Thoughts

Today Marty Giles and I spent some time with our data on mental age and goals. We talked about evident themes and tried to reach some consensus on the data. We decided to let it "simmer" for a while (Dr. G.'s term).

This brought up for me an issue that I thought might be worth addressing here, which is the need to spend time thinking about your data. There is a tendency, particularly when you are anxious to get a project done, to rush through the analysis and jump to the results. Particularly with qualitative data (such as interviews) you want to give yourself some time to think about not only what people are saying but what they are not saying. Do they seem to avoid certain words? Do they give you a quick short answer to a tough question? These are signs that they are not comfortable with the topic. An example is when some people talk about death - they may use words such as "pass away" "pass on" "slipped away".  They may give you a comment such as "I never thought about that" and want to leave it.

Think about what words they are using and what that tells you about them, for example we noticed that people in the 20s were always very direct about their future goals ("I want to do...." "I will have ....."). Yet, people in their 30s began to use "I hope to..." "I would like..." which suggests they have become aware that not everything is in their control and that they may not be able to do everything that would like to.

You also want to take the time to go back to your theorists and think about what each theory predicts should happen in the study. Then compare your data to those predicted outcomes, are they the same or different? If different why do you suppose that is the case? Did you ask different questions? Have a different population?

My old stats teacher used to say that you "should take a bath in your data." I always liked the imagery of that - get to know your results and understand how they came about. Another image that comes to mind for me is that artists and musicians are told to look to the empty spaces in their work, and I think the same is true for researchers - look at not only what people say, but what they don't say.

A paperwork day

The recorders, microphones, and telephone connectors all arrived today. I had to order some supplies from the post office and started putting all of the info together for each of the lab students. Each one will get the recorders, letters to potential participants, and my business cards. I ran out of toner half way through printing the letters, so ordered more of that too. I should (hopefully) get them in the mail by the end of the week.

I also started working on some qualitative data from the previous study. This part asked participants across the lifespan about the best and worst parts of being their age, along with how old they felt mentally and why. The data look interesting, I did the initial coding and sent it to my co-researchers to get their opinions on the coding.

Everyone is now registered for the lab, we did have a few glitches, but I think they are all worked out. We have also made arrangements with our supervisors about faculty course assignments with the labs.

Odds and Ends

We have been working this week on the LOC/ early memory study. Recall, that we had all of our participants tell us their earliest memory. We had previously found evidence that locus of control (LOC) could be seen in earliest memories. A little background - an external LOC means that someone believes that others control their life, while someone with an internal LOC believes that they are in control of their life. Anyway, we started getting ratings that we had requested some faculty to do and entering that data. With 5 raters we were getting a correlation between the score on the LOC test and the rating score by our experts with a p = .07 (for nonstats types - almost a statistically significant effect) . We asked several more faculty to rate them also - in order to raise the power. (If you were here in person I would ask you to explain why that may work - think about standard deviation).

I also received a newly published book on the oldest old that I am excited about - if you are interested in this population - you should consider getting it:

Poon, L. W. & Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2011). Understanding well-being in the oldest old. NY: Cambridge Press.

All of our lab students are now registered for the lab class in the summer - I had to send academic advising an email with their names and ID numbers to register them. I am continuing to work on the syllabus for the 2nd quarter lab.

Lee Stadtlander

Excitement Phase

Well, the RAs have been selected. I am sure there is a lot of excitement about being chosen and being a part of the project. As someone who has gone through this a couple of times before... it always feels wonderful to have this part done. The "yippeeeee, I am part of the project" is starting to sink in. There is pride in being selected, and a feeling of accomplishment. So what happens next? Many times it is an overwhelming feeling of "what am I in for?". The "what ifs" start. What if I can do the analysis, what if it is too much for me, what if I am not as good as the other RAs, etc. I look at this as the fear phase of research. Even experienced researchers have this issue: What if we don't meet our N, what if we don't have significant results, what if no one wants to publish our results......

This remarkable thing about this project is that no one is alone. We are all here to support one another. While some may have exceptional skills in interviewing, others may have skills in analysis, or writing, or asking questions. We are all in this together; supporting one another, learning from each other, and growing together.

