Investigating the effect of physical appearances on our unconscious biases during decision making – Sasha Hawksworth

The study used 35 individuals from the ages of 17-55 and assessed their responses to their preferences in hiring in the workplace. Participant’s responses were obtained through a questionnaire consisting of a set of 10 pairs of photos testing intelligence, race, attractiveness, gender, friendliness and age which relates to unconscious biases. The study found that physical appearance has a significant effect on our unconscious biases, showing that our unconscious biases have a significant effect on making decisions. Overall trends found a general preference of attractive, older-looking, intelligent-looking and friendly-looking people. In conclusion, the results found that physical appearances do in fact hinder us from making fair judgements untainted by our unconscious biases and that our stereotypes have a strong impact on our lives.

This was an extremely enjoyable experience for me as I chose a subject I was very interested in and was able to develop new skills in writing, investigating and analysing. Another benefit from doing the project was very different to how we learn in psychology lessons as rather than learning about investigations done by psychologists I did my own research and investigation. I feel that it went very well and it was a great learning experience.

Investigating the effect of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Lilia Howard

It is significant to understand that BDD and COVID-19 are extremely prevelant aspects in society today, where there has been a vast increase in the number of BDD sufferers in the last 19 months. This is correlated to increased media use over this period, which has given rise to increasing negative perceptions by individuals to their bodies. Furthermore, my research study consisted of 20 participants aged 16-18 from the UK (between July and August 2021), where using independent groups, I split my participants into 2 groups based on their gender being either female or male; 10 females and 10 males. The method was composed of a semi-structred web-based self-administered questionnaire, where participants (both groups simultaneously) had to answer 12 questions asking about their experiences they have/have had with BDD. The major findings concluded from my research study was that BDD has increased for participants by 30% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly more for females by 50%. My research findings are shown as significant as they can be correlated to other psychological studies. For example, Katherine A. Phillips, M.D (2004) found that BDD is higher in females (60%) than males (40%) – as well as young adults, – and Jamie Feusner M.D (2019) found that BDD is on the rise (especially in stress provoking situations, such as COVID-19 and the media) where the disorder already affects 1-2% of the general population. Therefore, my research study is shown to have an important contribution to wider society because it signifies that BDD is on the rise due to anxiety provoking situations such as COVID-19 and the media. Thus, there is a need for government and private organisations intervention to provide solutions for BDD sufferers and to reduce the effects of BDD in the younger population as they are whom most experience and are at risk of this mental illness. 

This research project was an insightful experience to look at how a mental illness, one of which I have personally found to affect many young girls and women I know, has exacerbated adverse effects in individuals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is important because COVID-19 has dramatically caused challenges to peoples’ lives psychologically, physically, and emotionally for a successive period of time. Nevertheless, I enjoyed conducting my own research investigation, whereby I had complete control over the topic I could examine and the way in which I organised my research collection.

Investigating whether gender stereotyping occurs in television product marketing aimed at children – Izzy O’Kelly

Previous psychological research, including Farnham and Farragher (2000) proposes that there is a high prevalence of gender stereotyping within television advertisement; men having been portrayed as dominant and professional, while women were portrayed as submissive and domestic. This study was conducted in the summer of 2021. The method used was a content analysis and opportunity sampling was used as finding these adverts proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Quantitative data was obtained as five categories which were decided from ten adverts and then they were tallied at each occurrence throughout the advert. It was found that the most frequent category seen in the adverts was stereotyped toys being played with by their ‘assigned’ gender, seen 9 times. This was closely followed by gender stereotyped colouring (pink= girls and blue= boys), which was seen 8 times. These results support the hypothesis as it shows that gender stereotyping heavily occurred in television advertisement aimed at young children. I found the experience of conducting this study extremely useful in both applying psychology to real life as well as cementing my knowledge of research methods needed for the exam. I was very proud of my final project as I put a lot of effort towards it and it was a subject I was very intrigued in prior to this, so it has furthered my knowledge of it.

Investigating the psychological effect of happy or sad music on happiness – Lucy Willan

My study looked at the psychological effect of happy or sad music on happiness, reported by the participants on a scale of 1 to 10. Previous studies on this topic found that happy music can improve mood but the research surrounding sad music was slightly unclear with some suggesting it can decrease mood and others saying it can increase happiness. Participants were gathered through opportunity sampling and a total of 30 participants were included with 16 males and 14 females. Participants were asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 before and after listening to their assigned playlist (either sad or happy music) as well as how much they liked the music and how sad/happy they thought it was. The results showed that happy music increase mood by 36.5% on average and sad music decreased mood by 36.2% on average. There was no correlation between how much the participants liked the music and their change in happiness. This shows that happy music increases happiness and sad music decreases happiness among young people in the UK. The main implication of the research is the positive effect it can have on treatment of mental health throughout the NHS and education in UK schools.

I believe that this experience was extremely valuable as it allowed me to develop skills that are needed for university. Conducting an individual experiment was something I had never done before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Investigating the characteristics of the form of deja vu experienced by people with temporal lobe epilepsy compared to everyday non-pathological deja vu – Tom Stoker

In this content analysis, I investigate the characteristics of the form of déjà vu experienced by people with temporal lobe epilepsy and the non-pathological déjà vu that everyday people experience. The theory on which this study is founded suggests that epileptic déjà vu should occur more frequently, last longer, and precede a seizure. I coded for these characteristics and the phenomenological characteristics that should be unique to epileptic déjà vu: dissociation, hallucinations, a dreamy state, vividness, prescience, and discomfort. I found 25 articles that referred to at least 1 coding unit, 5 of which were only accessible as abstracts. This resulted in a massive sample size of around 2,500 participants. Using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, I found significant evidence that the two sensations of déjà vu are indeed different. However, it was clear that some characteristics were more unique to epileptic déjà vu than others. Further research needs to be done using objective measurements such as brain scanning technology to explain why the two sensations of déjà vu may differ.

This project was useful in understanding how research is carried out, and since I want to continue psychology at university, I think it gives me a head start. If you want to go into any scientific discipline, the lessons you learn from this project are invaluable. I also think the project is a perfect opportunity to dive into the areas you find interesting. It forces you to uncover the nuances of a subject and make you an expert in it. I was also able to talk about my study in my personal statement, so it was worthwhile in that regard, too.

– Ellie Gregory