TAQ 1:
Concepts and Theories
Research proposal entails an experiment to test whether psychological aspects of stress are dependent on personality test in individuals. It thus investigates the relationship between anxiety and biological basis for the stress response. The theory of Type A and type B personality was created by Meyer Friedman and RH Rosenman in the 1950s. Notably, (Munnke, 2013, p. 3) defines stress as a natural emotion and reaction that occurs when there are changes that threaten life. Further, in addressing the relationship between stress and anxiety, the author describes anxiety as a feeling of tension when there is no real danger expected. Accordingly, anxiety prepares a person for an action once a risk strikes.
Consequently, the tension becomes harmful when it lasts than anticipated to prejudice quality of life thus leading to stress. Mental health professionals suppose personality plays a major role in how we perceive stress. Studies suggest these traits, if not properly managed, can create stress-related illnesses. Type B personalities are able to view things more adaptively, put things into perspective, and think through how they are going to deal with situations. Therefore they tend to be less stress-prone. Scientists concur that in-born temperament, genetic personal chemistry and influences from environment contribute to development of personality type. Several scholars argue that Type A behavior is not a good analyst of stress. According to a research from Duke University done by Williams Redford, the antipathy component of Type A personality is the only major risk factor unlike Type B which comprises many problems during agitation.
Word count: 257
TAQ 2:
Rationale
The aim is to identify the difference in stress causes among Type A and B individuals. The rationale of this study is based on the assertion that personality determines stress response all the time while trying to identify pathophysiological system where the emotional character consisting of Type A behaviour show high levels of anger and hostility as Type B personality is less hostile (Byrne, 1996, p. 228-236).
Word count: 67
The main objective is to distinguish individual personality and assist people to reduce stress. Thus, a non- experimental observation may find that people may need arousal properties that feeling stressed provides to perform an optimum level. Another may indicate a person suffering from psychosomatic disorders produced by the processes such as the psychological stress of the mind that may include allergic conditions, hypertension or digestive problems when exposed to the same levels of stress or physiological problem (Byrne, 1996, p. 228-236).
Word count: 82
TAQ 3:
PRACTICAL INVESTIGATION RESEARCH PROPOSAL
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PROPOSED TITLE, TOPIC AND AIMS |
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Assessment criteria |
[Table for you to complete] | |
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1.2 |
What is your title? |
Planning a Practical Investigation in Biology |
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1.1 |
What is the topic area you are investigating? |
The relationship between psychological stress and personality |
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What is your aim? |
To identify causes of stress and distinguish individual personality in helping people to reduce stress |
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DESIGN |
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Assessment criteria |
[Table for you to complete] | ||
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2.1, 2.2, 2.3
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Will you use an experimental or non-experimental research method? Which method will you use (e.g. experiment / observation / survey etc.)? Why (justify your answer)? |
The research will use a non- experimental method as it is highly systematic. It shall entail studies that focus on a few individuals, ask questions on their psychological stress aspects and response. Stress elements and anxiety identified through naturalistic observation methods. A correlation analysis will identify reasons why one person reacts very differently to another when faced with stressful events(Oxington, 2009, p. 15). |
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2.1, 2.2, 2.3 |
What will be your research design, and why? (E.g. independent groups, repeated measure. matched pairs). |
This study will use non-experimental, Quantitative research design. The independent group design is used group different individuals in each condition of the study. Participants with Type A and Type B personality, will be randomly assigned to their respective groups of 10. |
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2.1, 2.2, 2.3 |
What is the IV? |
Personality of individuals (Type A and Type B) is independent variable. In this case the independent variable is the tendency of the participants to experience high stress levels |
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What is the DV? |
Psychological of a stress response is the dependent variable. The actual level of stress reaction achieved due to a given stressor is measured and recorded as an independent variable |
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What is your alternate / experimental hypothesis? |
The alternate/experimental hypothesis is that all type A personality exhibit increased psychological aspects of stress because of their personality while Type B does not.
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What is your null hypothesis |
The null hypothesis denoted by H1: Type A personality have biological basis for increased psychological stress response
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Is your hypothesis directional / non-directional? (Justify your answer.) |
The hypothesis is directional because research indicates that stress for Type A personality is caused by internal factors which individuals are in control of in addition to social stressors, unlike Type B people.