So, if and when the "fear" hits.... remember that you are not in this alone, nor are you expected to be the perfect assistant. This is a project that is built to instill cooperation and mutual growth. If you get hit by the "fear" experience.... let us know so we can help you through it... We have been there before and actually survived to continue research :)

MG

Confidentiality, Consent and NIH Training

Thanks to all of our student researchers and controls who have sent me your forms. For those of you who still need to so do - please know I will be on vacation next week, so should you send it I will confirm receipt of them the first week in May.

Dr. Stadtlander confirmed that those NIH training certificates regarding work with human participants are indeed valid for three years - so if you have one that is current, please send it along.

As we gear up for the start of the lab in June, I am delving into the Creswell and Clark text (2011). While I may not read this while on vacation ;-) due to an autobiography from our Miami guest speaker, Jehan Sedat that I wish to finish, I must say this text looks like a solid compliment to what Walden currently offers in the Research Design class.

What I particularly appreciate thus far and we will get into this in the classroom in June no doubt, is that this approach as outlined here, is need based. This pragmatic approach is in no way conflicting, in my humble opinion, with qualitative or quantitative study individually. This pragmatic approach to both existing literature and future research appeals.

I sincerely hope that this Online Lab experience does the same for our students – that it offers a strong compliment to our students’ academic experiences at Walden.

Amy Sickel

Creswell, J. W. & Plano Clark, V.L. (2011) Designing and conducting mixed methods research, 3rd ed. Los Angeles: Sage.

Collecting info

Today we have been collecting info from our students - consent and confidentiality forms. I have also been working on the syllabus for the 2nd quarter of the lab. This one is more difficult, since we have not previously done anything like this before - students will be analyzing data. It is hard to plan that far ahead.

We still have one more opening in the control group - the only requirement is to take 2 surveys at the begining of each quarter and at at the end of the project. As a thank you we will give you a $50 gift card to Amazon for participating. Interested? Please email me.

One more...

We have room for one more person in the control condition. If you would like info - please email me leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all of you who will be our student researchers and our controls!

We feel fortunate to have had such a strong group of applicants.

We are very excited for this opportunity to work with you,

Amy Sickel

We have our lab team!

We have finally selected our 12 members for our lab team. It was a tough job, but we are very excited to have them all! I have ordered the digital recorders, phone attachments, and external microphones ($1000 worth of equipment!), so that step is done.

We have pretty much finalized the lab syllabus and that has been sent out to our students. As soon as I get everyone's consent forms I will register them for the course. Next step is prepare participant packets.

We still have two control group  places - if you are interested - get in those forms - we will close the availability as soon as we get our 12 members for the group.

Congratulations to all of our lab team and control group members! We are thrilled to be working with you!

Lee Stadtlander

One more day!

We have one more interview scheduled tomorrow and we will be done interviewing! We have been so impressed with the people we have interviewed -there are so many great students at Walden!

For anyone who has requested the forms for the control group - get them in ASAP - if you want to be in the group. I will stop accepting them we reach an equivalent number to the lab group.

Repost: Email Notifications

We have discovered a problem with email notifications in our blog, The Transparent Lab. If you want notifications and you have NOT received a notification of blogs posted in the last few days, you need to do an additional step. Please go to the blog: http://transparentpsylab.blogspot.com/

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It will take you to another page- at the top of the page will be a box SUBSCRIBE NOW. At the bottom of the box is a link for Get the Transparent Lab delivered by email

If you click that a form will have you submit your email address and have you enter a word to eliminate spam from the blog

Interviews are almost done!

It looks like we should be done with interviews on Thursday. Tough choices! We have had some great candidates, I really appreciate the enthusiasm that we have seen in the interviews for being involved in a research project. So what will be the next steps? Once we have completed the interviews, I will notify the selected students and send them a consent form, confidentiality agreement, and the syllabus for the course. Then I will have them registered for the lab course in summer.

Meanwhile, backstage we will be getting everything ready for the course and for the start of the project. I will order the digital recorders and send them along with an original letter for future participants, and some of my business cards that students can give to participants. Once I get access to the lab I will get that prepared and upload the readings and new syllabus.

On the LOC project our expert faculty members have been rating the earliest memories we sent them and we are starting to get them returned. So I will be able to start analyzing that soon.

