7PS028 (Personality, Ability & Individual Differences) -

Live Assignment Q&A-20240416_170215-Meeting

Recording
April 16, 2024, 4:02PM
1h 6m 49s

Northey, Ruth 0:06

Hi everybody and welcome to this live assignment Q&A, 7PSO28, personality, ability
and individual differences. We are recording this session now, so if you're not happy
being recorded, please make sure you turn your camera off and the recording will be
made available to everybody tomorrow. So thank you so much for coming along this
evening.
We're going to start just by briefly introducing the staff who are here.
And then I'm going to tell you a little bit about how the Q&A will work. For those of
you who haven't been to one before. So my name is Ruth and I'm one of the
programme leads for the online programmes at University of Wolverhampton. We
also have Margaret with us. Would you like to introduce yourself, Marguerite?

Elcock, Marguerite 1:00

Hello everyone, I'm Marguerite and I'm one of the programme leads for the online
psychology Masters courses.

Northey, Ruth 1:08

Thanks. I'm both got Stephanie Brady, would you like to say hi Steph?
So Steph is another programme lead should be able to unmute your mic Steph.

Brady, Stephanie 1:20

Oh, it's alright, my bad. My name's Steph and I'm also one of the programme leads
for psychology.

Northey, Ruth 1:27

Thanks Steph. So that those are the the programme leads who are present tonight.
And we have another few members of staff also here who you may be familiar with
and what we're going to do is go through the brief. We're going to really focus in on
your second assignment. You've already submitted your first one, so we're going to
focus in on that. I've had quite a lot of questions submitted. So what I'm going to do
is I'm going to work my way through the brief and just highlight some key points to
you and answer your questions as I go along.
And then at the end, we'll be able to open AQ and a box. It will appear at the top of
your screen and you'll be able to submit written questions there just in case there's
anything that you wanted to clarify anything you're not sure about. We'll see what
time we've got left. We'll be finishing at 6:00. O'clock, but we'll be able to answer all
of your questions. If we can't answer them live right now, then we'll be able to
answer them for you later on. So let's get started.
Alright, working across two screens here. So OK right there we are so.
What I'd really like to start with, which is just really a a brief review of the task at
hand for your your second assignment, which is worth 70% of your overall grade.
Thinking about the keywords that are in this assignment brief, let's try and elucidate
that the main purpose of this brief of of all of this text that you're going to be writing
to be writing, you've got 2000 words. So so what's the key point of what you have to
do? And the question that the brief begins with is how accurate are personality tests?
So this is a question that I want you to have in mind as your as your writing and keep
returning to as you're writing. I like to write that the main question at the top of the
page and make sure that I'm going back to that regularly and asking myself, you
know, am I answering this question is what I'm writing here still relevant because you
can end up going down rabbit holes and getting distracted by by different things.
And there's a lot of information about personality tests. So we want to try and stay
focused here.
How accurate are personality tests?
Evaluate the utility of a personality test based on and. There's three things here that
you're going to base this evaluation on. Relevant personality theories, research, and
your own experiences as a participant. So you need to keep this overarching
question in mind. You're evaluating how useful this personality test that you've
chosen is in terms of its accuracy.
So that's your your main focus throughout this assignment, and that's what you need
to keep coming back to and checking. Is this what I'm doing? Am I achieving this
with with what I'm writing here? So to do this you're going to draw on three main
sources of information, which we've just set out. So firstly, your own experiences of
taking the test. So the first thing you need to do is you need to choose a personality
test, which we're going to talk a bit more about in a few minutes, and you need to
have access to that personality test so that you can answer the questions yourself.
So you'll go through the test, you'll answer the questions yourself, and as you go
through, you might want to make notes about your personal experience of taking
the test. Any questions that pop into your mind, any doubts, anything that occurs to
you really, as you're working your way through these questions and answering them
and that will form the basis of your personal reflections as you write this up.
So that's that's really an important task to begin with. And you've already been doing
this. You've already been doing this and practising this throughout this module. So,
so there shouldn't be something that's that's completely new to you at this stage.
Then you will draw upon relevant theories of personality from the psychological
literature you've been introduced to quite a lot of this in the various weeks of
content, and you've also got access to the library, so you can go and do your own
reading around each particular area that you've been introduced to. You might find
more theories, things that haven't been covered in class, and that's the the
independent research element.
And then you're going to be looking at relevant research. So first of all, your theory,
your explanations.
And then you're going to be looking at relevant research. So research using these
tests, research on personality maybe might be research where the participants have
done the test and they're looking at, you know, how reliable or valid it is compared
to another test or it might be some research about a particular personality trait. So
you're going to be drawing on theory and drawing on research. Just make sure
you're really clear about the difference between theory and research. And think make
sure that you're integrating both.
Into your write up and really crucial here is that you need to link each of these three
areas together, so it's not enough to treat them as separate areas. A reflection.
Section on theory, and then another section on research. You need to really show
that you can integrate these three areas together, and we'll talk a little bit more
about what that means.
So I've had a question who is the reader of this report? What's the report's purpose,
and are we trying to convince the reader of anything? So these are great questions.
So the purpose of this report is to evaluate the utility of a personality test in terms of
its accuracy and thinking about an audience. You're going to imagine an academic
audience, so you're not setting out here with a kind of a preconception that you're
going to convince the reader.
That a test is accurate or not. What you need to do is demonstrate to your academic
audience that you have these skills in evaluation. So what does this mean for you? It
means that you need to be able to weigh up the evidence in the academic literature,
which is the research I referred to earlier and really consider why this particular test
you've chosen might be accurate, or it might not be accurate and you're going to use
a theory here to to to back this all up.
And then you're going to relate that you're going to be relating that to your personal
experience of taking the test. So the key thing is you need to consider.
How and why a test might be more or less accurate and this is critical evaluation and
those of you that really bring in this critical evaluation to a high level will be able to
achieve a distinction in this assignment.
We've had quite a few questions about choosing a test.
We do want to give you some freedom with this. You're at master's level, so you
know this is part of the freedom that you get at this level to be able to, to direct your
work a little bit to to what interests you and make decisions about what it is you're
writing about. Do appreciate that for some of you, this could cause some stress. You
know, you're concerned about maybe picking the wrong test or something like that.
So I just want to reassure you a little bit here by answering some of the questions
that you've sent in about how to choose your test.
So we've had quite a lot of questions about specific tests, you know, will this test or
or that test be be the right one to use or which tests should we not consider? Or
does it matter which test we choose?
Would would a more recent test be better that kind of thing? So I suppose what I
have to say about this is I'm we're not going to start saying, Oh yes, you know, this
specific test is fine to use or this other specific test is not.
I think part of this is that you need to be able to demonstrate that you understand
what a personality test is and that you can select one to evaluate. How do you do
this? Well, you know what a personality test is, because you've been introduced to
them through the materials and what you need to really think about here is can this
personality test be linked to psychological theory and research that I have looked at
