Another Batch of Student Research Ideas: Summer 2009

Here are the latest research ideas from my Research Methods I students:

• Coach's Personality and Team Success
• Drug Abuse and College Students: Drugs of Choice
• Grade Inflation by College at Southern Arkansas University
• Prevalence of Date Rape Among SAU College Students
• Differences is Altruism Between Male and Female College Students
• Traditional vs. Non-traditional Undergraduate College Students: GPA Differences
• College Students from Divorced Homes Views on Marriage and Relationships
• Does Participation in Greek Life Affect Male and Female GPAs Differently?
• Does Regular Bible Reading Affect Pro-social Behaviors and Values?
• Are Male College Students Less Faithful than Female Students?
• Violent Criminal Family Histories: Effects of Parents Marital Status
• Is Recidivism More Likely with Mild or Harsh Punishment?

Texting and Length of Relationship

Modern love and romance seem inextricably linked to communication. But, I wonder is there too much of a good thing. Specifically, does texting predict relationship success?

I'm betting there's an inverse relationship, the more lovers text, the shorter their relationship will last.

A search of PsycINFO for "texting" found 24 hits, none closely related to relationship length. A couple did relate to a sexual topic, the use of texting to convey information about sexuality and risks of sex.

Someone, please test my hypothesis...

Jack Kramer Autograph Midsize Tennis Racquet

Back in the 1980s, I played a lot of tennis. In 1984, I logged nearly 200 matches. Those days are long gone. But a couple of days ago, I went to hit some tennis balls with my 16 year-old-son. As we were leaving the house (naturally) he informed me that he had broken the strings on his and his sister's racquet and that the only one he had left was my old Wilson graphite racquet, the one I used back then.

So, I went into our spare room to look for some more racquets. I knew my wife had one still from back then. What I did not remember was my old, wood, Jack Kramer Autograph midsize. Click HERE for a picture of one (not mine).

I picked it up. It was not warped but the grip tape was probably 20 years old. When we got to the courts, I cut off the old tape and wrapped on a new grip tape. I let him hit a few off the wall, unimpressed he was. No me, I was impressed. That old racquet felt brand new. Long story short, I played well, felt good, and even started getting my serve in once I quit trying to kill it.

What's the research idea? Obviously, it would be to get tennis players to hit their racquets for accuracy and then compare them to the Kramer. All the usual research caveats would apply of course: counterbalancing, a sufficient number of trials, and control for fatigue.

I'll probably play again soon, and when I do it will be with Jack.

Summer Research Ideas

Another research method class has come and gone. I thought I'd share their research ideas:

• Is shyness more common in males or females?
• An interpretation of Rap: What we see is what you get
• Wet vs. Dry: Opinions about liquor in Conway, Arkansas
• PTSD: More common after combat or peace keeping missions
• What makes a woman stay with her abuser?
• Reasons why Facebook users accept friend's requests from strangers
• Sports drinks and physical endurance
• Noise effects on concentration and response time of college students
• Teenage female marijuana use as a gateway to other drugs
• Parenting: Do you parent differently from how you were parented?
• Postpartum depression in married vs. single mothers
• Witnessing domestic abuse as a child: Are such men more abusive to their spouses
• Links between childhood abuse and adult domestic violence

This class did an exceptional job in presenting their research plans recently. Congratulations.

