Research meeting: 2nd semester psychology students present first research results

Neuruppin, 17 July 2018

2nd semester Bachelor students of psychology organized a meeting (location: ceremonial hall, Ruppiner Kliniken) to present findings from their first research studies last Thursday.

Pablo Pirnay-Dummer, MHB professor of psychological methodology, praised the dedication and professional skills of 2nd semester psychology students in presenting first research projects from his statistics course. He was much impressed by their generally critical and methodical approach: “This cautious attitude may render the exploration of a beloved discipline perhaps somewhat less spectacular and striking. But it helps to make its transfer into manifold applications definitely more precise and thus more professional.”

Students organized the agenda in sections of four brief presentations respectively. Subsequently, posters served to illustrate the project contents in greater detail to a student audience.

The wide range of issues covered topics from basic research as well as applications in clinical research and teaching/learning research, field studies, surveys and classical experiments. Pirnay-Dummer on the underlying educational concept: “Involvement in actual research right from the start is the appropriate method to school students in an independent and responsible assessment of research and theory. Personal experience with research activities increases an understanding of the context. This also includes an intensive reflection on ways to identify and quantify a person’s internal aspects from his or her behaviour, on potential pitfalls involved, and on the significance of outcomes.”

Summing up, Pirnay-Dummer underlined that active research has always been part of psychology studies: “Research and research-based learning form integral parts of all stages in MHB psychology courses, up to practical training in experimental psychology and the Bachelor thesis. Our students have now taken another important and discernible step in a process of ongoing research activities. Research and teaching, research and learning – these elements are conditional upon each other in psychology.”