Lee Stadtlander

...on being in the control group

I will add another bonus to joining this project via the control group - if you have not yet participated in research as an RA - this is a good way to see, through this blog and your participation in the assessments, what the research process is like in a more meaningful way than merely reading about it third hand or hearing colleagues talk about it.

It is therefore a good way to get your research feet wet, so to speak, and I am confident there is a way to note such participation in your Vita as well, such as the following - courtesy of Dr. Stadtlander:

Control Group Participant (2011). Doctoral Students' Research Skills and Self Efficacy Gained in a Mentored Online Research Laboratory. Walden University (P.I.:  L. Stadtlander, co-researchers: M.Giles and A. Sickel).

Amy Sickel

Why participate?

We are continuing with our interviews this week, I'll talk more about these later this week. I had a conversation this past weekend and someone asked me "why would would someone want to be in the control group of your study?" I thought it might be worth talking about that. Being in the control group of our study allows you to be involved in the research study without having the time commitment involved in being in the lab. But personally, I think it is more than that... how many times have you written a paper or taken a test and you just tossed the graded in paper in a drawer or throw it away? Being involved in a study makes you an intregal part of the process, you are contributing directly to science - your survey results will be included in the final data analysis and be part of the final published paper. Your survey results won't be tossed away - they will be a part of the project data. As an added bonus, we will mention you in the acknowledgement in the final paper :)

There are still a couple of openings for people in the control group. Interested? Send me an email leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Lee Stadtlander

Interviewing

As Dr. Stadtlander writes, we have now begun the process of interviewing our applicants for the online lab. I wanted to comment on the issue of interviewing, both in terms of our applicant interviews but also with regard to the interviews we are asking our student researchers to conduct with elderly participants. When interviewing others for research purposes, it has been my humble experience that interviewing skills are highly valuable, complex, and can take some time to learn. I can recall, for example, interviewing patients in a psychiatric hospital who clearly did not want to be interviewed (despite agreeing to it) and who seemed to enjoy evading my questions. I can recall interviewing individuals who were easily distracted and seemed to get themselves and our interview off course with great regularity. Some individuals were just plain cranky and although they agreed to the interview, they clearly did not enjoy it. These are more extreme examples to be sure, however they are also an interviewing reality and data collection must proceed with integrity, as long as the participant is willing and able to do so. This means that as interviewers, it is our responsibility to anticipate such challenges as well as to have a plan for how we will handle them.

We have talked in this blog from time to time about the impression that applicants make in the application process and now in the interview process. I would argue that as clinical interviewers, we need to be concerned about impression management or how we present ourselves to the participants, too. Our first concern should always be the welfare of the participant and this should be evident in how we interact with these participants. After this, we need to remember that data collection requires we be objective where the data are concerned and conveyed properly, I believe this can be reassuring to participants - that their information is valued and safe with us.

Amy Sickel

Interviewing

As Dr. Stadtlander writes, we have now begun the process of interviewing our applicants for the online lab.

I wanted to comment on the issue of interviewing both in terms of applicant interviews but also with regard to the interviews we are asking our student researchers to conduct with elderly participants. When interviewing others for research purposes, it has been my humble experience that interviewing skills are highly valuable and can take time to learn. I can recall, for example, interviewing patients in a psychiatric ward who clearly did not want to be interviewed and seemed to enjoy evading my questions. I can recall interviewing individuals who were easily distracted and seemed to get themselves and our interview off course with great regularity. Some individuals were just plain cranky and although they had agreed to the interview, they clearly did not enjoy it. These are more extreme examples, to be sure, however they are also a reality and data collection must proceed so long as the participant is able and willing to do so. This means that as interviewers, it is our responsibility to anticipate such challenges as well as to have a plan for how we will handle them.

We have talked in this blog from time to time about the impression that applicants make in the application and now the interview process. I would argue that as clinical interviewers, we need to be concerned about impression management 0r how we present ourselves to our participants, too. Our first concern should always be the welfare of the participant and this should be evident in how we interact with these participants. After this, we need to remember that data collection requires we be objective where the data are concerned and conveyed properly, I believe this can be reassuring to participants - that their information is valued and safe with us.

Recruitment: Day 2

Now we are trying to schedule interviews and line up our control group. Lots of emails and consulting with faculty members. I thought that I would briefly talk about interviewing. As with many things that you do in life it is important to consider your audience. The temptation is often to brag about yourself, but that is not what interviewers are really looking for - it is better to think in terms of what can you do for the interviewers, or in this case, the project.

