How has my thinking changed?

To supplement this reflection I’ve decided to add some memes :)

Science and the field of psychology

I remember earlier in the term when we were discussing reproducibility in class, and how science, including psychology tends to veer towards trying to come across exciting findings (sometimes being a little dodgy to get there).

Shining a light on this side of psychology really expanded my thinking about science and the field of psychology. It appears that science isn’t always necessarily honest and true!

My thinking has definitely changed such that you can’t always trust what you read in science, as many papers are aiming to get that significant result. Learning more about the reproducibility crisis was honestly a bit sad, and made me feel slightly shameful that some researchers are dishonest in order to get significant results. However, that may also be a culmination and development of attitudes in science over time.

At least science appears to be coming around to being more honest, in the light of the reproducibility crisis, and open science! Hopefully in the future, science can be fully if not very close to being honest and open, in order to come across actually useful findings to help society.

What do I want to do with my psych degree?

When I saw this question as a suggested topic, I felt that I definitely had to address this! I’m not sure if anyone else doing a psych degree feels the same, but I had a bit of a mid degree crisis recently. Particularly with the options you have when you graduate. I originally felt a bit overwhelmed with what I would do after uni. Could I get into a master’s degree? Will the 4+2 pathway still exist? It felt like you had to become a registered psychologist to really go anywhere with your degree.

After learning coding, and undergoing the reproducibility project, I feel like I’ve learned applicable skills that in a sense have broadened my horizons! Learning to code has made me more open to being involved in research, and different career pathways in the future.

Although I’m still a little unsure with what I want to do with my degree in the future, this course has definitely made me feel a little better about what my options are. I definitely feel more equipped for the future.

Group work/ working in a team

This course has definitely changed my thinking about group work. Perhaps group work isn’t so bad after all?

I loved how we highlighted what we didn’t like about group work at the start of the term. It really kept everyone on our toes to be even more motivated to not be “that group member”. Lets be honest, nobody starts a group assignment trying to be that person.

Furthermore, I really appreciated how comfortable everyone in the group was with one another. Unlike some other groups, nobody in our group truly knew each other well before hand, so it was really lovely that we could come together and work like those little caterpillars to reach our end goal.

The reproducibility process would have definitely taken much longer!

Although I still don’t love group work, I have learnt to appreciate it more. Team work really does make the dream work. You don’t have to necessarily like doing group work, but there is definitely value in coming together as a team and pooling all your skills and contributions to reach a final goal.

Perhaps they should call it team - work, rather than group work? (team work definitely has a positive and encouraging ring to it)

I’ve decided to summarise my main points about how my mindset has changed about group work below!

  • in future, perhaps in the first group meeting I could try to bring up a similar exercise about “what we hate about group work”: it could be a great ice breaker, and prevent issues from occurring in the first place!
  • you don’t always have to like group work, but it’s good to acknowledge the benefits that come from it: group work really does have many advantages, and can truly speed up progress. I guess this means that if you can hit that sweet spot in group assignments where there is respect, effort, communication and honesty, you can really go far!
  • group work is unavoidable! (but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing!): as we get told all the time, the workforce is full of group work! You can’t avoid it. All my courses this term had a group assignment! Might as well learn how to work in a group effectively now rather than later. Again, coming back to the “what do you hate about group work exercise”, if you never address the issues, they can never be fixed! I do believe this exercise is such a great tool tool, and I hope to use it more in the future.