Thursday, 17 March 2016

Final Drafts

I completed my final report draft, production log and made sure everything was in order ready to be submitted.

I emailed my supervisor my log.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

Project Evalutation

What Went Well:

- Motivation : throughout my EPQ I was on the most part highly motivated (with the exception of a few dips especially at Christmas.) This was mainly due to the fact I was completing my project about something I am passionate about and highly enjoy.

- Keeping to Deadlines and Research : finished my research to the loose time constrictions I set myself and kept to the deadlines I set myself and set with my supervisor.

- Skill Development : Research skill development that I can transfer to university and other subjects. Also increased my independence and confidence as I had to develop these to send emails, make interviews etc with people I did not know.




What Would I Change:

- Time Management!! Leaving a lot to the last minute, putting EPQ on the backfoot compared to my other subjects, forgetting I can get UCAS points from this. I wouldn't do this next time, I would put more focus on EPQ especially around times without coursework etc in other subjects.

- Complete experiment : could've adapted to get over cost however I did not think of this until afterwards.

- Keeping up to date with everything so I didn't feel as stressed as I did at points.

- Expert opinions : broaden out my search to sport clubs not just university lecturers.

General Source Evalutation

An evaluation of sources is an important part of a research project, as the use of sources that may be bias or unreliable may result in gaining information that is incorrect. I believe it is also important to gain information from a variety of sources as it will give you a range of information and allow you to confirm information is correct.

The majority of my sources are websites, as they are easy to find and read through and usually provide details on researchers or other sources you can access to find more information or factors you can discuss. One website I found particularly helpful was 'Athletic Insight' as it explained information in great detail the information and backed this up with vast amounts of research conducted by sports psychologists. I then used this to find their work and read it in depth to use in my EPQ.

However, websites can also be unhelpful in many ways. Usually, information is cut down to a minimum which can be useful to gain a base, but when needing to expand on information you need to find more websites or more specialised sources (eg textbooks or research reports.) As I also stated earlier, many websites may not provide accurate information for example Wikipedia as everyone can access and change this information.

As a result, the detailed majority of my information came from articles and research reports that I found on websites like Jstor and Google Scholar or I found as a result of my website searches. A good thing about these is the level of details you gain from using these, as it is very thorough and goes into the depth you need for a research project. They are also conducted by psychologists in the field who specialise on the topic you wish to know more about. However many of these cannot be accessed without cost and the ones you can access may not be entirely relevant to your topic. Furthermore due to the large detail they can also been hard to scan for information you wish to find or hard to understand.

In addition I also used textbooks in my research. Similarly to articles, they are written by people who specialise in their field and the information will have been scrutinised and corrected in peer review. However they can occasionally lack in detail also and are expensive to buy unless you have free access to them.

Report Draft 2 / Final.

My supervisor sent me back my report with comments about rewording/expanding parts of my work by explaining them further. She also mentioned that I had hardly talked about my primary research which I agreed with, so as I was updating my draft I made sure to incorporate my surveys, interview and observation into my report.

Presentation

Today I made my presentation. My audience was 8 of my friends and my supervisor. The presentation lasted around 20/30 minutes including questions.

I believe my presentation went well on the most part, especially after confronting my nerves (and getting the technology to work!)

I had prepared a presentation script prior to this however as I was presented I hardly used it and instead read off the board more than I was planning too with elaboration from my head. I felt this meant I was less reliant on looking down at the paper and could be more interactive with my audience. However this did lead to me not explaining parts as much as I wanted to and missing out parts I planned on saying (and lead to a lot of 'so yeah's and 'basically's)

Presentations is not something I enjoy doing and I get extremely nervous however I believe this experience was good for my confidence in speaking and especially as I spoke about something I enjoyed I found that I liked my presentation.

Monday, 7 March 2016

Interviews / Questionnaires

Following on from my survey, i decided to also decided to conduct an in depth interview (in the form of a questionnaire) on 3 of my participants. One of these was a GB youth sailor, one a county cricket player and one a very high standard football and cricket player. 

I asked a range of questions all open which allowed me to gain more detail and insight about why they felt the way they did prior to performing. 

When analysing the answers I found that the higher level performers interpret anxiety in a way that facilitates their performance mainly as they knew they could out perform their opponents.

Presentation Planning

As i near the end of the project I must plan a presentation about my work. This will include mg EPQ journey, talking about my research, what I have learnt, my report and most importantly will evaluate my project.

I will do this in the form of a PowerPoint as this will make it look professional as well as allow me to easily create it. I will write an accompanying script to go with this.

I will deliver this presentation to some friends and most importantly my supervisor who will then ask my questions about my presentation.

Friday, 4 March 2016

Presentation Creation

My presentation is a total of 23 slides long. In this I will talk about my research (primary & secondary), and an evaluation of this research. I also have planned on teaching my audience about some of the things I have learnt for example what anxiety in sport is. I have also included a few youtube clips (www.youtube.com/watch?wWbNQLD1SN0 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jG1TRFIj6c)




Sunday, 31 January 2016

Report Writing - Completion of First Draft

After completing and proof reading my first of my report, wrote just over 3500 words and made a bibliography including all my sources.