and read? You know, if you're going on to look for research and theory and you're
not finding anything that links to your test.
Maybe you need to think again about what you're doing.
You know all of your research doesn't necessarily need to be about that specific test,
but you do need to be able to make those links.
So I mean, I think you need to be careful that you're using a psychometric test. So
what does this mean? It means it's developed by psychologists using psychological
theory and testing techniques, so you're not going to go and choose an online
personality test that's been designed for fun.
Or or you know, for sharing on social media among friends, you want to choose
something that's been developed by psychologists so that you can evaluate it as you
would for an academic audience. And in an academic way. So just be careful here
with corporate personality tests because some may be, you know.
Psychological tests designed by psychologists, but some of them may not be so. So
just make sure that you've got a basis in the psychological literature. It's just making
it easier for yourself, because then you're going to have the literature you're going to
have the information at your fingertips when you're carrying out your evaluation.
Don't make it harder for yourself than it needs to be.
You should be able to access the test so that you can answer the questions. If you
can't go through the test questions and answer them yourself, how can you have a
first hand experience of that test and carry out the personal reflection element? So
please don't choose a test that's behind a paywall. We don't expect any of you to to
have to pay to be accessing tests. There are plenty of tests that are freely available.
You might find them. For example, you might find that the questions are detailed in a
paper where the test is used. It might be included in the appendix.
Or you may be able to to find the paper where the test itself was developed, and that
will list all the items in the test and it will tell you the scoring scale. So that's where
you need to be looking to make sure that you can access your your test.
You might find it easier to select a well known personality test that's been studied
extensively already, but it is up to you. You can choose something more recently
developed, as long as you're confident that you can evaluate that in light of the
literature that you can relate.
The academic literature that you've read around personality testing to this test, so
there is quite a lot of flexibility here, but hopefully those points will will just help you,
you know, head in the right direction when you're choosing the A personality test to
evaluate.
On a more practical note, some people have asked if they have to attach the test in
an appendix, so that could be useful. You can attach a copy of the test to your final
report if you feel it's helpful, but if this is done as an appendix, it wouldn't count
towards the word count. If it's just the the items, it might be useful because then you
could refer in your assignment to you know, when I, you know, read item 3.
This that you know XYZ and then we know what item 3 is because you've included it
in an appendix.
So so that may be a helpful way for you to to do it.
When someone's asked, how do how can we know whether it's a psychological test
or are not a biological test? So I'm not quite 100% sure what's meant by this
question and and if you want to to, you know, add something in to clarify that later
that that could be useful. There are examples of personality tests in the module
materials. They are tools to assess human personality. So as far as I know, there's no
biological test that you could use to assess human personality. So we're looking here
at.
You know questionnaire.
That people answer that will show some something about their personality. That's
what we're looking at here and we're looking for these tests that have been
developed by psychologists.
So we've talked a bit about how you're going to choose your test. You're going to
answer the questions, you make some notes so that you've got a basis for your
personal reflections. We're going to move on to talking about the main body of the
assessment. And this is where you really get into evaluating the accuracy of the test
to determine its usefulness as a personality testing tool. So some people kind of have
been tempted to go off here a little bit and start talking about the usefulness of a
personality test.
For example, you know in different contexts like mental health, hospitals or that kind
of thing or forensics, that's not really what we're asking you to do here. We're asking
you to look at the accuracy of the test to determine its usefulness. So just make sure
that you you stay on point here and you stay focused.
You're asked to to think about two to four key points that you're going to explore in
depth in this section, and we've said that because we want you to really focus in, to
make sure that you get the depth of evaluation that's required at masters level.
I mean, there's probably, you know, 10s of points that you could make about
personality test, but we're asking you to, you know, select what what you feel are the
points that you'd like to really expound on. And that's so that you can get the depth
in in there with your evaluation. So someone's asked me what's specific points are we
talking about that we should discuss? And that is up to you to decide as long as they
relate to evaluation of the personality test that you've chosen.
A really good starting point for identifying areas that you might want to cover in
your key points is the module materials. We've covered quite a lot of different
critiques of personality testing throughout the weeks, and then you can go on into
the literature and you can read further on those. So we look a little bit more detail
now about what these main points in the evaluation section are going to look like.
We've had quite a few questions about the personal reflections, so you're going to
write two to four points, and each point is going to start with a personal reflection on
your experience of taking the personality test that you've chosen, and this bit will be
written in the first person.
Somebody's asked when reflecting on the test. Should we include examples of our
answers? We're discussing relevant points of reflection, and the answer is yes, you
can include examples of your answers if these are relevant so you don't have to.
Write all your answers down for the sake of it. But you know when you're making a
point about something in order to make that point, you might need to say this is
how I answered it, and then I considered, you know, XYZ. So it may well be relevant
to include examples of how you personally answered the the questions. Just watch
your word count when you're doing that, and make sure that it's directly relevant to
the point that you're making.
Are we reflecting on different weeks online sessions or can we focus on a single
session, for example, reflecting on week one only? Or can you pick different weeks
for each point of reflection? So this is a question that's been submitted.
I think there's a slight misunderstanding here that the reflections are not related
directly to a week of content. The reflection is a reflection on your own experience of
taking this personality test, and when you write, these reflect these reflections. You
may draw on material from any of the relevant.
It's it's for you. It's about picking and choosing where you feel there's relevant
information and also extending that with your own research and. And that's for, you
know, particularly people who are aiming at getting a distinction in this course work.
You'll need to go and find your own research, find your own information. Well, that's
more in the theory and research section, which we'll talk about next. But for the
reflections, yes, it's not a reflection on the content of the weeks.
Reflection about your own experience of taking the personality test. So another
question.
When writing points in, the first person, is it OK to also use examples of other people
having completed the measure? If it is to support an argument or discussion? So I'd
just like to really caution you here because the first part of each point that you make
should be a personal reflection and that's personal to you. You should never ask
other people to complete the test.
And discuss their answers, because this would actually be a breach of ethics. It would
essentially be collecting data from another person. So even if it's your partner or your
friend, if you're asking them to complete a psychological test and then you're sharing
their answers in your assessment, for us that would be a breach of ethics and it
would result in a fail for you. So please don't do that. This is about your personal
experience of of of completing this this test but.
You may cite research from the psychological literature, which will involve probably
people who've participants who've taken the test.
And the ethics of that is covered under the ethics of that study that you are citing.
But we'll talk about that later because it's not in the personal reflection section. So I
hope that's clear. And we've had a few questions about the reflection itself and how
to go about it. So somebody's asked. I've read the reflective practise document,
