Stereotype Threat and Me

So my second experiment has come to a close... and the data is crap.

I was really thinking we would find a significant effect but alas.. science can be fickle. I can take solace in the fact that the world is the way it is.. I am just trying to measure it. Therefore, since there was no significant effect.. it isn't really my fault per say - it is just the way the world is.

I am now trying to write it up and make sense of all the numbers on my screen. Problem is that Julian is putting more stuff on my plate before I have even finished consolidating all the stuff from this study! This morning while I was still running ANOVAs and writing my methods section I get an e-mail from him containing a load of articles on social competence. While I do appreciate that he took the time to find some literature for me, it also made me feel slightly incompetent as he stated in his e-mail that he did a brief search and found loads of things. Whereas a few days ago, when I was in a meeting with him, I told him I did a brief search and all I could find was studies done with children. Which is true.. but I digress..

In this e-mail he also mentions that in addition to the data analysis that I am doing, and the writing up of the study I am doing, I should start reading the social competence literature and start developing a study around social competence. Now.. I agree with this statement.. however I wasn't planning on actually thinking about that until I had finished steps 1 and 2 - i.e. data analysis and writing up the study.

I guess I am just feeling the pressure of my PhD right now.. not only do I have to tie everything up on my second study (which will take some time as I have to actually sit with my data and the literature and decide what my crap non-significant results mean... which has to be more than just saying "my hypothesis wasn't supported), I have to start reading about and developing another study, AND work on my literature review.. which I have about 5 weeks to finish.

/sigh.

Maybe a cookie will make me feel better..

Deparmental Talk I

On Wednesday I had to give my first departmental talk - and it went pretty well. While I was nervous up there I think I was able to pull off the illusion I wasn't 'too' horribly nervous and those who asked questions made sure to ask nice ones :)

The next day I had my second research committee meeting and that also went well. We talked about possibilities for what I could do at Blizzcon (qualitative research seems to be the consensus at the moment, but we will see if that changes as Blizzcon gets closer), as well as possible suggestions for some side-projects that could be done while I am running my stereotype threat experiment. They really are pushing for me to complete my lit review by October, which I think is a doable goal so I am going to aim for that.

Lets see, what else... today I went to GBK and had a chicken/cranberry/Camembert burger which was heaven while I was eating it but omg did I want to throw it up 20 minutes later. Too rich for my blood.. and I don't think the vanilla milkshake helped my cause :( Not sure if I will eat that combination again because it is still feeling heavy in my stomach and I ate it like 5 hours ago...

I was hoping to go out for a jog today, which it still could happen but Hannah's housewarming party is in an hour or so - so it would have to be after that. We'll see how it goes... I have a feeling working-out isn't going to make it into my schedule today :( Which is unfortunate, but then again I'd probably get cramps when I starting running due to the massive burger sitting in my tummy.

Until next time..

Stereotype Threat

Well it has come time to start working on my second experiment this year which is going to revolve around this idea of stereotype threat. It is actually really interesting how someones performance can be altered just from the mere mention of a stereotype that they would be affected by. For example, give a woman a math test without saying anything and she will perform as well as a man. Give her the same test and tell her that it has shown gender differences (which primes her to think about the general stereotype that men are better at math than women) and she will perform significantly worse.

Currently I am trying to figure out how I am going to measure this construct with my population. I have a few ideas which I have thrown out to my supervisor and he seems supportive - however it is up to me to put all these ideas together. I know that I am capable of doing such a thing, but I just don't want to get too ahead of myself. Supervisors are there to rein you in and make sure you aren't going after the big picture head first and instead are taking things one manageable step at a time... so I don't know. On Friday I was in the office for 10 hours or so working on this project and thinking in the back of my head that I hope when I show my work to my supervisor he doesn't shit all over it :P

Hmm.. lets see what else has been going on. Not too much I guess. Lisa is finally back from Manchester so that's good.. been hanging out with her and Jeff mostly :) It is going to be so horrible when Jeff goes back to Maryland in the summer... what am I going to do?! He's my rock here :( Guess I will have to manage somehow, especially considering he can't wait to get back home.. he is literally counting the days! Guess I am just lucky he didn't leave in December like he wanted to.

Alright, laundry time! Over and out!

Easter break

It is time for an update I suppose... it has been a while since my last report. Since I last posted quite a bit has happened. First of all, I finished my first experiment and have jotted it all down into a neat 25 minute presentation. I gave this presentation to my lab group (a meeting of the forensic, social, and personality psychologists in the department) and it went over quite well. Next step will be to give the same presentation to the entire department in May, and then a gamers conference in Bedfordshire in June.

