Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Report Styles and Referencing

During a meeting with Steph on the 16th of October, we went through as a group about how to set about writing our reports. We were shown the mark scheme once again and were given gave about the easiest way of writing our report. After the meeting, I researched the best way for me to personally write my report as well as the best style of referencing to use:


Report Writing;

I researched information about different types of report, to see which style would best suit my report. As much of my EPQ is based around research of a topic, I decided a research report would be best, however due to conducting my own primary research I would incorporate aspects of lab based reports in, like evaluations and methodology. I would put this information in the second half of my report, as I have mainly used my primary research to back up my findings rather than use my researched information to back up my study.

I also learnt that writing style in a report was as key as the style of report written. Many factors like who I’m aiming the report at, what my report is about, and how I am to put my information across can impact my style of writing. However, different parts of the report would require different styles, for example I would be more factual and descriptive when writing about the information I have learnt whereas when evaluating both my research and my sources I would need to be more analytical. 

When I write my report I will structure it in an altered IMRD style (introduction, method, results discussion.) However, before my introduction I will write and analyse the information I have found (as well as my survey) before then talking about my primary research due to the nature of my investigation. As well as this, I will include an introduction and a conclusion to my report as well as a bibliography to list my sources.

https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ScienceReport.html

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/s3/?id=173

 

Referencing;

In my report I will have to reference every time I use information I found from one of my sources. If it is a direct quote I will put the information in quotation marks (“ “) and use a reference system, which I will also have to use even if I don’t directly quote the information. Using information from websites without referencing is plagiarism therefore it is a vital part of my report and has to be done correctly.

After research into different types of referencing (eg Harvard, Vancouver etc) I decided the most appropriate type of referencing for my report would be APA (American Psychological Association) referencing mainly due to the fact I am doing a psychological based EPQ.

Flowchart diagram to help decide when to citeFurther research into APA referencing showed me how I would reference my variety of sources, therefore making me more confident when referencing.


Sources;

http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/plagiarism/students/referencing/conventions.html

https://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing/apa-referencing-guide#How_to_cite_references_within_the_text_of_an_assignment

Sunday, 1 November 2015

Planning My Primary Research

My supervisor suggested it would be a good idea to do my own personal research for my EPQ. As a result, during and after the summer (when most of my research was completed) I started planning ideas of what I could do for my primary research.

After coming up with a few ideas, I planned two different experiments I could do. One of them was more focused around the affects of an audience on performance, where my second idea was more focused on self-confidence in a sport and how that can help us facilitate or inhibit our performance.

Discussing with my supervisor, we agreed that investigating how audience affects our performance would be the best idea. She also suggested that I change the sport I focused my study on to basketball, due to the fact that our college had two high standard (GB) basketball players and it would be more reliable to compare them to a novice performer. As well as this, she suggested that if I use my three settings (without an audience, with an audience of people they know and an audience of strangers) and asked the people I use to record a few weeks of average shots from the free-throw line, I would then be able to compare their performance in the situations to their average, which would able to show us more clearly if the environments helped facilitate or inhibit their performances.

As a result, we slightly changed my methodology, and started to look into buying the equipment I needed to complete my study.

Saturday, 31 October 2015

Experts

I decided to ask my PE teacher some questions about my topic as I knew he knew a lot about it. I asked him a few different questions (to what extent do you believe that anxiety can affect our performance and what do you think is the best to help cope with anxiety) that helped me both clarify and get an opinion on both aspects of my question.

His answers to my question gave me a better understanding, as well as make me aware that personality can affect whether we interpret anxiety in ways that can facilitate or inhibit our performance. As a result, I researched more into personality to add into my report.

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Source List

The research for my topic required me to keep track of all the sources I used to investigate my topic. I wrote the links down in a word document and this post so I can keep track of what sources I have found.


// Sources //

https://www.adrenalfatigue.org/saliva-testing-for-adrenal-hormones

http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/psychology/arousal-and-anxiety.html

http://believeperform.com/performance/anxiety-within-sport/




Inside Sports Psychology by Costas Karageorghis and Peter Terry;  ISBN-10: 0736033297


Pure Sport by John Kremer ISBN-10: 0415525284






















"Relationship of intensity and direction of competitive trait anxiety to skill level and gender in tennis" by Perry and Williams.