which is helpful. I wonder if there's any further recommendations on writing good
reflections and some examples, and someone else has asked what importance does
the reflective practive practise cycle have in the assessment? And are we expected to
strictly follow this?
So I think that there's a reflective element to this assessment, but there's quite a big
chunk of it is about research and theory as well. So the reflective element of it is a
small part. So don't get too carried away with writing too in depth about your
personal experiences because you need to balance the word count with all of the
other things that you need to include here. So I think if you look at the example in
the assignment brief, you'll see that there's only a few sentences.
Suggested for for each personal reflection.
You've got your two to four points, so you might have. Let's say that you decide to
make four points. You'll have 4 brief personal reflections, and those will probably just
be a few sentences each. The reflective practise cycle does not have to be strictly
followed, but this is really an opportunity for you to show that ability to reflect and
then to link that to research and theory. And it's making all of those links that's really
important. And that's what we're going to talk about next.
So I've covered your questions that focus in on personal reflection and we're going
to move on to talk about the next little bit. So after you've written a point, a few
sentences, your your personal reflection on a particular aspect of taking this test,
you're going to follow that up with a paragraph which links to the reflection, but it
links it across to research and theory. And we've got some questions about how to
do this.
So a few questions. How best can I approach my assignment using my personal
experience and linking it to theories? How can I better articulate a personal opinion
with the personal tests theory so so I guess these questions are really about making
these links and what you need to do here is you need to draw out an aspect of your
personal experience which relates to the accuracy of the test. So make sure that
you're quite focused in your reflections. It's not just.
How did I feel about this? It's, you know, your reflections on the accuracy of the test
and the utility of the test in this context. So for example, you might feel unsure how
to answer one of the questions because you you think that the answer could differ
depending on your mood that day. So that aspect of it is your personal reflection
and then you would move on to link this personal reflection to your theories that
could be for example around.
State trait personality characteristics you've you've studied.
State and trade theories, so you might want to make some links to that and then you
might want to consider some research that's been done specifically on personality
tests, maybe on the the personality test you've used, maybe personality tests more
broadly on test retest reliability. So you would then be maybe drawing in that
research. That's just an example of a kind of a sequence that you you might follow
and how you you link all these aspects together to make a single point.
But you're drawing on on different, different things. Personal experience, theory and
research. To do that, you're you're bringing it together.
And that's what the best assignments will do. They will bring it together. They will
have a flow and they'll bring all of this together into a coherent whole. It's quite a
challenging assignment in many ways, but a really, really good one for you to to get
that critical synthesis and really develop those, those evaluation skills that you need.
So another question.
When we look at research, does it need to be specific to the tool or can it be research
evidencing reflections like validity that has been applied to other tools so it doesn't
need to be all specific to the personality test you've chosen? It's really good if you
can bring in some stuff specific to that test, but you can also draw on wider literature,
but you must make it relevant. You must show the relevance to the test that you're
looking at so so you must be able to apply it and show that you can apply that.
What is the relationship between personality test and personality theory?
So you're going to use theory, which is to put it as simply as I can. It's psychological
explanations of human personality. So. So you're going to take those explanations in
the literature of personality and, and you're going to use those to evaluate the test,
the personality test that you choose. So. So make sure that you're clear on the
difference between them. And then you can make the links.
Rubric refers to academic literature twice, yet there's no requirement to write a
literature review. What is the rubric referring to? So I think probably whoever asked
this could probably answer this themselves based on what I've already said this
evening that the the it's the research and it's the theory that you're going to to draw
that from the literature and you're going to use that to evaluate the personality test.
So when we say literature, it's that term that we use for all of the theory, the research,
the papers that have been written and published in academic journals.
And that's the body of work. That's. That's what we mean when we say the literature
and you're going to be to be drawing on that. So a literature review is, is, you know, a
term that we use for a critical evaluation of literature. And often it is a specific subset
of a published paper. But in this case, we're asking you to use the literature in a
slightly different way.
So so definitely you need to to draw on the research and the theory from the
literature here. Hopefully that's made that clear.
Does the assignment include talking about others other theories, or is it just centred
around the personality test?
So yes, you should draw on broader personality theory as part of your evaluation of
the personality test. So think about what you need to demonstrate here. You need to
demonstrate knowledge from your module so it's it's centred around the test, but
you're going to be drawing on broader theories.
And you're going to be applying it. So what we want you to do is show that you
really understand these theories and this research by applying to an evaluation of a
specific test.
It would be helpful to understand the expectation with regard to the amount of
independent references, research articles, and someone else's asked. Do we have a
limit of references so those of you who've been with us for several modules will know
that the answer to this is that we never give you a number of references that you
must have in an assignment because it is entirely, you know, independent,
independent to each individual. Sorry to each student. So it will be up to you and it
will be.
About how you write what you're writing for your assignment, so a distinction level
piece of work is going to show a really in depth and systematic understanding of the
literature. So you're going to to be drawing on, you know, citations on references.
But it's not about a number count. We don't go in when we're marking and go, oh,
this person has 20 references. Must be a distinction. Actually you can put 20
references in and your piece of work could be entirely descriptive.
So what we're looking for here is about your ability to really critically evaluate those
papers and to support the points you make with references. It's not about the
number of references. Obviously, if you go in and you write a whole load of of really,
you know, critical evaluative stuff, but you don't have any citations to back it up, then
that's going to be a real problem. So it's, but it's about, you know, making sure that
you get those citations in.
You're using them to show that knowledge of the area show that knowledge of what
you're discussing.
How new should the research be on which we will base our work so it's good practise
to try and include some recent literature which we would say is generally less than
five years old?
Most of the literature you cite should be less than 10 years old, but there are times
when it's appropriate to use classic theories. You know, we have a lot of classic
theories in psychology, and if you're confident that those classic theories are well
supported by research over the years, then you can absolutely draw on those.
So so I think what what we're looking for here in the best pieces of work will be will
be that knowledge of recent literature, but also that knowledge of of which theories
are well researched, where where does the evidence lie over the years, you know,
evidence.
Builds up and, and that evidence can show quite strongly. You know, for a theory, or
it could even discredit a theory. Or it could show that actually the evidence is mixed.
And so this is where your evaluative skills come in.
It's about showing knowledge in a field in an area of research and drawing on that,
and by showing your knowledge of the most recent research, you're showing that
you're up to date in that field, you're showing that you've gone, and you've looked
for the most recent research.
And that you're up to date if you like. With that, that body of knowledge.
Some questions on structure now. Should the report include a title page? No, there's
