Prompted Post #8: Practicing Your Knowledge

Hands-on learning in the real world is drastically different from learning in a classroom. Out in the real world

you have to face real situations and apply the knowledge you learned to that situation. The reason it is so different is because you are actually experiencing the full effect and emerging yourself into something that you have only read about in books or heard in a lecture. You actually get to be involved and the knowledge you learned suddenly becomes much more personal and something you can relate to.

Hands-on learning is a great way to really get the most out of the knowledge you are learning because you become actively involved. I recently got the opportunity to do hands-on learning by participating in an actual experiment conducted by real psychologists.

Conducting experiments for research is a big part of psychology. Many of the careers available within the field involve research and experiments.  That is why in every psychology class I have ever been in, the first thing we always learn about are the steps and procedures to conducting these research experiments. But to see this process go on in person was much different then I imagined.

I always imagined that research was conducted by psychologists in white lab coats, and in bright white rooms. That idea always intimidating to me because I thought they the research would be very "sciencey" and unpersonal. However this was not the case; the researchers were very friendly and tried to make me feel comfortable. They simply sat down and talked to me about the experiment. They had to make sure I was given 'informed consent' which means that I knew exactly what is going on in the experiment.  They got really extensive into explaining everything to make sure that I really understood. I was then asked to fill out a ton of paper work for legal reasons.  Once that was over they simply gave me each section of the experiment which included a short survey, a listening test, then another short survey. I thought they would be staring over my shoulder the entire time and that there would be a ton of pressure, but that wasn't the case at all. They simply monitored through a video feed while they waited in another room. It all seemed very laid back but very professional at the same time. 

I'm sure that actually being the subject is a lot different from being behind the scenes, but I still got to get a good sense of how things work. Of course I didn't get to see any of their preparations or lab work, but I did get to see how the actual experiment is conducted. It gave me a better understanding of the types of experiments as well. The one I participated in is a lab experiment as well as the most common type, survey. I finally could remember the difference between the dependent and independent variables, which I always struggled with, but since they clearly explained it to be and I was personally involved, It really made the knowledge stick.

 It was a lot different then I expected because when I think of research I think of bio and chem. But from this experiment I learned that psychology experiments are actually fun and interesting, and that the actual experiment it self is the simple part; the prep work is the most extensive part. Overall I still think it was a great experience, and it definitely made me a lot more interested in pursing a career in research.

Sources:

Heffner, Dr. Christopher L. "Research Methods in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online."Research Methods in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. Heffner Media Group, Inc., 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.