a little addicted to it.

I really enjoyed being part of the Wikiversity culture and was pleasantly surprised to see how people adhered to social norms and were outstandingly prosocial in their approaches. (I intially expected some ruthless editing and comments - but that certainly was not the case). It was always good to hear from others, especially the custodians who would step in from the ether to come to the rescue! If I’d had more time, I would have liked to engage more with others on Wikiversity. Nevertheless, it is always interesting to look at other people’s pages to see their perspective, and to consider their ideas, views, and comments. (You can tell a lot about people from these pages). I know James was interested in creating a student textbook at some stage. As a start we could merge the best of our portfolios to create one for Social Psychology 2008.

I am sure there is much more that can be done through Wikiversity – we have probably only touched the tip of the iceberg. Nevertheless, I really feel as though I’ve learnt a lot and enjoyed learning it too. Thanks James (and my fellow Wikiversity users).