blog #21: Exit Interview

1. What is your essential question and what are your answers? What is your best answer and why?

My essential question asks what is the best way to conduct social psychology research to study different behavioral patterns. The three answers I've come up with to address that are: Generalizable experiments, ethical experiments, and experiments with lear IV DVs and few confounding variables. My best answer was clearly the answer with the most detail so to conduct experiments with clear independent variables and dependent variables and eliminate most confounding variables to study behavior.

2. What process did it take you to arrive at this answer?

My first mentor really helped a lot with coming up with it once i compared many existing experiments and research in her class. But it wasn't until much more research and talk with my new mentor that I came to the conclusion that it is the best answer because it accounts for a lot more than the other answers and it results in stronger theories and can be proven physically.

3. What problems did you face? how did you resolve them?

A big problem at first what just the scheduling when I could go to my mentor because it was such inconvenient hours. Then a huge problem that came along was when she emailed me that I wouldn't be allowed to sit in on any more of her classes because something with the board. However she was still helpful in helping me get hours and directed me to another campus where I got a new mentor and was able to sit in on there class. It was a big problem but i resolved it quite quickly and it didn't set me back much at all.

4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My first source would have to be my first mentor Dr Viviane Seyrenian because she taught experimental psych and it led me to the best way to design an experiment given that it was an entire class dedicated to that. And she was super helpful in talking me through to come up with the question and finding the answer through putting together and analyzing existing work. My second source is my First independent component because it was a very thurough class at CalPoly Pomona on Brain Mind and Behavior and how to study and understand them as a science. The class guided me to a lot of the readings that also helped in the research I used to answer my question.