no need for a title page when it all is submitted through your link, it's all submitted
via your student number, so it's linked to. You can't be mixed up with anybody else's
work, and there's no requirement for a title page. What is the word count? The word
count is 2000 words. We have a 10% leeway on that. So as long as you don't go
more than 10% / 2000 words.
In your your whole report. Then there will be no penalty anything 10% over more
than 10% over there will be a penalty applied. So please stay within the the word
limit and that 10% leeway in the assignment brief you've been given an indicative
word count for each section. It does vary quite widely, so we have left quite a lot of
flexibility in that for you to decide where you want to to focus your word count.
So as long as you stay within the overall word count, you do have some flexibility
within the sections to choose. Obviously, your evaluative section needs to be
adequately in depth.
And you don't want to skim on your introduction and conclusion either, because
those are very important parts of of your piece of work.
If you have an appendix that just simply lists the tests, the questions in the test that
you've used, then that won't be counted as part of the word count. If you put in an
appendix and start writing loads of stuff in it then.
Obviously we will have to count that. So we'll just be sensible about it.
Right. So just about style, should we use the first person throughout or also use the
academic we or perhaps something else. So for the bits that are your reflections,
you're going to use the first person and then you're going to move into third person
as you discuss theory and research. So it sounds a little bit awkward, but you will be
flowing between these different ways of writing. So you'll have your first point and
your evaluative section and it will begin in the first person, then it will move into the
third person. As you discussed theory and research.
And you'll be going back as you go into your second point, you'll be going back to
first person as you bring your personal reflection in back to third person to discuss
theory and research, and so on. So you will be switching between the two.
What is the structure of the assignment so there is a clear structure laid out for you
in the assignment brief, and I'll just recap that quickly for you.
Right. So you start with an introduction to personality testing.
This introduction.
Will cover some of the broader benefits and pitfalls of personality testing more
generally, so it's not about your specific test that you've chosen. It's more of a
general introduction now. This is where it gets a bit tricky. I think there's a really an
awful lot you could discuss here. I mean, you could write a whole book about
personality testing.
So what you really need to do here is try and focus on the areas that are broadly
relevant to the main points that you're making in your work. So thank you for an
example. If one of your points discusses some aspect of the validity of the test that
you've chosen, then you should use the introduction to introduce this concept of
validity and personality testing and discuss its importance in general terms. And that
really sets the scene.
You later on to then get into the specific issue you have with the validity of a
particular test, right? So so your scene setting in your introduction, but you don't
want it to be so generic that it's not relevant at all to the rest of the work that you're
writing. So what you really might want to think about here is writing your
introduction after you've done your evaluation of your individual test, because then
you can pick out, right? This is the the theme of my first point. This is the theme of
my second point, my third.
And now I'm going to introduce each of these broadly in my introduction. So you
might want to do it the other way around if you like. So have a think about that and
the best way to approach it.
Then you're going to have a brief introduction to the specific test that you've chosen,
and there's some particular things that you need to include, and those are covered in
the assignment brief. Then you've got your main body, the evaluation. We've already
been through that in quite some detail. Your two to four points. We've talked about
how that's going to work and how you're going to do it.
And then you have a brief conclusion, and the conclusion's really important and a lot
of people.
What they tend to do with the conclusion is just repeat some of the main body or
kind of summarise the main body and your your best conclusion is is going to come
to some kind of if it's going to be your evaluation, it's going to be going back to the
key question. So the key question evaluating the accuracy of the test.
So to what extent was it accurate? To what extent was it not accurate? What's your
overall impression of test accuracy based on what you've just looked at and you can
suggest how it could be improved to make it more accurate? So that would be quite
a nice little conclusion there to this piece of work. The important thing is the flow.
You know, you want to be looking at threads that carry all the way through your
work rather than seeing each section as a distinct section.
So when you when you read over it again and you've written, look for those threads.
See can I follow this thinking through from introduction to evaluation, application
theory research, personal experience and all the way through to the conclusion.
We've got some questions about references. We've already talked about why we
won't give you a number of references that you need to have, so I'm not going to
cover that again, are we required to use APA referencing? Yes, you are. Unless you
are studying.
Business psychology as your degree, in which case you're the MBA students I believe,
are allowed to use Harvard referencing, but the vast majority of you who are doing
one of the straight psychology degrees will be using APA referencing.
So yes, please always use APA referencing.
Marking there's a couple of questions about marking who will mark the report so
your work is marked by an online facilitator.
Usually the online facilitator that's been in your classroom, but that may that may
vary. It'll be somebody from our online facilitator team who will mark your work.
The turn around IS is 3 weeks.
Somebody's asked about the percentage, so your work will be marked as a whole. It
will be marked out of 100. It will be given a standardised grade.
And then that will be converted into that will be 70% of your overall grade for this
module and your other piece of work that you've already submitted will be converted
to be 30%. So this is worth 70% of the the overall.
The overall module grade, but it is marked out of 100 not out of 70.
We'll exploring 4 points, grant a higher grade than expected.
Or two, even if the two are explored more thoroughly, that's a really good question.
There isn't a clear answer to that. You know, you could explore four points, but you
might not do it in a very critically evaluative way.
And you might sit with a pass or a commendation. You could explore two points, and
you might do it really in depth with, you know, really great critical evaluation.
That might push you up to distinction level, so I think it's really about what what you
write rather than the number of points.
With four points, you'd have to be very concise and make sure that you're making
your critical evaluation clear within that, that concise writing.
But I mean it's it's really up to you how you approach this.
And some points, you know that there might be more more to say or more research
to cover so.
Now it's it's at your discretion.
So.
Someone's asked for some practical tips on how to aim for higher marks than just to
pass, so I've as we've been going along, I've been trying to answer this for you a bit
and kind of give you a description in different sections of what might you know,
result in a in a distinction.
In the key here really is criticality, so it's it's not just listing lots of research, you know
that that says different things you because you could just list it and say, well, this
research said that and there's other research said the other.
It's about really using your understanding of that literature, that research that theory,
to explore. What is it that makes the test more accurate? What is it that makes it less
accurate? And how can you evaluate the research and theory in relation to this? So
you're not just describing or listing points from the literature you're evaluating and
you're coming to your own conclusion about the the overall accuracy based on your,
your, YOUR evaluation?
And how you've explored it. So having that criticality and and the other thing that
that will get you the higher grades is integrating all the aspects of of this piece of
work as a whole, making it coherent from start to finish, making sure that your
introduction ties into your analysis that ties into your conclusion and your conclusion
brings you back to your original question, answers it and that that conclusion is
based on you know, the work that you've been building up through the the
evaluation in the main body.
So you know both of those things are are going to really help push you up into
distinction level.