Weeks 7, 8 and 9

During week 7 I was planning on reading 3 more articles and write up notes. I read the three sources (
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/companx.htm // http://coachadkins.com/2010/11/how-does-anxiety-affect-your-performance/ // 'Relationship of Intensity and Direction of Competitive Trait Anxiety to Skill Level and Gender in Tennis' by Perry and Williams.) and wrote notes on one of them, however didn't have time to write up notes on the other two. The three sources concreted my knowledge, as well as specifying the information to a certain sport (tennis) which I had not done before.
 
During week 8, I planned to contact two experts and start planning and buying resources for my primary research. However, due to the people I could use as experts being university lecturers, I waited until the second week back from college as I believed I was more likely to get a reply. To make up for this, I finished writing the notes from the articles the week before, and planned what I would need for my primary research.
 
The last week of summer I dedicated my EPQ work to complete as much of my research as I could, as well as organizing my work and making sure I had documented somewhere what I had done. I did as much research as I thought was appropriate as I knew I would need to find more as I started to plan my report and fit everything together. I made sure my source list was updated fully and that my notes were neat and together.  

Friday, 21 August 2015

Week 6 Update

This week I focused on my primary research. I started by reading a few articles containing pieces of previously done research.

The website I used the most was; http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol1Iss2/Cognitive_Behavioral_Anxiety.htm as it contained many pieces of research in enough detail for what I needed, but if I wanted to go into further detail about the research I could. It gave me an idea of how I could research what I wanted to research.

I also used an article I found on Google Scholar, that was a piece of research into the effects on anxiety on a rugby players performance. This was a longer, more specific article that also gave some context into the research they conducted.

After reading the articles/website, I started to plan my own research. I first came up with a few ideas of what I could research into (for example whether performing with an audience affects anxiety levels/interpretation of anxiety.) I wrote my ideas down and then made short notes on how I could conduct research for each of my ideas.

I will decide the actual hypothesis I will go for after I have finished my research, as I will then know what I would like to find out more about.

Friday, 14 August 2015

Week 5: Update

At the end of the week I analysed my survey results. I first analysed them as a whole and then went through and compared the persons responses to my rating scale mainly compared to the level of sport they played (for example college level) and briefly the type of sport they played.

On the whole, the results followed a pattern I expected. It showed that people tend to be more affected by nervousness and anxiety in sport when playing opponents better than them, when playing in competitions and when playing with an audience. However, all but one person said that nerves either optimised their performance or didn't have a noticeable effect.

As well as this, the people that competed at elite and country level, tended to disagree with statements more, showing that playing at a higher level can mean nerves affect you less.
 
 
Also this week, I wanted to further my survey research to try and get more detailed information from people that competed in sport regularly. To do this I created 8 questions that allowed me to get further, qualitative data from people I asked to complete it.
 
 
I gave the questions to 3 people who all played different sports. I will analyse what they said in these questions next week, and will use that information as back-up and applications to my research.


Friday, 31 July 2015

Week 4: Update

Once again I set myself less tasks to do this week, due to working a few days during the week.

Firstly, I starting to research some experts I could use for my project, to start to get a feel of who I could use. However, until I had got a little bit more information I was reluctant to contact any, as I wanted to have good and important questions ready for when I messaged them.

Secondly, I decided to conduct a survey, asking a few questions about peoples personal experiences and opinions about how their nerves and anxiety can affect them in different ways. I did this on SurveyMonkey and then shared the link around on social media, mainly targeting people I knew played sport, and asked them to share it as much as they could.

The questions were mainly on a rating scale, however I did ask some basic, personal questions at the beginning so I could see the range of ages, gender and sports the people I surveyed played. The questions about my topic we're on a rating scale as this meant I could analyse my data easier.


The survey consists of 10 questions, and I will analyse my results next week so it gives me enough time to get a good variety and range of people to answer.

( https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PM7TJ6B )

Sunday, 26 July 2015

Week 3 Update

This week I set myself less to do as I was away Monday-Wednesday and was working the weekend. As a result I set myself two resources to read/watch and analyse and further add to my notes.

The first source was an article on Google Scholar and was based around Tennis and how anxiety affects both genders and different levels of performer (elite or foundation level.) It gave me an insight into different factors in the extent anxiety affects our performance. It also contained and was focused around a study which has given me a broad idea of the kind of research I could do.

The second source was a website, and even though it was short it gave me an idea of how anxiety can affect us before and after sport, not just during like most articles I have read.

