We had 3 winners of the best independent research project this year – read on for their project summaries…

 

The Effect of Stress on Dreams – Zaynab Ul Haq

Dreams have always been particularly interesting due to them teetering over the sub-conscious and unconscious parts of our mind. This research is conducted on dreams and stress due to them being prevalent in Sixth Formers lives and because of several articles and research studies on dreams and emotions. The experiment is conducted in the participant’s homes. 25 participants consisted of 16–18-year-old British Sixth Form students (10 male, 10 female, 5 preferred not to say) from 7 different places in England. The experimental design was independent groups, and the method used to collect data was self-report methods – filling out a dream journal. Major findings were that stress has a moderate negative correlation on the content of dreams.

The results showed that stress may not directly cause disturbing dream content, but rather dreams can depict bad scenarios of things students are stressed about that are occurring in the near future, which shows a link between stress and dreams. The significance levels were p=0.05 and the results were significant so the null hypothesis can be rejected in favour of the hypothesis.

This overall means that if students want to get a good night sleep full of peaceful, happy dreams they are aware that what they are stressed about is proven to have an effect on that. This makes people keener to deal with what they are stressed about to get a good night sleep.

 

The link between Procrastination and Anxiety – Annie Reynolds

Previous psychological studies (Johannes et al 2023, Shatz, 2024 and Barel et al 2023)  indicated that there was a positive correlation between procrastination and other mental health issues. To collect the data, questionnaires were used, with 30 responses and 25 consenting to their data being used and participating in this study. Once this quantitative data was collected and analysed from the questionnaire, two participants were chosen, 1 with the highest score and another with the lowest score. In this interview, more detail was provided on the participants experience with procrastination and anxiety.

The findings of the investigation showed that there was a positive correlation between the two co-variables procrastination and anxiety. As well as this, the interview concluded the same results, that high procrastination levels also was associated with high anxiety levels. These results can be used in real life applications, specifically with students in coping with procrastination and trying to reduce anxiety levels at the same time, but also with many people in their day to day life in making decisions.

 

The effect on parent-child relationships on risk taking behaviour – Anna Stokes

Previous psychological studies indicated that there is a negative correlation between closeness in relationships with parents and the likelihood of displaying risk taking behaviour.  Participants were found using opportunity sampling, and through this sampling method, a total of 47 participants were found and participated in the experiment. The experiment itself involved participants filling out a 10 question questionnaire, that participants took online on Microsoft forms. The first 5 questions determined the level of closeness the participant had with their parent and the last 5 determined their levels of risk taking behaviour. The qualitative answers were then turned to quantitative by assigning every multiple choice answer to a number on a scale of 1 to 5, which were then analysed on Microsoft excel on a table to then be displayed on a scatter graph.

The findings of this experiment showed that there is a negative correlation between closeness with parents and risk taking behaviour, showing that participants who do not have as a close and open relationship with their parents are more inclined to take risks in social settings, such as engage in dares or challenges.  Finally, the main implication of this experiment is that it can be used in the social care and police sector, bringing emphasis on how important close relationships are in children and how its decrease in risk taking behaviour can be seen in a decrease in crime rates.