Elcock, Marguerite 40:19

I I just put my hand up there. Ruth. I can just interrupt just to say the words that I've
written down for tonight. So our critical evaluation apply and criticality. And if you're
not sure about criticality, because this is a conversion master score since some of you
may not come from a background where you've, you know, written with this critical
style before go out there and have a look on the Internet at criticality, critical
thinking, critical writing in psychology, there is so much out there that you can have a
look at. It's about that structure. It's about that evaluation.
It's about not being descriptive. Some of you, I'm sure, come from a background
where your first degree is probably in something where you write in a very
descriptive style. My natural writing style before I got into the world of psychology
was very descriptive. And then you get your mark back and you think, well, I've said
everything I know about this subject. Why haven't I got a good mark? It's because
you haven't really linked and you haven't got that criticality. So I think if there's a
take away from tonight, it's to go away. If you're unsure and just have a look at what
it means to write critically, there is some super stuff out there on the Internet about.
For writing in psychology, so just go and have a look at that.

Northey, Ruth 41:28

Oh, great. So I've just opened the Q&A. So you should now see a button at the top
of your screen.
That says Q&A. So we've got about 15 minutes. So if there's anything that hasn't
been covered.
And you feel and it or if you want to put your hand up, and you'd prefer to ask a
question, you can put your hand up.
And we'll we'll do our best between us.
To answer.
Jenny.

Northcote Jenni (RLT) Chief Strategy, Improvement and Partnerships Officer

42:05
Thank you. So I've got quite I've got quite a specific question because I'm I'm actually
going on holiday and I've started the assignment earlier than I would have done, so I
had to start it before the the Q&A. Slightly concerned because one of the tests that
I've I've chosen to use is is a call it had is used in the corporate world. But I checked it
was registered with BPS as a psychometric tool, but I don't necessarily think it's been
developed by a psychologist, but it is based on psychology theory. So I just it wasn't
didn't say, in the rubric that you, you know that it's, you know that specific.

Northey, Ruth 42:06

Hi, Jenny.

Northcote Jenni (RLT) Chief Strategy, Improvement and Partnerships Officer

42:42
Point, but so I just wanted to just check that if I'm using something that is classed as
a psychometric tool is registered with bps, that would be fine.

