Lab Report Notes

Lab Report Topic: Identity Development

Overview

  • The lab report focuses on identity development and related developmental experiences.
  • Students will formulate two hypotheses.
    • One hypothesis, provided by the instructors, is about the relationship between identity status and friendship quality.
    • The second hypothesis is chosen by the student, using variables from the dataset.
  • The lab report requires two different analyses in the results section, and both should be discussed.
  • Chi Square analyses will be used to analyze the data.

JASP

  • JASP is an open source statistical platform that provides tools for people working with statistics.
  • It offers self-guided resources, workshops, and practice datasets.

Important Dates and Word Count

  • Due Date: Week 8, Thursday, May 1st, 8:00 AM.
  • Word Limit: 1,500 words.
  • The word count penalty applies for exceeding the limit.
  • The student manual contains details on penalties and word count application.
  • The word count is strict due to accreditation requirements.
    • Undergraduate degrees have different requirements for assessment size related to accreditation.
    • A 12.5-point one-semester subject can have up to 4,000 words of assessment.

Marking Criteria

  • The marking criteria are in the lab report guide.
  • These criteria are the same as those used by tutors and in the assessment literacy module.

Building a Lab Report

  • One approach is to outline the structure of the lab report with headings and subheadings.
  • Another approach is to build the rationale for the study.

Rationale

  • Rationale means reason.
  • There are two rationales to address:
    • Why the study is worth investigating
    • Why you are predicting the things you are predicting
Steps to Build the Rationale:
  1. Learn about the topic:
    • Use the lab report guide and lecture materials.
    • Take notes on the topic and the problem being addressed.
  2. Formulate hypotheses:
    • The first hypothesis relates to identity status and friendship quality.
    • To devise the second hypothesis:
      • List the variables in the dataset.
      • Consider pairs of variables and whether there is a relationship between them.
      • Determine if the relationship is useful for the topic.
  3. Make Predictions:
    • Hypotheses will consist of two sentences due to the categorical data.
      • The first sentence states that there will be a relationship.
      • The second sentence describes the relationship using the categories.
  4. Separate findings into supportive and non-supportive evidence
    • Note any evidence that supports your predictions
    • Also identify studies that do not support your predictions to strengthen the rationale by explaining why your predictions differ.

Implications of the Hypothesis

  • Consider the implications of significant and non-significant findings for the topic and existing theories.
  • The dataset will be provided in Lab 3 to encourage reading, research, and planning before data analysis.

Introduction Structure

  • Opening Paragraph: Include the topic, variables, reasons for the study, and potential impact of findings.
  • Literature Review: Cover supporting and non-supporting literature.
  • Aims and Hypotheses: Include variables and predictions.

Aim of the Study

  • The broad aim is to investigate the association between identity development and other developmental experiences.
  • The term "association" indicates the use of categorical data and Chi Square analyses.
  • The main concept can be either identity development or friendship quality.
  • List secondary variables as secondary concepts.

Ericsson's Psychosocial Theory of Ego Development

  • Erik Erikson was interested in the ego.
  • Ego is the process of mediating internal and external experience.
  • Ego development is psychosocial, related to the interaction between our internal and social selves, lifelong, and multidimensional.
  • Erikson describes that changes of the ego are called crises.
  • Crises represent development out of the comfort zone.
  • Erikson was interested in dialectic pairs of psychosocial crises.
  • In adolescence, we develop fidelity, which is an accurate sense of self, by balancing identity and role confusion.
  • The period of emerging adulthood (18-25) is a transition between adolescence and young adulthood.

Marcia's Identity Statuses

  • James Marcia proposed that identity and role confusion exist on two dimensions: commitment and exploration.
  • Four Identity Statuses:
    • Achievement: High exploration, high commitment
    • Diffusion: Low exploration, low commitment
    • Foreclosure: Low exploration, high commitment
    • Moratorium: High exploration, low commitment
  • Identity achievement correlates with optimal developmental outcomes.

Friendships

  • Adolescent friendships differ from childhood friendships.
  • Loss of friendship can cause more distress in adolescence.
  • Adolescent friendships are more intimate, supportive, and complementary.
  • Friendships become the context where adolescents try on different identities.
  • The quality of friendship may affect identity exploration and commitment.
  • Conflict: higher conflict correlates with higher moratorium and diffusion.
  • Support: lower support correlates with higher diffusion.
  • Females were more likely to have identity diffusion.

Hypothesis One

  • Test the relationship between identity status and friendship quality in individuals under 25.
  • The second sentence should describe that relationship based on Jones et al.'s study or other rationale.

Hypothesis Two

  • Compare the provided concepts and variables to create the new hypothesis.