Choosing a Research Topic

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Hi everyone,

I’ve posted some sites that I thought could be helpful in picking a research topic now, or for the future. It seems like such a daunting task because there are so many options, but I think it comes down to what interests you most, and what you would like to learn more about through completing an intensive project. Luckily, we have our mentors and other professors to help guide us in this process.

Here are the links; hopefully they spark some new ideas:

Psychology Topics by the APA

Stanford’s Undergrad Guide to honing in on a topic

Brandeis possible thesis topics (I really like this site, because it specifies different questions within various areas of psychology–health, clinical, social, neuro)

 

Hope this helps!

Daphne

About Daphne Palasi

Daphne is a junior at Baruch College and loves that Baruch allows her to read literature, write stories and poetry, and take classes with amazing faculty members. She has served as Managing Editor of Encounters Literary Arts Magazine and is currently Editor-In-Chief of the Bearcat Blogs. She works as a literacy tutor, a psychology research assistant, and a volunteer teaching assistant in a school for autistic children.

4 thoughts on “Choosing a Research Topic”

  1. Omg! Thank you so much Daphne for these wonderful sites! I have been trying to focus in on research related to eating disorders, obesity, depression, the media/social media, and other really interesting areas. But those are just general topics! These sites do a good job demonstrating what is currently being researched in those areas as well as the most headlining articles with new discoveries. I also like the thesis topics in the Brandeis website too, especially the person perception, depression risks, and the develop­mental pathways leading to aggression in children and adolescents. So thank you again for these useful tools! I will definitely be bookmarking them. 🙂

  2. I’m still having difficulty making personal posts for some reason, but this was a really interesting set of sites. I just also wanted to include a few sites that I found comparing different programs than that of the traditional PhD per our group discussion where a few of us really wanted to look into Master’s program. I think they do a good job of summing up the differences in tuition, career trajectory, and the sort of experiences you could hope to get out of it.

    http://www.psych.ufl.edu/files/graduate/getpsyched10.pdf

    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/grad-school-guru/201101/masters-versus-phd

    It also goes over the PsyD, which we haven’t gone over much but it is definitely worth looking into for people who have less of a desire to do research as part of their training.

    1. Hi Robert! Thanks for these sites. I’m still unsure myself as to whether or not I want to pursue at MA or a Ph.D degree, and I know there is a huge difference between the two, especially in terms of how research-intensive each degree is. I really liked the second site you posted because it was so clear in terms of highlighting the major differences between the two. I also enjoyed the frank, straight-forward tone. Most of all, I connected with the fact that one should really know what one wants to do/study before committing to graduate school!

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