Oh yes, I also made a trip to Amsterdam with Jeff! It was a lot of fun and nice to see another country. It really is a beautiful city with lots to see and do! (The Van Gogh museum was a highlight ^^)

Currently I am (attempting to) reading about stereotype threat. My supervisor wants me to have a comprehensive review of the literature on this topic and bust out an essay for him to revise at the end of Easter break. However, the last few days I have been more interested in playing the Sims 3 than reading about this... but I'm trying to force some motivation and get it done. At least I have all my marking done already...

Lets see..what else.. oh yes! Rex will be here tomorrow. After an extremely rough few days in Texas he is heading over here to relax with me in Bath. Hopefully we will be able to make a trip to Stonehenge and check out a wonder of the ancient world :)

Term Two has begun!

Been a while since my last update - so here we go.. /deep breath

Term one finished on an "okay" note.. I ended up getting a 58 in statistics (which is not as bad as it sounds my American friends... a 58 here is like a C+/B-). I am not very happy with this mark but it is what it is and it is a passing grade.. (all I needed was to get above a 50). Apparently in PhD land we have earned the right to have grades not matter - they are recorded per say but they don't count for or against you. So I'll have to learn to live with that.

Term two has started now and I only have one class - Professional and Generic skills II. I am currently trying to place out of it based on the previous classes I have taken (hopefully I will be able to). This class is pretty much a waste of time.. they are teaching us things that 1) I have already been instructed on and 2) are pretty much common sense. Yes... we know how to give a powerpoint presentation... we have been giving them since high school... ;)

I had my first research committee meeting this week! I was very nervous but it turned out to be not as bad as expected. At one point a member of my committee asked me how my research was going to contribute to "science" in general. I almost died when he asked me that! But somehow I busted out a coherent answer and even got a "Good answer" response out of him! So... yay me :)

As for now I am just continuing with my literature survey... which means reading, reading, and more reading. Oh yeah, and reading. I am also preparing for my first experiment (so exciting!). The guy in the tech office is dragging his feet on giving me access to the server so I can format my survey... but other than that it is pretty much planned out. Just have to execute!

Until next time... Ciao!

It is almost the end...... of Term 1!

Tomorrow is my statistics final and after taking that it will mark the end of my first term here. Honestly, it went by super fast! Through the last 10 weeks I have learned the basics of statistics, attended a lot of talks about a variety of psychological phenomena, and finally figured out what my dissertation research question will be.

It is kind of crazy the roads my dissertation idea has gone down... it has changed quite a lot. I came here with the idea of doing something about internet gaming immersion and adaptive functioning...

which turned into doing research on the role of play and learning for adults through online video games as compared to the role of play in children..

which turned in to internet games as a teaching tool for the socially inhibited...

which then became researching the formation of stereotypes..

which then turned in to what is is now which is studying the formation of stereotypes on online gamers. Basically what are the stereotypes of internet gamers and why and how have they formed.

I'm really liking what my research question has landed on since it seems like a perfect combination of my research interests (internet gaming) and my supervisors interests (stereotypes).

Well guess I should get back to studying for statistics.. not sure my brain can take much more of these formulas but I have to try!

Ugg...

So this morning I finally got to sleep in and I go down to have a smoke. While down there, I walked over to the laundry place to see if any machines are open because I need to do my laundry. I peek in and see there are 4 machines that are not in use (4 out of 6 total so it was pretty shocking). So I race back to my room, grab my laundry, my money, and my soap and go back to the launderette. When I get there, there is some guy there putting his stuff into 2 machines. I initially think that is pretty rude considering there are only 6 machines total for the entirety of Wentworth (which is about 400 students) but I figure hey, there are 2 machines still open. I go over to machine number 6 and there is a note on it saying it is out of order. I scoot over to machine number 5 and there is a sign on that one as well that it is out of order. /sigh

We only have 6 machines to begin with and now 2 of them don't work! How is anyone supposed to get their laundry done :(

So...dejected, I walked back to my room and now I have to wait an hour and hope to sneak my stuff into Mr. Rude Guy's machine when his laundry is done.

Oh! And to top it off... the sign on the number 5 machine was on the floor under it.. so I stuck my 2 pounds in there and then when I knelt to put my stuff in I saw the sign... so not only did I not get to do my laundry - I paid 2 pounds into a broken machine (It won't give me my money back - /cry)