Another Batch of Research Ideas

My Experimental Psychology (PSY 402) students at Texas A&M University-Texarkana (where I occasionally serve as an adjunct instructor) have come up with the following ideas for research and completed prospectuses for them. I thought I'd share them with you:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Iraqi War Veterans Completing One or More Tours
• Is There any Difference Between African-American and Caucasian Women in Weight and Health Consciousness?
• Education Level and Occurrence of Mental Illness Among Veterans: An Archival Study
• Domestic Violence: Women Violated by Men
• Who Faces More Job Stress, Correctional or Police Officers?
• Effortless Learning? Memory Capability in Sleep
• Religion and Infidelity Among African-American and Caucasian-American Males
• Effect of 8-Session Hypnosis Training on Chronic Pain Levels
• Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Later Adolescent and Adult Sexual Functioning
• What Causes People to Physically Harm Themselves?
• Gender and Religion: Effects on Support of Capital Punishment
• Likelihood of Abused Children Becoming Child Abusers
• College Students' Self-Diagnosis of Depression: Results fromPsychology, Nursing, Business, and English Majors
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Prevalence in Rural and Urban Populations
• Presence of Music and Exercising Effort in Traditional College Students
• Does Perception of Old Age Change over the Lifespan?
• Likelihood of Suicide Among Adolescents Taking Prescription Antidepressant Medications
• Education Within a Correctional Facility: Does it Reduce Recidivism?
• Do People with Dyslexia Share the Same Personality Traits?
• Abused Children: Levels of Aggression Following Counseling
• Will Employees Quit Their Jobs if Employer Becomes a Tobacco-free Facility?

Recall that I strive to get students to pick topics that interest them so they can sustain their interest in the task of creating a prospectus over the course of the semester. Also, I believe the topics students choose make an interesting barometer revealing what students think about when given the opportunity.

Batch of Research Ideas

Here's the latest batch of research ideas from our students. Feel free to use them as inspiration for your own research. Also, these ideas show what our students are thinking about.

1. Who stays married longer, couples who marry young or those who marry when older?
2. Why is the percentage of African-American baseball players declining?
3. What percentage of freshmen begin to experiment with illicit drugs?
4. Is there a relationship between climate and GPA?
5. What causes women to remain in abusive relationships?
6. Are women less likely to be ticketed following a traffic stop?
7. Are biracial sons reared by Caucasian mothers at greater risk of becoming criminals?
8. Are Americans worried about contaminated food?
9. Why is so much food thrown away by restaurants and not donated to the needy?
10. Would students buy healthy snacks from vending machines if it was available?
11. How many first mothers opt to breastfeed?
12. What are the characteristics of people who sell on eBay?
13. During which semester do students make the worst grades?

Check back here soon to see what designs were used to answer these questions.

Online Communities: Wikipedia

One of my research interests is the creation, care and feeding of Internet communities. One of my colleagues, Tommy Milford, and I have pursued this topic since 1996. He has created some successful online communities in a social work context. I have been involved in the Southwestern Psychological Association's efforts to move to online system for managing the association's business including program submissions, membership, and communication. So, we have had some practical experience with online communities and their benefits and problems.

The recent success of Wikipedia, then, is all the more impressive to us. When we wrote Using the Internet for Social Science Research and Practice in 1996, we had to search hard to find useful sites within the social science disciplines in order to compile a little more than 200 pages, about half of those pages listing websites. If we rewrote that book today, it would easily run over a thousand pages. Also, we would find Wikipedia pages near the top of all of our searches. That phenomenon, the high Google pagerank of Wikipedia pages, is fairly new. Impressive, too, is the wide variety of topics covered by Wikipedia.

Here's my idea. I'm thinking about starting a new Wikipedia topic: Postwar changing points in the American automotive industry. I have not checked to see if this topic is already on Wikipedia, but I will. I got the idea while riding around in my new-to-me 1976 Chevrolet pick up truck. It is the latest in a long line of Chevy/GMC trucks that I have owned over the years. I've owned a '49 GMC, '50 GMC, '52 Chevy, and a '55 Chevy (first series). A not-yet-running '52 Ford F-1 currently resides in our carport. Unlike my earlier trucks, the '76 has air conditioning, power steering, automatic transmission, two-speed wipers, and a big V-8. (It does not have a cupholder.) The Wikipedia article would argue that immediately after World War II, American automakers basically released warmed over prewar models. Gradually, they improved their designs. In 1955, for example, Chevrolet released a modern V-8. From that point on, more innovations followed including electric windshield wipers, air conditioning, power steering, and so on.

The data in this case would come from monitoring the article. How long before it is modified? How many readers? Not to mention adding another topic to Wikipedia.