Sunday, 19 July 2015

Week 2: Update

This week I started the main portion of my research.

Before I did this however, my plan was slightly altered as I was busier than I thought I was going to be! Nonetheless, I read/examined and wrote down the key points from my first three sources into a notebook which will contain all my collective notes for the project.

Source 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEmXtP_e26E

The first of the sources was a YouTube video. The video was 4 minutes long, and I watched it 4 times. The first watch was to just listen to make sure it was relevant to my research and to get the overall idea of the video. Then the 2nd and 3rd time I made my notes from the video (watching it twice to make sure I had everything.) The last time I watched it I double-checked I hadn't missed anything important whilst I summed up the information.

Source 2: Inside Sports Psychology

The second of my sources was a textbook I had found when doing my research in the LRC. The index said it had around 25 pages to do with anxiety in sport. I scanned the pages to find the ones most relevant to me, which allowed me to narrow the number I had to read down. I then read the pages and highlighted what I believed to be relevant and then wrote it down in my notebook.

Source 3: http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/stage-fright-performance-anxiety

My third source was a website I found on google. However, this source wasn't as specific as all my other sources will be, as it gives a generic overview on how anxiety affects all performance, as well as treatments/symptoms/causes. I wrote down very few notes and I know it isn't specific enough, however it did give me a good overview of what I was researching and gave me the foundations of my information and the sort of things I want to look for.

Friday, 17 July 2015

Week 1: Research Update

The first week of my plan (6th July) was to find most of my research material.

As a result, I went into the LRC at college and my local library to find titles of books I could use in my investigation. In the LRC itself, I found one detailed textbook (Inside Sports Psychology,
ISBN-13: 978-0-7360-3329-9) as well as a few textbooks that gave me very broad information that I wouldn't need for my research.
 I then started to look on Amazon. I typed in 'Sports Psychology' into the search bar and clicked on many titles. I then used the 'look inside feature' to search the word anxiety to see if it was contained (and contained well) in the book. From here, I found a few titles including 'Pure Sport: Practical Sports Psychology' ISBN-13: 978-0415395588 which I purchased as it gave me a good amount of detail and wasn't overly expensive.

I then started using JSTOR/Google Scholar and Infotrac to find pre-existing articles on my topic. I used the advanced searches to narrow down the articles, and then clicked on and scanned separate articles to see if they looked relevant. I saved links to the articles I want to look through onto a word document, so I am able to clearly see all my sources so far.

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Planning Review

Research Plan for my project, starting from the week beginning 6th July to the week beginning 31st August.

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Week 1: 6th July

Objectives || Find 90% of my research material (I may find more as I go along, however I would like to find as much as I can to start with, mainly so I don't overload myself with information or get side-tracked.) Make a list of all research I need to do.

Resources || College/Public Libraries, Google Scholar, Jstor/Infotrac, Google, Amazon/Book Stores (Textbooks.) Write the source links and/or titles in a central word document/post.

Problems || I am away Monday/Tuesday and at a University Open Day on Wednesday and have Karate in the evening. As well as this I  have a driving lesson mid-day Thursday. I also am working Saturday until 4 and have a Karate Assessment on Sunday.

Solutions || I have already found some of my research material, so I will have less to research. Also, I have set myself less tasks this week, so I don't overwhelm myself with tasks I cannot complete.

Deadlines || Complete Research by Sunday Evening, giving me 2 full days and 2 half days to find as many resources as I can.

Notes || During this week I was much busier than I originally thought, so even though I did find a good amount of resources (I mainly found reports, documents and textbooks) I didn't find all I was planning to find. However, I made up for this by researching the rest as I went along and adding them to my log, as this allowed me to save time and use sources relevant to the weeks research.

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Week 2: 13th July

Objectives || Read/highlight/upload findings in 3 sources (as specified below in my source list.) Write up my notes and analyse my information.

Resources || Inside Sports Psychology /
 
Problems || I have a test on Tuesday that I need to revise for. I also need to pack for a few days away the week after. As well as this I will be with friends Wednesday and Thursday

Solutions || I will do all my work for the week after Tuesday as I can then have Monday and the first part of Tuesday to revise. I can pack for my days away on Tuesday as well, giving me Friday and Saturday/Sunday evening to well as read sources.

Deadlines ||  Complete reading by 7pm Sunday.