Northey, Ruth 42:50

Yes. Yeah, I think that's the. I think that's the key. It's a psychometric tool. I I think
what I was getting at was was try to avoid going on the Internet and finding, you
know, someone's done a fun quiz, what personality type are you? You know, are you,
you know, a cat or a dog or a, you know, it's that kind of thing.

Northcote Jenni (RLT) Chief Strategy, Improvement and Partnerships Officer

43:01
Yeah. Perfect.
Yeah, that's next.
Yeah.
Yes. No, that's fine. No, that's that's how that's helpful. I just wanted to double check
because I like, but. But yeah, those are the sorts of things I looked at like, had you
got some validity behind it. Had you got some testing behind it, etcetera. But but
thank you. Thank you. Put me at rest. Thank you.

Northey, Ruth 43:12

That yes.
Yes, OK.
No worries. So I'm just gonna do a couple of questions that have been put into the
chat here and then we'll go back to people who've got their hands up. Can I use the
same research and theory for more than one of my points, or does each point need
to have a different theory and research? So I think the answer to that is that different
points need to be different enough that they're going to cover differing aspects of
this test that you're going to explore. So you will be using different research and
theory because you'll be looking at points that will be different.
If your points are all able to be backed up with the same research and theory, your
points are probably too similar to each other, and you maybe need to look a little bit
more widely, read a little bit more about the test about the the different aspects of
personality testing so that you can make distinct points in in your work.
So I've got a question. Steph, I think you could answer that. If you're here, I'll read it
out for you. Will we receive the Week 4 results before submitting this assignment?
Yep. Steph, could you answer that one?
Brady, Stephanie 44:43
Yes. Yeah. So it's a good question. I am aiming to release all outstanding grades by
this Monday. So yes, you will have them back before the submission for this
assessment is due. I know it's obviously.
Been quite difficult with the IT disruptions and things, but with this particular module
all grades are returned within three weeks and this falls within the usual parameters
so it will be Monday at the latest. If I can get them back any earlier than that I will,
but they will be back before this assignment is due to be submitted.

Northey, Ruth 45:21

Thank you.
So Nicholas asked.
Would you add the points you are making in the assignment to your introduction?
No. The introduction is is to be general, so it's not going to be the specific points
that you're making in the introduction. It's going to be the introduction are going to
be general, but it's going to be relevant. So it's it's like a, it's like a foundation. So you
know what you want to do in your introduction is you want to layout a foundation.
Upon which you later then go into the detail of making your point. So it's about
making sure that you've introduced that in the general sense before you then go into
the specific.
The specific test.
And and the specific points that you're making. So just be careful because you don't
want your introduction just to end up being a repetition of the points that you that
you subsequently make.
OK, so I've got quite a lot of questions here, so I'm just trying to look through.
Is it OK to link back to when I have done the same test previously several years ago,
as well as doing the test for this assessment, the relevance would be the different
environment. I mean yes, you could do that. You know, you might even decide to
take the test on two different days and then draw your personal reflections from that.
That would be that would be fine. I don't see a problem with that. Just don't get too
carried away on the personal reflections that you don't leave enough words for the
the research and the theory.
Someone is concerned that the questionnaire the personality test should have some
faults. If it's too good, there would be no way to critique it. Is this a faulty conclusion?
So I can assure you that every single personality test in existence can be adequately
critiqued for this assignment.
That is something that I can I can assure you of. So if you're not finding any ways to
critique the test, you might want to read more broadly, or you might want to choose
a different test if you feel that there's more readily.
Accessible information that you can use for that particular test. OK, hope that's
helped with that one.
Should we have theory or research in the introduction to personality testing? Yes, but
it's going. It's going to be general. Remember, a general introduction. So you want to
be introducing some of these concepts, some of the research, some of the theories.
So I would say that that, yes, you probably will want to include some theory research
in that introduction as you feel is relevant to you.
Will choosing a test we didn't cover in the module lead to higher marks? No, it won't
automatically lead to higher marks.
You can get, you know, it's about what you write at the end of the day, so it's it's if
you choose a test that's covered in the modules and you write about it really well
and you hit all the points in the rubric, you'll get a high mark. If you choose another
test that wasn't covered and you do the same, then you'll get a high marks. We're
not going to distinguish in that way.
Right. Let's see. Felicity, you've had your hand up for a while. Hello, Felicity.
You have to unmute your mic.

Paterson, Felicity J. 49:08

Sorry. There we go. There we go. Thank you. I sound like a broken record here. I do
apologise about the the tests. I think it's just really, really important to get my head
around it. So I'm looking at you. The Myers Briggs Test and obviously looked into it
quite a lot, though they were psychologists. It was a mother and daughter team to
begin with. So I just want to check that. That's OK and also with the Myes Brig test
within the module within the weeks.

Northey, Ruth 49:09

It's OK. Hello.

Paterson, Felicity J. 49:38

Obviously the link that was attached to that was for the free 16 personality types test,
which isn't necessarily the Myers Briggs test. It's a free version of it. So it which is
loosely based on Myers Briggs obviously, but I just wanted to check that that it was
OK to use the free 16 personalities test which was linked.
In the week.
Be able to use that, or should I, which I don't mind paying for it, but.

Northey, Ruth 50:11

So so I think, yeah, I can, I can understand I can understand your concern. I think a lot
of people are get get quite hung up and worried that if they choose the wrong test
that something they're going to fail. Everything that that's not what we're trying to
do here. What we're just what we're trying to do is just steer you away from those
kind of fun online personalities because some people would would not distinguish
between that more kind of you know analysed type personality as the psychometrics.
That have been studied and have been developed and and you know and and tests
that have been studied in the psychological literature, even if they were developed a
long time ago and not they might not have been developed in a way that is in line
with modern, you know how how we would do it now. But if they've been developed
sort of within psychology and they've been looked at, they've been explored, they've
been researched that it's absolutely fine. Please don't. Don't get too hung up on
specific types of tests. It's going to be highly unlikely that we're going to fail
somebody.
Paterson, Felicity J. 51:01
OK.
It's.

