Psychology Assignment: Nature-Based Interaction on Emotional Well-being
Question
Task: In this psychology assignment, you will address the need for rigorous experimental research that can evaluate the impact of nature-based interaction on one well-defined domain of children’s mental health. For this assignment, students must select from one of the following three domains: (i) Emotional Wellbeing, (ii) Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptom, or (iii) Self-Esteem and answer the following questions:
1. Provide a brief (no more than 1.5 pages) critical overview of relevant current research. In this overview, please cite at least three pieces of original research2 and aim to address the following issues with regarding each:
a. What research methods were used?
b. What was found?
c. What (if any) is the key limitation of the research? Ideally, your answer to this question will be an integrated review (in the style that you would find in the introduction of a journal article), rather than three discrete paragraphs, each dedicated to a single study.
2. In one sentence, specify a research question for your experiment.
3. Use your research question to develop a (i.e., ONE) hypothesis for your research.
4. What is your IV (and what are its levels)? What is your DV? How will you operationally define these variables (i.e., how will you measure or manipulate them?), and what will the resultant data look like (i.e., will it be nominal data or Interval data?) If your operational definitions are inspired by previous research, be sure to include the appropriate citations.
5. Who are the proposed participants for your research? In your answer, please define the population, and explain how you will recruit from this population and specify any one strength and one limitation of your chosen recruitment strategy. Also specify how large the sample is required to be and justify this decision using a priori power analysis.
6. Describe, in a systematic fashion, the procedure for your experiment. In your answer, describe how participants will be assigned to levels of your IV, and then describe what you will ask them to do.
7. Explain how you will test your hypothesis. What statistical test will you use? How will you know if your hypothesis is supported? What are the assumptions of your hypothesis test? How will you know whether these assumptions have been met?
8. Describe one plausible threat to the internal validity of your study and explain how you will address or limit the impact of this threat in your design. If your design does not address this threat, explain why not.
9. Provide an evaluation of the external validity of the study, including one potential strength and one potential limitation of the external validity
10. Describe one ethical issue that you could encounter in this research, and how it might be addressed/resolved to the satisfaction of a Human Research Ethics Committee.
Answer
Question 1
Research conducted by Tillmann et al. (2018) by taking 10 academic databases to systematically identify and evaluate scholars' research paper between the years 1990-2017. This review research on psychology assignment showed that there were approximately 30 out of 35 research articles that dealt with the concept of interaction and emotional well-being. Their review research revealed that the emotional well-being of students depended on the nature of the interaction. In 15 papers, the students' emotional well-being depended on the emotional health, problems, moods, and intelligence. However, this research's limitation was the subjective nature of the research that did not give a specific answer.
In another research regarding the students' mental health by Verran et al. (2018) took consideration of 5 databases from were 6 research studies focused on the inclusion of mental health of students. Along with that, two groups of students between the ages of 12-25 years were interviewed via chat room, videoconference and telephone. Through this experiment, the researchers found out that the impact of communication through technological devices was effective in improving students' mental health. However, the research does not show sufficient medical evidence to support the positive impact of technological interaction on the student's mental health.
The third research paper by Asrar et al. (2018) shows the impact of the interaction between the teacher and the student on the students' emotional and mental state. For this research, students from three departments of the University of Karachi were given a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions. The response of the students revealed that the communication between the teachers and the students played a vital role in the motivation of students to achieve their goals. The research also shows the influence of communication and interaction on the productivity of the students.
The researchers have made the use of quantitative methods for their research and they have made the use of both primary and secondary data sources. Even though there have been many types of research regarding nature-based interaction and emotional well-being, there are not consistent findings, and the results of the researchers are non-significant, and it calls for more rigorous and in-depth research.
Question 2
The question for this research is whether the impact of nature-based interaction has negative or positive on the children's emotional well-being.
Question 3
It is hypothesized that a well designed and good nature-based interaction will have positive impact on the emotional well-being of the children, and a poorly designed nature-based interaction will have a negative impact on the emotional well-being of the children.
Question 4
In this research, the independent variable or IV is the nature and type of interactions the children have in their everyday lives. There are three types of interaction where a child gets involved, and they are student-content interaction, online discussion and student-instructor interaction. The interaction rate and the engagement will be measured through analytical tools, theories and formulas. Different statistical formulas can be effectively used to measure the independent variables of the impact of interaction on emotional well-being (Tekin et al., 2018). The results from this calculation will be numerical that can be used to understand the interaction's effectiveness. The dependent variable in this research is the emotional well-being of the children. This is a dependent variable because the children's emotional well-being depends on the interaction they have with others. The emotional well-being of the children can be measured by taking interviews, self-report of the children and personality test. All these tests shall give qualitative results that can be analyzed for deriving the finding whether the nature-based interaction has a negative or positive impact.
Question 5
The proposed participant of this research will be 60 children between the ages of 12-20 years, 30 shall be girls, and another 30 shall be boys. The sample size required is small because a large sample size can create confusion and this will be calculated using priori power analysis. This can be calculated by computing N (60 children), when alpha is given and the power is ES. The 60 randomly selected children will receive a questionnaire through online mediums in view of present COVID-19 regulations that impose movement restrictions.