Notes || Once again I overestimated the amount of free time I had. Even so, I did manage to read my sources but I did so during car journeys or when waiting for friends/family when I was out. This meant during the free time I had I was able to write up my notes, meaning my work was completed as planned.

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Week 3: 20th July

Objectives || Read/Highlight 2 Sources I have found and add the information to my notes.

Resources || 2 Sources I have Found (Including Pure Sport: Into Sports Psychology)

Problems || I am at Alton Towers Monday-Wednesday, am working Saturday/Sunday and am driving at 5 on Thursday. I will also be tired from my holiday due to the long hours of walking and travelling in a short space of time.

Solutions || I have given myself less to read/research this week due to a busy schedule, so I should be able to get all my set work done.

Deadlines || Friday Evening for the reading, so I can write important notes up on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Notes || I wasn't able to get all my set work done this week, mainly due to the fact I forgot how ill and tired travelling makes me, so therefore I wasn't able to complete the reading when I wanted to. By the time I felt better I had work, however to make up for the week I read one of the articles after I came back from work on Saturday. The work I didn't complete this week I managed to do during the week of the 27th, as I had a quieter week.

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Week 4: 27th July

Objectives || Conduct a survey to see people's opinions about my question/topic. Start to research people I could use as experts

Resources || Email, Google, Internet, SurveyMonkey

Problems ||  I have a driving lesson at 11 on Monday and I am working on Tuesday evening, Saturday and Sunday. / As well as this people may be on holiday so cannot complete my questionnaire.

Solutions || Have Saturday/Sunday off and complete the work during the week. /  Make sure I spread my survey around on social media pages too, so even if people are away I still have enough to complete it.

Deadlines || Friday Evening

Notes || This week went better than the last few had, mainly because I planned my research to fit in with my time so I could do some work and relax as well. As well as this meaning I didn't get as distracted or tired, it meant I could complete the research I ran out of time to do last week, putting myself back on track. After the week I altered the rest of the weeks of my plan to try and give myself enough time to complete my work without rushing and take a break as well as it worked well.

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Week 5 : 3rd August

Objectives ||  Interview some athletes I know about their opinions about my topic/personal experiences. Analysis of Survey from previous week.

Resources || Survey created on Word, Email and Survey Monkey.

Problems || I have a Karate assessment/grading. I am working Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well at Saturday. Athletes I would like to interview may not be free at the time to complete it.

Solutions ||  Arrange with interviewee's a time that suits them and myself. I also made sure I had a spare person I could ask, so if one person couldn't I had a back up. I will try get the interviews done as early in the week as I can so I am able to analyse the data.

Deadlines || Friday Evening

Notes || Similarly, this week also went smoothly. This was because after altering my plan, I had a ratio of time to the amount of work I set myself, meaning I could get everything done. Fortunately, the athletes I sent the survey to sent their replies/told me their replies quickly so I was able to further analyse the more detailed findings from my second set of research.

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Week 6: 10th August

Objectives || Fully plan my primary research, backed up with 1 more article into similar research.

Resources ||

Problems || We have Results Day Thursday and I may not want to do research that day, as I may need to go into college.

Solutions || Have my plan for my research done by Wednesday and write it up fully Friday. Read the article before I start planning my research to give me an idea of what's been done/what I could do.

Deadlines || Friday Evening

Notes || The research was harder to plan than I thought it was, mainly due to there being so much I could do but no being overly sure on what I think would be best. As a result I wrote a few ideas down and gave myself a few weeks to decide. When I got back to college, I gave my supervisor the two best ideas I could think of so she could look over them and give me feedback. Doing this allowed me to see more research into my question before finalising my experiment, meaning it should be better and more relevant when I conduct it.

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Week 7 : 17th August

Objectives || Read 3 more articles or books of my choosing and write up notes. Make sure at least 2 of the articles include or focus on information about controlling anxiety, as many of the ones I have looked at so far are based on the affects of anxiety.

Resources || Source List / JSTOR / Google Scholar / Library / Google

Problems || I am working Tuesday evening and Wednesday. I am going out with friends on Monday/Thursday.