Northey, Ruth 51:14

For choosing, you know a test, I mean, if it's all about applying it and showing that
you can apply it and showing that you can draw on this this theory and research just
wanted, like I said to Steve away from from some of the the online content that that
might not be as appropriate and the only reason that I'd be steering you away from
that is because there just might not be as much that you can relate and and and
you're going to struggle to to do that full analysis with it. That's the only reason. So I
hope that's that's clarified that.

Paterson, Felicity J. 51:14

OK.
OK, so you don't you don't want me to fill in the. Which Viking am I gonna marry?
Sort of test.

Northey, Ruth 51:48

No, that guy? Yes, exactly. So, although I don't, maybe that would make an
interesting assignment.

Paterson, Felicity J. 51:53

Thank you.

Elcock, Marguerite 51:55

But at the other end of the Spectrum, Ruth, we're not asking people to go and buy
anything that's behind a paywall, are we?

Northey, Ruth 51:59

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. No, we're not asking you to buy anything. There's
plenty available for free.
You know, generally if there's references to this test in the psychological literature,
then you know you'd probably be be good to go.
Karen.
Hi, Karen.

James, Karen C. 52:23

Hi. Hi. Yeah, just regarding the theories really, so are we when writing it, can we
presume there's a understanding of a general understanding of the academic
theory? So for instance, if you're talking about social learning and theory, can we
write it that the reader will obviously know what social learning theory is about, if
that makes sense? Because normally you go into what the theory is and then how it's
applicable. But if you're just putting it, how it's applicable to your research.
Northey, Ruth 52:47
Hmm yeah.

James, Karen C. 52:53

We haven't got the workout to do that as such.

Northey, Ruth 52:54

Yeah, you don't. You don't need to go into kind of the background of each theory
because you wouldn't have enough words to do that. What you need to do is show
demonstrate that you understand the applicability of that theory to what you're
talking about. So you know, if you can demonstrate that you understand how it
applies, then you're showing that you understand the theory and you know how to
apply it. You don't need to go into a paragraph of description about that theory. So,
but but if you mention a theory but don't make those links and and don't show how
it can be applied, then how will the marker know?
That you actually have understood how it's connected.

James, Karen C. 53:34

Yeah, I think I was just thinking that we can assume that the reader has got some
kind of new. You know we don't have to explain to that. We can assume the reader
knows what the theory is, yeah.

Northey, Ruth 53:36

Is that?
Yeah.
Yes. Yes, it's an academic. It's an academic audience. So. So you're making your your
argument. You're you're you're showing your critical evaluation. You know, as as an
academic, it's academic writing. So. So yes, I think, yeah, I think we we understand
each other on that one, right. Yeah. OK great. Sacha.

James, Karen C. 53:57

Yeah. Thank you.

Northey, Ruth 54:03

I'm sorry if I haven't pronounced your name correctly.

Bowe, Sorcha 54:07

I hear all sorts.
Conscious of the limitations of basing your views on the accuracy of personality tests
in general, based on one specific test, especially as the test test I've chosen isn't
known for being that accurate. So I'm wondering about like making reference to
maybe one or two other tests without taking the focus away from like without
changing the actual answer to the question which is to focus on one test.
I don't know if I've phrased that correctly, but basically can we can we?
Study more than one test.
While remain while keeping the focus on one test.

Northey, Ruth 54:53

Mm hmm, that's a good question. So you are asked to focus in on one test. I think
though what the point that you're making is an interesting one, because when you
come to look at research about personality testing, you know it may be that there are
papers which compare different types of tests. So they may have a pool of
participants who are taking two or three different tests and then they're comparing,
you know, the results or and that's maybe making some relevant points about
validity and reliability of those tests.
So there's certainly may be occasions when it would be relevant to include that kind
of thing in your analysis. Just be really, really careful that you're not coming away
from the core purpose, which is to evaluate the usefulness of this personality test
that you've chosen. And if you feel that you're not going to be able to do it with that
test, then you might need to choose a different test.

Bowe, Sorcha 55:50

That's I think it.