The questionnaire will include a rating scale and multiple-choice questions by the answer, which the children will respond to the necessary question that is required for this research. The questionnaire will involve a question that will cover the determinant of the emotional well-being and determinants of the emotional health of the children.
The strength of this recruitment strategy is that the children can conveniently stay at their home and reply to the questions online, and it is faster than the traditional survey methods (Mahmutovic, 2020). Along with that, the rating scale questions will allow them to rate the factor and impact of interaction that affects their emotional well-being. However, the limitation of this strategy is that it does not give assurance that all the 60 selected participants will reply to the questionnaire. Along with that, literate reviews and journals of other researchers will also be taken into consideration for better understanding.
Question 6
Prior to the participation, the participants will be sent a consensual form, which they can sign if they are willing to participate in the research study. This will ensure that the research has been conducted ethically with the full consent of the participants. The consent form will also give the permission that the information given by the participant can be used to the fullest for the research purpose. Along with that, it will also give the participant the power to take actions in case their information and responses are used illegally or unethically, and the identity of the participants will be kept confidential. After the participant has signed the consensual form, they will be mailed the questionnaire that they will have to fill up and send back within 10 days of the mailing of the questionnaire. A mail reminder will be sent every three days so that the participants do not forget to submit back the questionnaire.
Question 7
The focus of this research is the investigation of the impact of nature-based interaction on the emotional well being of children. This makes it evident that the dependency between the interaction and emotional well-being has to be calculated. To measure the dependency of the two variable, the correlation test will be used. The correlation test will allow the measurement of how the emotional well being of children is dependent on nature-based interaction. A correlation test is a statistical measure through which the strength of the relation between two variables can be measured (Ganti, 2019). The values in a correlation test lie between -1 to 1; if the calculated values are between this range, then the hypothesis will be accepted. If the calculated value is less the -1 or more than 1, then the hypothesis will be rejected.
The correlation test is best suited for this research because this research deals with two variable and those are interaction and emotional well-being. The assumption taken into account for this research is that interaction is the only major factor for determining the emotional well-being of children. This is because to measure and find the impact of interaction on emotional well being, and it is crucial to make interaction a major factor for determining the emotional well-being of children.
Question 8
The threat of internal validity occurs when the number of test subjects is not equal, and there are identical variables that are related to the subject. In this research, the children are divided into two groups are per their gender, and there is 30 participant in each group. The internal validity in this research is the group composition effect, and this threat can be limited by keeping extra participants in reserve. This is because if participants from any one of the group withdraw from the research them, the reserve participant can be included.
Question 9
The external validity of the research is the extent to which research has the ability to generalize the results. The external validates the applicability of the research findings in a wider context, and it evaluates whether the result can be used to study the related topics (Cuncic, 2020). This research can be used to evaluate the impact of interaction on the emotional well-being of children between the age of 12-20 years. However, the limitation of the research is that it cannot be used to evaluate the impact of interaction on the emotional well-being of the student pursuing higher education due to the age restriction.
Question 10
Objectivity is an ethical issue that can be encountered while preparing and doing this research (Niaz, 2017). This is because, along with the interview, the journal articles will also be taken into consideration. This gives rise to a chance that the literature review of the known people can be taken or known people can be selected for the survey. Normally people tend to choose the writers, and they are familiar with because it is easier to comprehend. This can cause ethical issues related to objectivity due to the chances of choosing journals and reviews of known researcher and know people for participation in the survey. To address this issue, the pre-concept and business will be eliminated, and a random selection of journals will be selected for review. The random selection of participants and journals will ensure that the research is objective and free of bias. Therefore this addressing measure will also satisfy the Human Research Ethics Committee.
References
Asrar, Z., Tariq, N., & Rashid, H. (2018). The Impact of Communication Between Teachers and Students: A Case Study of the Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Karachi, Pakistan. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 14(16), 32. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2018.v14n16p32
Cuncic, A. (2020). Understanding Internal and External Validity. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/internal-and-external-validity-4584479 Ganti, A. (2019). Correlation Coefficient Definition. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/correlationcoefficient.asp
Mahmutovic, J. (2020). 7 Advantages of Online Surveys (and 3 Disadvantages). SurveyLegend. https://www.surveylegend.com/online-survey/advantages-of-online-surveys/ Niaz, M. (2017). Understanding Objectivity in Research Reported in the Journal Science & Education (Springer). Evolving Nature of Objectivity in the History of Science and its Implications for Science Education, [online] 46, pp.37–77. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120885/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2021].
Tekin, E., Yeh, P. J., & Savage, V. M. (2018). General Form for Interaction Measures and Framework for Deriving Higher-Order Emergent Effects. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00166
Tillmann, S., Tobin, D., Avison, W., & Gilliland, J. (2018). Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 72(10), 958–966. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-210436
Verran, A., Uddin, A., Court, R., Taggart, F., Sutcliffe, P., Sturt, J., Griffiths, F., & Atherton, H. (2018). Effectiveness and impact of networked communication interventions in young people with mental health conditions: A rapid review. DIGITAL HEALTH, 4, 205520761876220. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207618762209