I am going to ask people to proof read my work to check for any grammatical errors or information errors and ask for feedback I can use to complete a second draft with.

Thursday, 21 January 2016

Report Writing - 1st Draft

I have started to work on the first draft of my report after created a detailed plan. I decided to split my report into two different parts to address each part of my question.

I am also finding that as I write sections of my report I am conducting more research to find more detail or studies with their evaluations. As a result I am able to add and consolidate my knowledge as I write my report.

Furthermore, as I write the draft I am finding it easier to link paragraphs and information together easier and I am also finding that 4000 words isn't as much as I thought it to be in the beginning meaning I have to condense my information and make sure I don't waffle or use unnecessary words in my writing

Monday, 18 January 2016

Overall Evaluation of Planning and Progress: June 2015 - December 2015

Starting my EPQ in June 2015, I had decided on my topic/focus for my question within a few weeks after starting the project knowing I wanted to base it around the subject of sports psychology. After this, I created a brief schedule to help me with my project.

 I originally planned to complete all of my research by September, had this information consolidated and backed up by primary research/expert opinions by October and then had a report written by the end of December to then be able to prepare for my presentation in January.

Self Evaluation: Plan

Originally my plan itself was detailed and working. I found that finding research as I went helped as it allowed me to keep relevant information together and meant when I was adding to my plan for later weeks I knew what I still had to do as well what I potentially could do. However, as the weeks especially in the summer holidays continued I found myself being unable to complete everything I had planned due to being busy with other college work, meeting up with friends or at work. As a result, I had to adapt my plan and lengthen it which I didn't intend to do. But by extending this plan I did complete more research which allowed me to find more in depth information that I can use to my advantage when writing the report. When I returned to college I allocated frees to keep me motivated complete EPQ work which I kept to, which allowed me to utilise the time I had. As a result, on the whole my plan was successful and I kept to it strictly, with the exception of times I had to alter the plan due to unforeseen circumstances.

Self Evaluation: Secondary Research

My secondary research was successful in many ways. I was able to find the fundamental information easily, and many websites included factors I could possibly explore during my answer. I found many research articles on search engines like Google Scholar and used textbooks to add to my research as well as compare the factors I found. The use of research over a period of time allowed me to consolidate my findings and allow me to think of more aspects to look at in my research which has given me a large yet detailed range to speak about.

Self Evaluation: Time Management

During my project I have realised I have underestimated the amount of time I had compared to the amount of work I needed to do especially when it came to research. I knew I had a lot of research to do however I didn't believe it would take as long as it has done and as a result I am behind where I had originally planned to be at this time. However I updated my plan/schedule so I am on track on my current plan.

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Survey Analysis

As primary research I decided to complete a survey. I completed this on Survey Monkey as it is a well known website that I have used before. I also knew the results were clearly understandable and easy to interpret due to its graph system with a breakdown.

I was able to use the results to add more information to my report and gain an understanding of anxiety from a persons perspective. I found 3 questions in particular especially helpful in my research:




These three especially I found to be in pattern the most with my research and fit my understanding the best.




Monday, 4 January 2016

Primary Research: Observation

Observation

I also believed actually observing a team performance may be beneficial in my investigation. I observed an U16 league  match against a weaker team than themselves and also a cup semi-final match. The team I observed are based in Horsley and are in the second highest division  (west Surrey boys)

During the league game the players had a very good performance both on and off the pitch. They were all very enthusiastic and had optimal levels of arousal which also showed when performing. Their team performance was outstanding with strong communication between them and good tactics that didn't break down. They rarely missed a pass and the majority of their shots were on target. All had good technique in their skills. They won the game 4-0. When I asked one of their players about their performance they felt they had adrenaline in their system and were up for the performance. He also said he was more ready for the game as they knew comfortably win. I interpreted this as the team having an optimal level of arousal and as a result not suffering from anxiety. However, the opposing team at one point had a penalty opportunity missed so I asked the player who took it how they felt. They said they were worried they were being judged by their team and the stress of the situation was high especially as at the time the score was 0-0. I interpreted this as the player suffering evaluation apprehension which meant his anxiety levels increased and he was feeling the cognitive and somatic symptoms of this which led to him missing. 

The semi final game however was a different story. The team looked nervous even when warming up and the vibe of the team seemed lower. The opposing team was top of the premier division of the age group. It was apparent the team was over aroused as they were missing basic passes, shooting with the wrong part of the foot etc. The final result was 4-1. 

I asked the players as a group why their performance was not as strong as I previously saw. They all emphasised the pressure of the match and the want to progress to the final an the expectations they'd set of theirselves may have been unrealistic to what they could achieve. One player mentioned they'd "bottled it" and said they did not communicate well as a team or use their tactics. One said they saw their captain give up and subsequently they gave up to (social loafing.) They also expressed the fact they knew the team was of a much higher quality than their own so they were nervous which they would not be in other matches.

I believed I could use this in my research as it showed the effects of the opponent on a persons performance.