Northey, Ruth 55:50

OK. Yeah, right. OK, we've got just a minute or two left. I'm just going to have a look
again at the Q&A's that have been coming in again. If we can't get through,
everybody, please don't worry.
The questions actually remain in this meeting and you can come into the meeting
afterwards and you can look at the Q&A's and I, we can pop up written answers in
too, so.
OK.
Can we use the theories that we used in the previous assignment? I presume that
means the assignment about the the first one that you did in this particular module
with the case study I mean.
But there's there's no rule that says that you cannot reference the same theory.
But these assignments have two very different purposes, so it's very likely that that
you're going to be using a different sort of set of theories and research and using it
in a different way.
We're not going to be looking and going, oh, this person mentioned this theory and
their first assignment, and I've mentioned it again here and we're going to take
points off. You know, we're not going to be doing anything like that.
But you know, if you you need to really focus in on the purpose of this assignment
and show that you understand the relevant theory and research for what you're
being asked to do here, and that is going to be different to what you've done
previously. So I would say that you could certainly expect to do quite a significant
amount of extra, you know, reading and research compared to what you've already
done for the first assessment.
Can the critics be nonspecific to the test? For example, I notice I always tend to try to
be socially desirable when taking any psychometric test.
Yes. OK. So yes, you what you can do is?
You can recognise a particular point and it might be something like social
desirability.
And then you you need to say what is it about the the particular test that you've just
taken, the questions that have been asked, what is it about that that has made you
experience that or think that way? So we we don't want you to just be doing generic
critique, we want to see.
That these critics are based on your experience of taking the test and your
knowledge of the research and the theory. So, so you need to really have that
personal reaction to the test. And it may be that, you know your social desirability. So
you'll need to think, what is it about this test? What is it about these questions that's
that's provoking these feelings and you need to be quite specific about that. So I
would say that you you your critics do need to be specific to the test, but then you're
going to kind of branch out.
A little bit when you're discussing the theory and research a little bit more widely, but
remember the focus of the assignment, the accuracy, the utility of this test, that's
what you're you're looking at in your evaluation section.
Will the type of references influence the mark? For example peer reviewed or non
peer reviewed? Or books? That's a really good question. So at masters level we
expect you to be reading peer reviewed journals and you have access to these
through the library. There's a skills section skills guide in the library website that you
can use if you're not sure about accessing anything through the library, but we would
expect you to be really focused on peer reviewed journals. Textbooks at this level
they're a really good starting point to get a good overview of a topic.
They're also really good, you know, for pointing you to.
Which papers do you need to read? So you might read a chapter and you might note
five or six papers that have been incited in that chapter. And you think that sounds
really interesting. I want to read more about that. Then you look, those peer reviewed
papers up, you read them and then they may cite other peer reviewed papers and
and so forth. So that's how you sort of begin your journey into the literature. I would
say textbooks at this level are more of a starting point. If you wrote your entire.
Piece of work and you only cited textbooks.
That's not going to get you to the level that you need to be at. You really need to be
evaluating your peer reviewed journal papers.
Is there a preference for certain articles, specific types of studies, review articles,
etcetera? I mean, we want you to bring in theory, we want you to bring in research.
There's there's all different kinds of research that has been done. It has different
strengths and weaknesses. Those of you that are able to critique that research and its
strengths and weaknesses are going to be getting the highest marks. So if you're
able to, you know, say, well, there is all this research on this, but but all of it is
actually quite associational research. So it's not really showing evidence of any
causality.
You know, that kind of thing then then that sort of critique is is always really useful.
But but again, you just want to be careful not to let that take over the the whole
assessments. There's a lot of different things going on here in this assessment. So I
wouldn't say there's a a preference for specific types of studies.
But as you as you look through your degree, you'll learn, for example, that systematic
review is considered to be kind of the top of this evidence pyramid, so systematic
reviews.
Are are considered to be a very solid piece of of evidence, whereas an individual
research study.
Is valid evidence, but it it could maybe have a weak methodology, or perhaps there
are several studies that actually show something different different findings, and
that's where systematic reviews and meta analysis is really interesting because it
brings together lots of different studies and evaluates them together. So there are
lots of different types of evidence. You're right. And and you can hone your your
skills in evaluation.
Looking at those.
Could we include our personal test results in an appendix? It's not necessary to do
so. You can refer to your results as you go through with bits that are relevant. It may
or may not be be necessary to include all of that, so that's really up to you how you
how you want to structure that.
And.
Would you recommend doing the psychometric test and noting down questions and
observations as you go along that you can then explore via research and use as your
points? Yeah, I think your starting point here is do the test and make notes and just
brainstorm. You know that that's going to be your starting point and it might be that
you end up with, you know, all the scribbles around the margins of your test and it
might be that when you go into the theory and the research you might pick out or
you know actually these particular scrabbles these notes, they relate quite well to this
whole body of work. So I'm going to pick those out and I'm going to use those for
my essay.
Might be that quite a lot of your original notes that you make, you don't even take
those forward into the into the the essay, but you you start off with that, that
brainstorming process.
Right.
In the conclusion, do I need to cite my own writing? No, you don't need to cite your
own writing, so so you'll be drawing a conclusion.
Based on on what you've already written, you don't need to kind of cite yourself.
The the mid course summer, yeah, we've already covered this one. It's a three-week
turn around for the.
The the coursework that you've already done, so you should have that before you
have to submit.
Right. I think we've we've pretty much covered everything, Steph. There's a few
people asking about when they're going to get their results back from previous
modules. I don't know if you wanted to just quickly update on that.

Brady, Stephanie 1:04:29

Which one, sorry.

Northey, Ruth 1:04:31

Asking about the results from research methods, the previous modules, the ones that
are being marked at the minute.

Brady, Stephanie 1:04:37

As as as as I as I stated before, all outstanding results, I am aiming to get them back
by Monday at the latest. That includes all modules that have been submitted for
32207 PS 0327, PS 0267, PS 028 for the first assessment, and seven PS 035 for the
first assessment for those full time students that are in this room today.
Obviously, as I say, I understand that the IT incident was.
Put put a lot of people's plans out of order for studies and and and getting things in
on time. And then we had to pause the assessment. So I fully understand it's quite
distressing for a lot of people, but I really want to assure we have a lot of people in
the background marking thousands of assessments so I can ensure that these get
back to you before they that these other assessments are due and also in time for
dissertation eligibility, emails to go out as well for the next rounds. We are aware that
the new modules start on the 30th. So we are working incredibly hard in the
background to get everything marked.
And to get these back to you as soon as physically possible and Monday is is the day
that I'm aiming for that. Everything that has been submitted either on the 12th
between the 25th and when this last assessment came in as well.

Northey, Ruth 1:05:57

Thank you so much. Steph, I know you. You yourself have put in an awful lot of work
to make this happen. Thank you. And we have a large team working around the clock
at the moment, actually, to make this happen for all of you. So we really appreciate
your patience. We've slightly gone over time, so we're going to end there. But I hope
this has been a useful session for you. Please do contact your online facilitators.
They're there to support you. Any further questions? Don't hesitate to reach out to
them. And this recording will make it available for you tomorrow via an
announcement in your classrooms.
I hope that we've we've covered quite a lot tonight. So thank you so much for
attending and all the best.
Thank you.

Northey, Ruth stopped transcription