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Are there any EVs to take into consideration? |
There are no order effects. However, limitations reported from lack of control of participant’s variables. |
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Confounding variables and limitations: do you think there may be any limitations within your research investigation which you cannot control for? |
The outstanding limitation is the personal and subjective bias. The remedy to this is the random distributions of participants to conditions that will see every participant have an equal opportunity to be in either condition. For example, Type A being in Type A group than in Type B group. ; |
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What ethical issues will you need to consider and why? |
Ethical competencies to observe with human participants include; integrity to be accurate and honest, responsible regarding protecting the participants from harms and debriefing them. Lastly, respect for the privacy of participants, getting informed consent and advising them on right of withdrawal |
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PARTICIPANTS |
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How will you select your sample? (Opportunity, random etc.) |
Sampling will be done randomly through event sampling and time sampling. It will record the independent groups and later video viewing to look back at the information in detail. The event sampling will have some researchers tick boxes every time Type A individual (male/female) conducting an activity (faster and against time to complete) while Type B is doing an activity or waiting for Type A to finish (slowly and composed). The time sampling will determine the time of the action equally among participants. |
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How many participants will be required to gain a sufficient amount of data?-That means in order to conduct a statistical test |
There will be 20 participants in the age of 15 years to the age of 25 comprising of ten female and ten male. |
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What will the age range / gender be? |
Age range: ; M ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;F ;ten participants in the range ;;15-25 years ;;;;;;;;;;; |
Age range: ; F ;ten participants in the range ;;;15-25 years |
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How will participants be allocated to each condition? |
The allocation will see to it that each group of 10 Type A has five female and five male, same cases applies to Type B group (Friedman ; Gollota, 1996) |
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APPARATUS / MATERIALS |
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What you need to do |
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The researchers will need to prepare reports on the personality of participants and the correlation between personality and stress. Questionnaire will be used to group the participants. |
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What do you need to help you collect the data? (E.g. questionnaire record sheet etc.) ; Are they reliable and valid tools? How can you establish this? |
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Questionnaires and structured interviews to gather both qualitative and quantitative data as they can easily be uniform and distributed quickly. An impossible puzzle will be used to provide the stressor element that causes a mild stress among participants. ; ;Questionnaires are reliable tools for they have predetermined questions that require honest answers from the participants. However, they can be unreliable as interviews use a lot of time while participants may misinterpret the questions and give incorrect answers (Coolican, 2014, p. 33). |
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PROCEDURE |
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What you need to do |
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The researcher will need to have a one-on-one session with the participants for purposes of conducting the interviews and distributing the questionnaires. During the one-on-one session, the researcher will measure the pulse rate of respondents in order to assess the level of stress experienced |
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How will you approach potential participants? |
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Participants to be engaged conversations to create trust including use of open-ended questions. For Example, what are you view on stress? |
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Where will the practical research take place? |
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The research will take place on an online platform, hence there will be no physical venue for the research |
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How will you brief participants? |
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The participants will be briefed using email. All the details of the research will be sent alongside the consent forms to ensure voluntary participation |
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What standardised instructions will you use? |
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The standardized instructions will be time-based to complete an activity. Data will be recorded by video and systematic recording in reports (Coolican, 2014, p. 33). ; |
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How will you debrief your participants afterwards? |
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Afterwards the participants will be briefed through email as well |
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How will you collect and record the data? |
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The participants will be asked to email their responses to the researcher, who will record data in his personal computer that is password protected in order to enhance confidentiality of the data |
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RESULTS |
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What you need to do |
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The research results presentation will be made in charts and graphs to indicate percentages of data collected in ratios of Type A to Type B personality stress causes, anxiety correlation and response. |
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How will you analyse the descriptive data (mean, median, mode, SD and range?) |
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The descriptive data will be analysed using all the standard deviation measures |
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How will you present your data? Will you use any of the following: tables? graphs / bar charts? |
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Use of pie charts, bar graphs and other diagrammatic representations of descriptive data |
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What will be the level of data collected and why? (Nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio). |
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The data will take the ratio level as it focusses on proportions and correlations of variables |
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Which statistical test would you intend to use and why? (Chi-Squared, T-test etc.) |
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The Chi-squared test could be used because the hypothesis has an association to show the correlation between anxiety and stress in Type A and Type B personality (Coolican, 2014, p. 35-37). ; |
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Word count (total word count for TAQ 3): 104 words
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REFERENCES [Remember to use the Harvard Referencing System] |
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Byrne, D. G. (1996). Type A behavior, anxiety, and neuroticism: reconceptualizing the pathophysiological paths and boundaries of coronary-prone behavior. Stress Medicine. 12, 227-238. Coolican, H. (2014). Research methods and statistics in psychology. London, Psychology Press. Friedman, M., ; Gullotta, T. P. (1996). Type A Behavior: Its Diagnosis and Treatment. Boston, Springer US. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3078567. Munneke (2013) Relation between anxiety and stress among cancer patients and routine Follow-up: a Review. Munneke, N. (2013). The relation between anxiety and stress among cancer patients and routine follow-up: a review. Bachelor Thesis; Degree Granted by Tilburg University. FSW. Medische En Klinische Psychologie; Supervisor(S): K.A.H. Nicolaije; 38 P. Universities van Tilburg. Medische en Klinische Psychologie. http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=130569. Oxington, K. V. (2009). Psychology of stress. New York, Nova Biomedical Books. Strube, M. J. (1991). Type A behavior. Newbury Park, Calif, Sage Publications. ; |
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WEBSITES |
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http://www.psychology-books.co.uk/downloads/free_pschology_study_paper_orne.pdf. Accessed 2/25/2017 https://www.distancelearningcentre.com/login.php?Error=;url=L3VzZXIvbGlicmFyeS5waHA%3D. Accessed on 2/25/2017 http://www.distancelearningcentre.com/phpBB3/index.php. Accessed on 2/25/2017 http://www.distancelearningcentre.com/access_2014/materials/Biology/Planning_and_Carrying_out_a_Practical_Investigation/T2_Type_A_behaviour.pdf. Accessed on 2/25/2017 Research paper for psychology |
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TAQ 4: ;New aim: To establish the relationship between stress and individual lifestyle ;New research question: ;How does individual lifestyle affect the psychological stress of a person? |
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TAQ 5: ;Timeframe Log ;(proposed if the study were to be carried out) The study would take a total of four weeks as follows; Write up of the study;s background-3 days Preparation of data collection tools such as special purpose questionnaire documents, one on one interview-4days Observation study-1 day Movements from ;place to place to meet target population-6 days sampling and recording-6 days Analysis of the data collected in terms of personality and stress response- 8 days. Word count: 62 |
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Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…
Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…
Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…
Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…
Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…
Lesson 1: Thesis Lesson 2: Introduction Lesson 3: Topic Sentences Lesson 4: Close Readings Lesson 5: Integrating Sources Lesson 6:…