PA STYLE - 2,000 WORD LIMIT
ABSTRACT: 10 POINTS
- Comprehensive
- Covers all the key aspects of the AIM, METHOD, RESULTS and implications.
-All appropriate figures need to be included
INTRODUCTION: 30 POINTS
-Comprehensive
-Identifies the relevance of the area of study (FINANCIAL WELLBEING AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING)
-Defines all the key variables in accessible academic language
-Provides an EXCELLENT critical review of all the 3 relevant readings (ATTACHED ALL THE THREE READINGS - BRUGGEN ET AL (2017), CUMMINS (2019) & XIAO, TANG & SHIM (2019).
-Identifies gaps in the previous literature
- Excellent AIM
- Excellent Hypotheses
Lab Report Instruction Booklet This document is designed to help you understand the rationale, expectations, and background to the laboratory report assignment. Do not use this document as a source of evidence in your report – you must use the primary sources of evidence (core readings) provided to you below. General Info The laboratory report This assessment is designed to provide you with practical experience at preparing a laboratory report from a simple research design. The report that you write from this study will be worth 40% of the final unit grade for HPS121, and 30% of the final grade for HPY713 students. The report must be no longer than 2000 words (not including abstract and reference list). It is due by 8pm (AEDT) on Thursday 19th December (Week 6) via the assignment dropbox on the HPS121_HPY713 CloudDeakin page. Assignment rationale Why do we get you to write a laboratory report? Because laboratory reports (also known as lab reports, research reports, or journal articles) are the core method we use in psychology to disseminate research findings. Laboratory reports require a clear understanding of the scientific method to flow logically, as well as the ability to write concisely. We hope to help you develop these skills in this assessment, along with a few others: 1. You will gain an understanding of constructs by which we evaluate our lives, and how these can be measured. This is important because these evaluative constructs can be used to assess different aspects of life satisfaction, which have implications for policy and intervention. 2. You will learn how to apply these evaluative constructs to recent psychological research and develop skills that allow you to expand scientific knowledge in the area of interest. By writing this laboratory report you should gain an understanding of how psychological science builds on and expands previous knowledge, and how you can contribute to the development of this knowledge. 3. You will develop your analytic and communication skills. Many of you may be aiming to go on and do second and third year psychology, then perhaps complete post- graduate studies in psychology or other disciplines. As you will be writing laboratory reports in these courses (as laboratory reports are the primary means of communication in the psychological field) it is very important that you learn the basic skills of how to write a laboratory report in first year. This is why we dedicate many HPS121 seminars (seminars 1 to 5) to help you in your understanding of the requirements of a good laboratory report. Even if you do not plan to continue beyond first year psychology, research has shown that both employers and recent graduates rate written communication skills as an important factor affecting one’s employability. Writing style Before we launch into the topic, it's important to flag here the writing style we use in psychology. Writing in a science-based discipline requires the use of a particular style that is objective, succinct, direct, and unemotional in its approach. The main reason for writing in science is to communicate information to other scientists and interested parties, not to entertain them with your (many) artistic talents. However, you must use the rules of the language to communicate your ideas in a readable and clear manner. You might be wondering what the rules of the scientific writing style are. The text by Burton provides a good explanation of the means by which psychologists communicate their ideas and research findings, and therefore you are expected to use it extensively in your preparation of this assessment. Examples of how psychologists write a laboratory report can be found in the readings provided for you, as well as Burton itself. Please be aware that most introductory psychology texts do not present as very good examples of scientific writing. Most authors of these texts recognise that their readers are new to psychology, and the best way to maintain their interest is to use a more ‘chatty’ style – this is not scientific writing (note that I’ve used a chatty/informal writing style for this document!). Although this may suggest that your first attempt at writing a laboratory report in psychology is going to be a daunting task, the foregoing discussion is not meant to frighten you. Rather, it is to advise you that your laboratory report cannot be written easily by relying on your ‘native talents’. Remember to plan your writing, present your points clearly in the form of a rational argument, and support the premises of your arguments by citing the research literature. Topic Info Research information The data for this laboratory report were gathered in the first weeks of Trimester 3, 2019. Participants in the study were the HPS121_HPY713 students, and friends and family members of the students. The participants were provided a link to an online questionnaire where they completed questions relating to their financial wellbeing (FWB), subjective wellbeing (SWB), and general demographic questions (e.g., gender, age, country of residence). What could be the rationale behind this seemingly simple study you participated in? Background information This lab report has been designed to help you apply and contextualise your understanding of some of the concepts in different chapters of your textbook (i.e., Personality, and Social Psychology). As we all use money, the HPS121 team thought that financial wellbeing (FWB) would be an interesting topic to facilitate your understanding of how to write a lab report for psychology. Finance certainly gets a lot of airtime in Australian news. Of the recent countless articles, many paint a bleak picture in regard to debt (e.g. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-18/household-debt- extremely-elevated-and-tipped-to-grow/9340880), while others highlight examples of people saving large amounts of money, such as those featuring the Financial Independence/Retire Early (FI/RE) movement (e.g. https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/fire-followers-down- under-seek-early-retirement-20180222-p4z1cn.html). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-18/household-debt-extremely-elevated-and-tipped-to-grow/9340880 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-18/household-debt-extremely-elevated-and-tipped-to-grow/9340880 https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/fire-followers-down-under-seek-early-retirement-20180222-p4z1cn.html https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/fire-followers-down-under-seek-early-retirement-20180222-p4z1cn.html Australian adults cite personal financial issues as the number one stressor in their lives (see Australian Psychological Society’s 2015 Stress and Wellbeing Survey: https://www.headsup.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/stress-and-wellbeing- in-australia-report.pdf?sfvrsn=7f08274d_4). Financial stress has been associated with a myriad of negative outcomes, including reduced quality of life (see Brüggen, Hogreve, Holmlund, Kabadayi, and Löfgren, 2017). Where financial stress is conceptualised as stress relating to someone’s current finances, FWB encompasses both current and future expectations of financial resources to meet living standards (see Brüggen et al. (2017) for an explanation of this construct). Subjective wellbeing (SWB) is the subjective component of overall quality of life (see Cummins (2019) for an explanation of this construct). The perception of having available resources to meet needs can act as a buffer to events that threaten someone’s SWB. As such, it is expected that there will be a relationship between FWB and SWB. Hopefully the last part of that paragraph piqued your interest, because your lab report topic this trimester will seek to examine the relationship between FWB and SWB. Your key resources Brüggen et al. (2017): This paper is a great primer on financial wellbeing. It consolidates existing knowledge on the construct from different disciplines, and outlines a framework for financial wellbeing. Use this paper to explore the concept of financial wellbeing in your introduction and discussion sections. Cummins (2019): This essay describes the fascinating concept of subjective wellbeing. It details history of the concept, in addition to introducing readers to the homeostatic set point of SWB. Cummins then presents SWB as a useful social indicator, and details Australian SWB norms. You’ll need to use this paper in your introduction and discussion sections. Use this paper to explore the concept of SWB in your introduction and discussion sections. Xiao, Tang, and Shim (2009): This research paper details a study examining the association between financial satisfaction and life satisfaction in undergraduate students (among other variables). You’ll only need to concentrate on the details pertaining to your research question in the Xiao et al. paper (i.e., those details pertaining to financial satisfaction and life satisfaction). Seminar 2 has been designed to facilitate your understanding of these readings, so you can extract the relevant evidence to build your rationale for our study. You’ll need to be able to do this effectively to write the introduction section of your lab report. Join us at 2-3pm on Thursday 21st November, or listen to the recording of this seminar. Your research question and hypothesis In the current study (your study!) we’ll ask one research question (i.e., "What is the relationship between financial wellbeing and subjective wellbeing?”). We’ll let you come up with the reason(s) that this question is important to investigate. Be sure to look at the core readings and our hints above to help build your rationale for investigating your research question. Seminar 2 will also assist you to build your rationale for our study, so make sure you attend that seminar (or listen to the recording). To answer these questions, we used the following to gather data: https://www.headsup.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/stress-and-wellbeing-in-australia-report.pdf?sfvrsn=7f08274d_4 https://www.headsup.org.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/stress-and-wellbeing-in-australia-report.pdf?sfvrsn=7f08274d_4 • Financial wellbeing was assessed via the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)-Melbourne Institute Reported Financial Wellbeing Scale (version 1) (Comerton-Forde, Ip, Ribar, Ross, Salamanca, & Tsiaplias, 2019). • Subjective wellbeing was assessed via the Personal Wellbeing Index (International Wellbeing Group, 2013). Based on past research and the current study’s design, you will need to generate a hypothesis pertaining to the relationship between FWB and SWB. You will need to predict the direction of the relationship between the variables (positive or negative). Putting the report together Now that you have a brief background, it is your job to read and understand the central references and develop your introduction, aims, and hypotheses. You will find videos regarding how to the write up the Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and References sections in the Resources module on the HPS121 CloudDeakin page. The first 5 seminars of the trimester are also designed specifically to assist you in writing each of the sections of the laboratory report, so make sure you attend these or listen to the recordings. Please be aware that the data from the questionnaire will be analysed for you, and the results will be available for interpretation on the HPS121 CloudDeakin page by