Solutions || Fit in reading around plans (for example, reading articles after plans with friends or before I go to work)

Deadlines || Friday Evening

Notes || When I first made the plan for the week, I had enough time to read/write up on 3 more articles and books. However, at short notice some friends and I arranged plans as I hadn't seen them in a month, therefore I didn't have as much time as planned. This meant I was only able to write up notes one source, however I did find two other good sources that I read later than planned (one following week  and one during a college free.) As a result of the week, I leant to also keep time for improvising plans or have a back up option if something came up (eg reading a smaller article that was a page long if I didn't have much spare time)

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Week 8: 24th August

Objectives || Contact at least 2 experts and read another source. Start to Plan resources I will need for Primary Research

Resources || Ebay/Amazon, Resources List, Google, Email/Phone

Problems || College Enrolment on Friday and Driving at 11 on Monday.  I am also working Monday/Tuesday and Thursday evening. / Equipment I need for primary research may be expensive.

Solutions ||  I have given myself slightly less to do this week due to being busier, and I can complete my tasks around my plans. / I will look around different websites for cheaper equipment, meaning I can plan what I need and what I can do without.

Deadlines || Sunday Evening

Notes || As I was finding contact details for experts, I saw that most of them were university lecturers or teachers. Because of this, I didn't contact experts straight away, as I believed that they may not read their emails when on holiday from work. As a result, I found a few people I could contact and waited until the second week of the college term to contact them. Instead, this week I read one of the articles I failed too last week, and planned the resources I could get for my research.

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Week 9: Commencing 31st August

Objectives || Have my research completed and all notes written down into a logical order.
 Do any last-minute research.

Resources || List of resources.

Problems || I need to get ready for college the week after. I am also away the Monday/Tuesday.

Solutions || Have the evenings to get my things sorted and my bag packed. If needed make sure I have a day that will allow me to shop for any last minute items.

Deadlines || Friday Evening

Notes || I didn't complete all my research, mainly because I knew there would be some research I could do when I returned to college and that there would be research I would later need to do to fill in any missing gaps from the project. I read over my notes and used this week to find out what I wanted more information on and sources that could help me do that which I studied when I returned to college. This was helpful as it let me see how far I was in research compared to where I thought I was and allowed me to plan further ahead.


// Plan Added Onto After Summer Holidays //

Due to the restart of college in September I wouldn't have as much free time as previously in the summer and it would be hard to pinpoint when I am free each week and as a result I decided it may be easier to plan for the month instead of plan each week.

September:

Objectives || Focus on completing more secondary research. I would also ask my PE teacher some questions in relation to my topic to use as an expert. I would mainly focus on factors that can affect how we interpret anxiety and whether these are beneficial or inhibiting.

Problems || I don't know the amount of college work I will get and how busy this will keep me. I also will have driving lessons and out of college clubs to work around.

Solutions || If I set myself a set amount of articles to read and assign that reading to a free or two per week I will get my research done. As a result, I will set myself to read two resources per week (that I have found prior to that slot)

Notes || Assigning a free to do my research was a very effective method. Having a set time slot made me focus more on my work and gave me some familiarity which I will continue using throughout my project even if assign frees to general EPQ work.

October;

Objectives || Make sure my experiment is written out and planned in detail and run it by my supervisor. I will also carry on with my research but will also neaten up my notes and make sure my blog is up to date.

Problems || Similar problems to last month being I will have an unknown amount of college work to complete. I also have more driving lessons as I will have my driving test and am going away in the half term.

Solutions || Allocation of a free to my EPQ work will make my research more productive. If I take some work away with me I can also complete it in the hotel room in the evenings.

Notes ||  I set myself to read 6 more sources during this time which I did successfully. I did however run into some issues with my experiment so I had to put it on hold for another month. I did my research very quickly so I think it would be a good idea to set myself more to read.

November;

Objectives || Buying the materials I will need for my primary research (if possible) and design an in-detail plan, including a back up if all fails. Consult with the people I will be using in my research to start taking averages. Also continue with research and a report plan.

Problems || I will need to revise for my November mocks. I will need to find time to complete EPQ work around college and need to find times that the people I will be conducting my research on.

Solutions || As I did in October, I have allocated slots in my timetable at college during frees to work on EPQ work, which will allow me to get everything done under focused conditions.

Notes || I designed a plan in detail for my research and ran it past my supervisor. I also researched different report/referencing styles I could use writing my report as well as making a layout plan.

December;

Objectives || Completion of Primary Research. Consolidation of my research (including summary notes) and starting written report.

Problems || I will have a history coursework draft to complete this month. As well as this the Christmas Holidays may keep me busy (due to work mainly.)

Solutions || Arranging set times to complete EPQ work so I can balance it with everything (for example allocating a day or two in the holidays to complete any work I need to.)