Think about what you are able to bring to the project to help it. Do you have experience with the elderly? A strong interest in knowing more about the theoretical aspects? Are you a good writer or at least enthusiastic about learning more? Also, think about how you will make sure you have time to dedicate to it, along with keeping up with the rest of your life. There is nothing worse for us than going through all of the work of finding student researchers (there is a lot of background work and money involved in this process) only to have them quit part way through the project.

I'd also like to leave you with the idea of thinking beyond the immediate reward of getting the research experience. Remember, in this project we will work closely with you for the next 3 quarters, we will know your reliability, work ethic, and writing ability.... can you think of a better person to give you a letter of recommendation when you apply for a job?

Lee Stadtlander

Recruitment: First cut

Out of all of the many applications we received -we made the first cut. It is always a difficult decision and a lot to weigh into it, but we are finally down to 13 people we are going to interview. Next step, is to do all of the interviews and reduce the number of students to around 11. It is always tricky to set up the interviews - trying to work around three faculty's schedules is hard, but we hope to get them done in the next week.

I sent out invitations to a number of students about being part of the control group. It is a great opportunity to be involved without the big time commitment. These individuals will take the same research knowledge/ self confidence scales as the lab students. This will give us a way to measure what the lab students learn through being in the project -  beyond what they learn in their regular graduate program. If you are interested in being part of the control group (and have not received an invitation) send me an email and I will send you the info on it.

Lee Stadtlander

Who do you use for a recommendation?

Several student's have used me for recommendations, which is great! But as with CVs, make sure you let the individual know that you are putting them down as a reference or for a recommendation. Faculty can have over 500 students a year in courses.... a lot, Huh?!!? If students would just send me an email stating they are wanting to use me for a recommendation, they were in my ___ class in spring of 2010, and would I be willing to be involved...it would make things simpler for them and me. I could go back to that class and look the student up, see old posts or papers and have a visual reminder of their work. I wish I could say that I remember each student I have had, but I just don't.... I guess I am getting old. I really think that any time you are using an individual for a recommendation or a reference, you need to contact that person before hand and let them know.

Martha Giles

Organizing and rating

Today was a day for organizing all of the applications that we received and making sure everyone sent the correct info. We also constructed a rating sheet so we have some numerical way to rate applicants. What are we rating people on? Here is a list: writing ability, ability to follow directions, recommendation, their reason for being in the study, research methods/ statistics bakground, and their research experience. We will also consider geographic location and want to make sure we have some minority researchers.

As far as organizing, I have made a spreadsheet of everyone's key points and will add in the rating from each of the 3 faculty researchers and the recommendation info that we receive. Then we will pick the highest scores from each area of the country. People that are not selected do not fret - we will invite you to be part of the control group :)

Emails

I thought you might it find it interesting to see one of the email responses to students I have been sending. I have had several students complain about having to pay tuition to be in the lab... Here is my response to one.

 

Virtually all universities require students to pay tuition for research experience with professors. As an undergraduate and graduate student at Ohio State I paid every quarter for 6 years for the opportunity to conduct research. As a result I ended up with 5 publications and was able to get a professor position when I was done.

 

Think about it - if you do not pay tuition - the experience does not show on your transcript - you have no proof that you have done it. We have set the tuition as low as we possibly can - 1 credit - about $500. We attempted last quarter to run a study with a no credit lab - as a result students had little incentive to complete the project. Only three of 9 completed what they had agreed to.

 

There are very few research faculty at Walden, so this project is especially unique to be done in a virtual environment.  Students that participate in the 3 quarter project that we are conducting will have an experience equivalent to that in a land-based graduate program. They will have the opportunity to be trained in research methodology, conduct a study, analyze the data, and coauthor a publishable article. Three faculty are giving their time for supervision of the project. It is well worth the investment in time, money, and experience.

Helping with Student Researcher Recruitment

This week, I was in touch with our General Psych students to continue our efforts to recruit student researchers for the project. A number of students responded to myself (in addition to Dr. Stadtlander) and expressed considerable interest in the project, which is great! I am hopeful that we continue to have applications submitted and indeed more applications to reflect the diversity that is Walden.

Amy Sickel