Bachelor theses at the social and personality psychology lab
The chair constantly supervises empirical bachelor theses in the bachelor program in psychology. Participation in the project study Social Psychology and Personality Psychology (Module 6.2c) is required.
Project study (in the 5th semester)
Allocation of places
All chairs usually offer a project study course. You can deposit your preferences (i.e. which courses you would prefer to take) at StudiLöwe. At the latest at the beginning of the first week of lectures the places in the project study courses will be allocated.
Goals
In the project study course, core competencies in content and methods of social psychology and personality psychology are to be taught and deepened. As a result of the course, a critical overview of the current state of research on a specific theoretical or application-related question is to be written, which offers points of departure for one's own further investigation within the framework of a Bachelor's thesis.
In particular, the project study is about the
- reflection of own research interests and the development of individual research questions
- teaching and practicing literature research strategies,
- concise and critical presentation and discussion of current scientific work,
- Practicing the reception of predominantly English-language specialist literature,
- Practice of appropriate written presentation of own scientific work.
As a rule, the overall topic of the project study is determined by the lecturers. However, suggestions for specific topics within the context of the content of the chair are also welcome. However, these must be submitted to individual lecturers during the period preceding the course.
Form of the event
The seminar will take place in small groups ("project groups"). The topics to be worked on individually are closely related to an overall question, which will be worked on within a project group. These usually form the basis of the individual bachelor thesis.
Project report
The scope of the project report is to be agreed with the teacher; a maximum of 5000 words (approx. 12 to 15 pages) is recommended. The work should be submitted to the lecturer in printed and electronic form by the end of the semester.
Bachelor thesis (in the 6th semester)
The bachelor's thesis comprises the treatment of a usually empirical research question in social psychology and/or personality psychology using methods appropriate to the state of scientific research, as well as the written documentation of this research achievement according to the rules of the subject.
Topic
The topic of the Bachelor's thesis should, if possible, originate from the research area covered in the project studies. Building on the prior knowledge of the subject area gained there, students develop their own research question under the guidance of the supervising scientist, which can be translated into a circumscribed, empirically testable hypothesis and can be verified with an effort appropriate to the Bachelor's thesis.
Investigation
The investigation usually consists of an empirical study, which can be experimental, quasi-experimental or correlational. The analysis of empirical data is usually carried out with common inferential statistical methods, such as variance or regression analysis. The supervisor can provide assistance in this process if desired.
It is possible to conduct a study together with other Bachelor candidates. This division of labor allows, for example, the realization of more complex experimental designs (whereby the individual questions can refer to sections of the design) or the appropriate exploitation of a more demanding survey in the field. In principle, the questions must be different enough to create individual theses despite small group work.
Written Thesis
The bachelor thesis contains the theoretical classification and derivation of the research question, the presentation of the methods and the data analysis as well as the presentation, interpretation and discussion of the results against the background of the relevant research literature. The focus of the presentation of an empirical paper should be on the methods and results. The research literature referenced for the embedding and derivation of the research question as well as for the discussion of results may be limited to a few key sources.
The form of presentation should largely follow the guidelines for manuscript layout of the German Psychological Association (or the American Psychological Association) (figures and tables, however, should not be included in the appendix or as a separate file, but rather in the running text, in deviation from these guidelines). The paper can be written in German or English. A corresponding adapted document template for Word can be downloaded from our homepage. Use the formatting specified there (e.g. Times New Roman, 12 point, double line spacing and the formatting of the heading levels). The bachelor thesis (including bibliography without appendix) should be at least 25 pages long, but no longer than 40 pages. The bachelor thesis must be accompanied by a data medium containing all data (text of the thesis e.g. as .doc and / or .pdf, SPSS data matrix, SPSS syntax, experimental materials: questionnaire or, in the case of computer-controlled experiments, the corresponding program with the stimuli, detailed table of contents of the files).
The written bachelor thesis has to be done as an individual work.
At the Chair of Social Psychology and Personality Psychology, Prof. Dr. Anna Baumert and PD Dr. Sascha Schwarz can be chosen as first and second examiner, respectively.
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Last modified: 27.06.2022
