Psychology Research Program

This Psychology Research Program takes knowledge from the Introductory psychology course, leads students to understand all aspects of psychology, and explores their interests through conducting research. The professor will guide students through an empirical review of current psychological literature.

Designed for

Students who took introduction to Psychology and/or are interested in participating in a Psychology Research Program

Level

All levels

Class format

One-on-one and small group (Max. 7 students/class)

Class Introduction

Psychology has been a popular major in recent years. Psychology is divided into four major branches: cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, experimental psychology, industrial-organizational psychology.

Aralia Education proudly introduces a psychology research program for students with a previous foundation in psychology. Students will gradually learn psychology concepts and theories, research methods, citation formats, etc., and finally, complete an 8-15 pages research paper.

In this project, students will have the opportunity to explore social psychology – the study of human thoughts and connections with other people – and how these interactions affect us and our daily lives.

Students will also explore developmental psychology, which is how and why we change throughout our lives. For example, are your interests today the same as five years ago? In addition, we will also introduce the basic knowledge of research methods and APA writing format.

This second part of the course allows students to focus on an area of psychology that interests them the most. The professor will guide the student through an empirical review of current psychological literature. The course structure follows the steps of scientific inquiry, and will cover the following:

What is empiricism; what sets it apart from other kinds of knowledge?
What makes scientific writing different from other kinds of writing?
How to develop a research idea based on psychological theory
Forming a research hypothesis or question
Finding, reviewing and summarizing empirical research, using peer-reviewed psychological literature (provided by the professor)
How to write a literature review and annotated bibliography

Halfway through the course, students will submit a draft of a review of the literature paper for peer review, and for detailed feedback from the professor. Students will revise this draft for a final paper that can serve as both a writing sample and an example of an empirical review of scientific literature.

Outcome

Produce a research paper of 8-15 pages
If required in the university application, the professor can provide a letter of recommendation
A final academic report from the teacher
Aralia’s Certificate of Completion

Course Content

Lessons	Topics
1	Course Introduction and expectations
2	Social Psychology: Attitudes and Violent Attacks
3	Social Psychology: Social Identity and Social Influence
4	Social Psychology: Prosocial and Group Behavior
5	Developmental Psychology
6	Developmental Psychology: Learning Theory
7	Developmental Psychology: Emotional Development
8	Research Method
9	Research method: select article and APA format
10	Research Method: Practice the APA format
11-15	One-to-one meetings

Feedback

Students and their parents will receive brief feedback after each class regarding the student’s general participation in class. Students will also receive feedback on graded assignments via email.