Reference no: EM132825293

PSY20007 Developmental Psychology - Swinburne University of Technology

Assignment: Research report

Assignment overview

For this assignment, you will write a research report, building on the report-writing skills you developed in first-year psychology. Just as in first-year psychology, you will write a full report, including an abstract, introduction, hypotheses, method, results and discussion section.

The purpose of this assignment is to improve your skills in reading and comprehending research, as well as writing research reports. This year, you will begin to integrate your skills in statistics with your report-writing ability. These skills are a necessary part of any degree accredited by the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC); you will require them in third-year psychology. Furthermore, whether you enter private practice or academic research, you will need to be able to read and interpret the latest research.

Therefore, writing reports is the best way to understand them better. This year's report focuses on the following topic:

The effects of cyberbullying on psychological health outcomes among young adults in Australia.

The use of technology by young people has increased rapidly over the past decade. One side effect of the immediacy and availability of technology-mediated communication is the potential for cyberbullying and its associated negative psychological health outcomes. The extent to which victims experience these negative outcomes may vary, according to individual coping styles e.g. problem- focused or emotion-focused.

In this research, we will examine the prevalence of cyberbullying among young adults, how victims of cyberbullying differ in psychological health outcomes compared to non-victims, and what role coping styles play in this relationship.

Learning outcome 1: Describe the main theories of human development.

Learning outcome 2: Evaluate how research on the lifespan is conducted using different research designs and methods.

Learning outcome 3: Apply statistical knowledge to a human development-related research questions and communicate this in a clear and concise manner.

Assignment details

You will need to complete the following components to finalise your research report. The following document, Process and requirements breakdown, also provides a breakdown of the assignment and the various steps involved in completing it.

1. Conduct a literature review

Review the List of starting references for Assignment 2 to acquaint yourself with the topic and to assist your literature review. Not all sections of these papers will be relevant to your project, nor are you expected to use all papers, so read selectively. Finally, conduct some independent research and find at least three further articles on cyberbullying and coping. Focus on problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping styles in your search, however, you only need to select one of these for your report.

2. Formulate your research question and hypotheses

Formulate at least one research question and at least two hypotheses.
Research question: The research questions should relate to the prevalence of cyberbullying. Consider how cyberbullying is being measured. Which group of people are the estimates based on?

Hypothesis one: This hypothesis should predict how victims of cyberbullying differ in a psychological health outcome (e.g. self-esteem, anxiety or depression) compared to non- victims.
Hypothesis two: This hypothesis should explore the relationship between coping styles (problem-focused and/or emotion-focused) and a psychological outcome (e.g. self-esteem, anxiety or depression) for cyberbullying.
Make sure that your hypotheses are testable by the analyses that will be conducted, and state the direction of the expected relationship between the variables.

3. Analyse the data

Use Method and data analysis for Assignment 2, the Online questionnaire (PDF 121 KB) and the SPSS data file (16 KB SAV) to analyse the results of the research.
Method and data analysis for Assignment 2 specifies the data analysis to carry out in order to address your research question and the two hypotheses.

4. Write the report

Write an APA-style research report about the research, your hypotheses and your findings. You will need to use your skills in writing research reports from first-year psychology and your skills in interpreting data from your statistics units.

Report structure
Abstract (approximately 150 words).
Introduction (approximately 750-800 words)-you will need to: introduce the topic
review the literature on the prevalence of cyberbullying
review the literature on cyberbullying and its associated psychological outcomes
e.g. self-esteem, anxiety and depression-you only need to cover one of the outcomes in your report
review the literature on cyberbullying and coping e.g. problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping styles-you only need to select one of these for your report include the aim of the study, one research question and at least two hypotheses.
Method and results (approximately 750-800 words):
All of the information you need to write this section is in Method and data analysis for Assignment 2, the Online questionnaire (PDF 121 KB) and the SPSS data file (16 KB SAV)- Method and data analysis for Assignment 2 specifies the data analysis to carry out.
It is best to present results in the same order of the hypotheses specified in the introduction-please remember to use the appropriate conventions of reporting statistical data.

Discussion (approximately 750-800 words)-you will need to: restate the aims of the study report the outcome of the research question and whether the hypotheses havebeen supported explain the findings and relate them back to previous research-include the implications

describe the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

References (not included in word count): include an APA-style reference list

Attachment:- Developmental Psychology.rar