Steven Arriaza
Psychology and Business Administration
Research
Research is the quintessential practice in the field of psychology. It is the foundation upon which all subsequent research is built. Therefore, its importance cannot be overstated. Becoming a good researcher, however, requires the knowledge of certain strategies that add credibility to one’s own research. I learned many of these strategies in my introductory Honors course. In order to accomplish the level of research competency required for a college level course, this class included a visit to the library. Here we learned the many resources available to students through our university. These include multiple online databases that compile results from many sources and provide quality, scholarly articles. (Information Literacy Level 1) The skills I learned during this class proved imperative for my future work.
Reliability is an important concept in psychology. Briefly, it describes the ability to obtain consistent results over time. When I first started my Honors Art and Politics class, I was challenged by the fact that it was a class I knew relatively little about, at least the Art portion. However, I soon remembered the importance of reliability in research. I had to apply this same level of consistency to address the extensive class project. I was not well versed in the topic but relied on foundational principles of research. This involved learning the databases commonly used in Art History and Politics. I also learned to rely heavily on an underutilized library resource—the librarian. Their extensive experience and knowledge helped narrow down the time spent on less relevant databases. There is also a sense of ease regarding the quality of sources they provide. (Infor Literacy Level 3). The resulting research was a reflection of the nature of the class, one focused on the examination of the juxtaposition of art and politics. Before long, I began to examine the origins of abstract expressionism and their influence of American culture, something I thought myself incapable of in the beginning. (Info Synthesis Level 4).
An important note that I often recall about research is that it does not occur in a vacuum. In fact, it relies heavily on cooperation. My first psychological research proved this much. The final and most important project of my Research Methods and Design class involved creating a research project and running participants. We were assigned small groups and given the liberty to choose a topic of our liking. This in itself proved a unique challenge as we all had different interest and perspectives. However, this also serves as an example of an important research practice, which is the ability to synthesize the ideas of others. This must be done at multiple levels, from the colleagues who work together to the background research used in a project. To accomplish the task of synthesizing our ideas more effectively, we would share the most important aspects of our ideas and combine, the best we could, all of our perspectives. Using allotted class time to share the findings of our literary reviews helped us understand our research fully. (Info Synthesis Level 1 & 2). Coincidentally, this model also proves useful in generating many novel research ideas. Novel ideas are, after all, a useful way to extend the body of knowledge in a field. (Original Research Level 1).
Many college courses have a required research component. These experiences have been for me great foundation builders, but it was when I joined my research team that I realized great importance of research. Although I had experiences early on conducting research as part of a group, being under the direction of a research director as part of a team was a different experience. An important difference was the real-life impact and implication of our research. From the start all members of the team had to become well acquainted with the background research and knowledge that had influenced our current research. We would frequently come together and discuss our findings. This experience helped me realized the interrelated nature of research(Information Literacy Level 4). By bringing our unique knowledge and perspective we helped expand the research and shape it in our own ways. (Original Research Level 4). I also realized that patience is an important and well rewarded virtue in research. After concluding our research, we had the opportunity to present at the Undergraduate Research Symposium (Dissemination of Results Level 3). This was an important step in the dissemination of our results, both academically and personally. However, for better or worse, the celebrations were short. After spending some time with the data, we began to think of ways to control for other factors and continue our research. Currently, during my last semester, our research team continues to build from our previous research. To echo the words spoken by Sir Isaac Newton and repeated by my professor during my first college class—"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”