Notes || I was once again unable to complete my research due to the difficulty we have had obtaining the needed equipment. Speaking to my supervisor she advised I could leave out the experiment and just complete my report of surveys and my secondary research (however I did mention I may complete an observation or another interview to try and counter this)

January;

Objectives || Completion of research report. Analyse survey and write up findings.

Problems || I  will have a history coursework draft to carry on working on that will take a large amount of my time.

Solutions || Dedicate times in my timetable to both so I have enough time to complete it.

Notes || I completed and handed in my first report draft by my deadline.

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Learning New Skills: How to Plan/Contacting Experts

In a meeting today, we were given some more tips and information about effective planning and ways to contact experts as doing these efficiently will greatly increase our marks.

Planning

We were advised to complete our plan as soon as we could, mainly so we could get it checked with our supervisor before the summer.

A good plan has clear objectives with indication for success as well as being thorough, specific and detailed. As well as this, a plan needs to predict the activities, sources and problems we may complete/use/face as well as identifying solutions to any problems we face. Also, we can make notes about what we've learnt about each week from our planning for example we learnt to give less work if we are busy one week.

For my plan, I will set myself certain goals per week and set specific self-made deadlines to complete (objective) as well as a list of resources I will be using as well as problems/solutions. This way I will stay organised of what I need to do and by when so I can keep on top of my research.

Contacting Experts

As well as tips for our planning, we were told tips and given advice for the best ways to contact experts for our project. As contacting experts will give us good and trusted information as well as show our use of resources, we were advised to contact as many as possible, and to look on the internet, on university websites/open days, with friends and family and our teachers/supervisors who may specialise in our topic or know someone who does.

When contacting these experts, we were told to ALWAYS use the 4 (5) P's

Prepare in advance about what you want to know, so you aren't wasting time or finding the wrong expert.
Politeness. The more polite you are to the experts (using correct modes of address/grammar etc)
Precision, asking exact questions not asking for them to teach you a whole topic.
Persuasion and Patience, being persuasive in our email's or contact and also being patient when waiting for a reply is essential to get the answers you want, and using follow up emails in case they have forgot to reply.

As well as this, we were encourages to research the people before diving straight into the emails, and making notes about how the finding/interview went and recording/screenshotting their reply to put into our work.

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Learning New Information: Effective Research

Today we had a group meeting, in which our college librarian, Diana, showed us some different websites and tricks into optimising our research, all by what we type into different search engines. As a result of this, I decided to try it out.

1) InfoTrac

Infotrac, one of many information/article websites, allows you to search for news articles that may be relevant to your research. By using the advanced search, you are able to narrow down the articles to find what you want.
Infotrac is a collection of many news articles from a variety of newspapers. By using the advanced search, typing in key words and phrases that are relevant to the research, you can find articles relating or including the information you hope to find.





The main result being an array of articles on the screen. Even though for my results there are many articles that aren't relevant, by looking through the list I can hopefully find something, even if small, to help me with my project.



2) JSTOR



 Similar to Infotrac, JSTOR is a website that allows you to access articles, books and journals on a chosen topic. It also has an advanced search feature to get specific information.






With JSTOR, you can also choose a specific language, as well as the option to refine the type of text you find, as well as being able to choose a subject eg psychology.




After doing multiple attempts at an advanced search, I found some very useful articles about my topic, even if it did take me some scanning and reading.






3) Google (Advanced Search // Scholar)

We were then told how to use google the right way. Firstly using the advanced search instead of normal search, as it means we can narrow the results down from 100's of millions to a few thousand.
You can also select words you don't want in your search, which I personally found very helpful as music/art related results would come up otherwise.



Personally, I found google (advanced search) very helpful, as it got me many more results than both JSTOR and infotrac, results of which were also more specific to my topic.





As well as this, we were reminded of Google Scholar, where you can find research papers on your chosen topic. However, you can only freely access the ones with HTML/PDF's on the side which does limit your availability, however I still found a good range of material, including ones for specific sports which I may want to talk about in my report.

Friday, 26 June 2015

The Start of My Research

When clarifying my question, my supervisor mentioned that for my experiment I could use 'Cortisol Strips' to measure a persons levels of anxiety and stress.

So I started my research there. I found out that you can get these strips for a good price on many websites, and research into this also brought me to past research to do with my question, meaning as well as establishing an idea for a possible experiment, I also have past research to include in my research.

