I'm back after a long hiatus. The reason why I am penning this down is to help future NUS Psychology Year 3s gain a better understanding of the year-long journey called PL4401 - Honour Thesis.
1. Finding a supervisor
Most seniors would advise you to contact NUS profs. whom you had/ are currently completing a module under and whom you share common research interests with. The former is because you will be able to grasp how fast he/ she responds back, his/ her personality/ OCEAN/ INFP blah blah... The critical time period to ask is during Year 3 Sem 2 - which most people tend to go on Student Exchange Programs (SEPs). I did too and personally suffered due to:
- Inability to physically
knock down doorsconsult profs. in the Psychology department - One less semester to get to know more profs. to do the above point
Optimistic, naive and gullible, I asked an overseas prof which I did a psychology module under to be my supervisor and he agreed to it. PSA: Do not get an overseas supervisor. I suffered a lot from having an overseas supervisor who went MIA on me 3 months after he said yes
2. Deciding on a research topic
This ties in with step 1 because a prof with aligning interest to your research topic will be more internally motivated to help you and additionally have a vast sea of knowledge to guide you. Depending on your prof you consulted for supervision, you may be required to come up with your own research topic ideas first or simply work on the prof's existing research projects. If you belong to the former, do conduct some preliminary research to find out what is currently lacking in the research field (you can look at the "future recommendations" portion of papers for inspiration). Nonetheless, it should be formed up nearing the end of the semester 2.
3. Drafting up the IRB/ DERC
Once you are done with step 1 and 2, you can start drafting up the documents required for approval to conduct an experiment. Within NUS, there are two different types of experiment you can conduct - Human Biomedical Research (HBR) or Social, Behavioural, Education Research (SBER). For HBR, they are mostly neurocognitive researchs requiring use of medical equipment such as the ECG, FMRI etc. while for SBER, they are mostly your
** Some of you may have already have pre-collected research data from your supervisors which exempts you from requiring an Ethics Approval. In this case, you will still be required to fill up a document (different from IRB/ DERC) - "Form for Request for Waiver of Primary Data Requirement".**
3a. Setting up your experiment
Experiments can either be a novel one or an existing one. The latter is easier because your supervisor would be aware of it and can guide you in setting up your experiment. The former requires more guidance from your supervisor but can still be achieved. Unfortunately, I belong to none. Again, because of my said supervisor and the lack of online resources, I am forced to learn coding and code my entire digitized experiment myself. It took 12 bottles of beer, at least 10 sleepless nights, 2 months of crippling depression and a computer (plus encouraging supportive girlfriend and friends). Nonetheless, as long as you complete your experiment by Year 4 Sem 1 Week 2, you are good to go.
4. Using the Research Participants Pool
Remember you were once required to complete 12 RP points for PL1101E and PL2131? Yes, karma is a bitch. In order for you to use the RP pool, you will need to have an approval documentation of your IRB/ DERC (usually in the form of email), 2 completed RP Requisition forms and a Participant Information Sheet (which is within your IRB/ DERC). Send this to the RP coordinator thru the RP mailbox in the Psychology Department. The turnaround time should be 2 to 3 weeks so you should be able to get approval for RP Pool nearing the start of Year 4 Sem 1 where students' brains are fresh and rejuvenated for your experiment
It is beneficial to attend at least 1 session of the SONA system briefing to know how to use the system and things to do/ not do as a researcher.
5. Setting up an experiment timeslot
If you require a physical location to conduct your experiments, you can look towards booking a computer lab with NUS Psychology Department. First check for the availability of the room thru Skedda (refer to NUS Psychology Department Resources page). Then contact the relevant personnel for which dates and time you want to book for your selected room. The turnaround should be 3 to 5 days (personally, I think it's faster if you emailed after 5pm so she reads it the first thing in the morning). Only upon email confirmation then you list down the available experiment timeslots on SONA.
6. Wait for participants to sign up and send confirmation email
7. Conduct experiment and finish collecting data
8. Pre-writing phase
By now, you would have already bounced several emails/ messages to your supervisor regarding the progress of your Honour Thesis. You would also have known from past modules (PL2131 and PL2132) that the data has to be cleaned up. So do the necessary data cleaning and check back with your peers if need be to ascertain that you do not miss out on any data red flags i.e. incomplete data, anomalies, response bias etc. Start analysing the data for any significant findings early because if you did not find significance, it could be due to your poor analysis skills which can be rectified by some Professor Magic.
9. Writing phase
Nothing much. Essentially, try to be concise. I quote the document "PL4401 - Information on Honours Thesis" - Clarity is King. Also, prepare for stressed nights, irregular sleep cycle, re-writing of your Honour Thesis, frustration at not finding empirical support for your results. Other than that, survive and you will see the end of the light.
P.S. I suffered a hell lot because of COVID-19 and being cooped up at home decreases my productivity significantly (p < .001). It was H E L L.
10. ???
Submit your Honour Thesis on time.
11. Profit