I am also finding Google Scholar a very helpful tool in my research, as it allows me to find trusted articles that have been published about my topic. As I am starting to get the basics to do with the how anxiety effects performance and how to manage it, I will soon know some aspects I may want to email or interview professionals in the industry about, and hopefully consolidate my knowledge.

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Forming a Question: Sessions 1+2 with my Supervisor

I had my first meeting with my Supervisor on June the 18th. Going into the meeting, I had a very broad idea of what I would liked to have based my question on, however didn't have specific ideas mainly due to the reason that even though Sports Psychology is a subject I'm extremely interested about, the only idea's I had were to do with information I've already learnt and therefore couldn't and didn't want to base my question on.

As a result of this, our meeting was pretty short, and  I was given a textbook to look through, as well as the use of Google Scholar at my disposal to try and get a list of ideas of anything we could work with to form a question.

I researched for a few hours at least, reading different articles and textbook chapters, and wrote down around 10 ideas I could do for my project, many of them linked in some way. I then narrowed my options down to 4 ideas that I really loved:
  • 'the effects of psychological factors on our sporting performance'
  • 'the preferred leadership/coaching styles of different groups of performers'
  • 'the effects of psychological factors on learning a new skill'
  • 'the effects of stress/anxiety on our sporting performance and ways to manage it'
I then completed a SWOT analysis of 3 of these ideas (as idea 1 and 3 are so similar I mixed them together) and then went into my next meeting with knowledge of the 4 ideas in better detail.

During my second meeting with my supervisor, we both agreed on the question 'The Effects of Stress/Anxiety on Sporting Performance and Ways To Manage It' as we believed it would be very interesting and make for a detailed and fun project, especially as I could not only use secondary research, I could also conduct my own primary research in the form of an experiment.

Friday, 19 June 2015

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunity/threats) Analysis of My 3 Final Ideas.


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// Idea 1 //

"To what extent do psychological factors/individual differences effect our sporting ability"

Strengths: 

- A topic I've always been interested in studying and knowing more about
- There's a lot of official research into the question
- I'd be motivated to research and carry out my EPQ to its fullest ability if i chose this question due to my interest in the topic.
- I can pick out relevant research easily therefore I can efficiently find information for my project
 
Weaknesses: 

- I might not be able to fully research every aspect of the question that I would like due to my other subjects and outside commitments (eg work / sports clubs)
- Some aspects have more information than others, so some parts of my qualification may be stronger than others

Opportunity:

- Project will allow me to develop my research and essay writing skills
- I can research something I really enjoy which will end in a project I will be proud of
- As a subject I want to do at university, it will help me start to both get skills for overall research and get an insight into the course I want to do.

Threats:

- Psychological Factors is a very broad idea, I would need to try get a range of different factors in my project to cover the range. 

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// Idea 2 //
 

"An Investigation into Preferred Leadership Style of Different Groups of Performers"


Strengths: 

- The analysis seems immersive and something that I will enjoy finding more about
- There's a good amount of official research into the question that is easy to talk about.
 

Weaknesses: 

- I might not be able to fully research every aspect of the question that I would like due to my other subjects and outside commitments (eg work / sports clubs)
- Not as much official research into this as my first idea which may impact 65% of my EPQ

Opportunity:

- Project will allow me to develop my research and essay writing skills
- As a subject I want to do at university, it will help me start to both get skills for overall research and get an insight into the course I want to do.
-It's also a subject I don't know much about, so I could get to learn afresh.

Threats:

- Groups of Performers is a very broad and vague idea, I would need to try get a range of different factors in my project to cover the range, and choose the most popular 'groups' which will have the most research behind it.

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// Idea 3 //


"How and why does anxiety inhibit sporting performance and what's the best way of managing it?"


Strengths: 

- I can pick out relevant research easily therefore I can efficiently find information for my project
- Once again, there is a good range of official research into the question
 

Weaknesses: 

- I might not be able to fully research every aspect of the question that I would like due to my other subjects and outside commitments (eg work / sports clubs)
-The question is split into two parts and I may not be able to efficiently research one part due to time or motivation

Opportunity:

- Project will allow me to develop my research and essay writing skills
- As a subject I want to do at university, it will help me start to both get skills for overall research and get an insight into the course I want to do.

Threats:

-The idea could be to broad, as many pieces of research are about a specific sport not sport as a whole.