Purpose:
The purpose of this comprehensive reassessment is to help you show your competence in the key areas
covered by the whole RM4 module, including CW1 (gaining skills in thematic analysis or regression),
CW2 (familiarity with ethics processes and research design) and CW3 (designing your own study).
There are three sections to the Comprehensive Reassessment for RM4. You should attempt to complete
ALL sections and answer ALL questions. The three sections are weighted equally.
The sections are as follows:
o Section 1
Write a findings/results section for EITHER a qualitative study OR quantitative data set that
is provided
o Section 2
Complete an ethics approval document and attachments for EITHER the qualitative OR
quantitative study idea that is provided
o Section 3
Write a proposal for a study of your own design including:
A) Title
B) Introduction
C) Aims of the study
D) Research question OR hypothesis (or hypotheses)
Detailed information on each Section is presented below.
Section One
Choose to either answer the qualitative question (involving a thematic analysis) or the quantitative
question (involving a hierarchical regression).
Qualitative option
The task:
Your task is to undertake a thematic analysis using the interview data provided. The research
question you are trying to answer is: How do people with limb deficiency experience and negotiate
intimacy with a partner?
In a Findings section, report on your thematic analysis.
It must include:
? An overview of your themes
? A thematic map or table
? A theme-by-theme narrative analysis with appropriate verbatim data extracts (i.e. quotes
from the data) to evidence your claims.
o The findings section must conclude with an overview of the themes presented.
You must also attach appendices that show evidence of your coding and thematising.
Supporting documents:
The dataset for the qualitative study is to be found in a separate document, available in the resits
section of Moodle. You have also been given the interview schedule that was used in the study, as
background information.
This section should be 1500 words (+/-10%).
Quantitative option
The task:
Undertake a multiple regression on the provided data set to assess the degree to which stroke patients’
ability to carry out everyday activities can be predicted from a number of potentially relevant variables.
These variables represent factors that can influence recovery, including motor, perceptual and cognitive
factors, as well as more general factors such as the severity and location of the stroke and the age of the
person.
Write up your analyses as Overview and Results sections. This must contain:
Overview
? A brief statement about the analysis you are using, identifying the predictor and criterion
variables.
? A statement of appropriate hypotheses for this study (see background reading for support
with this).
Results
? A table of means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum values for each variable,
with a commentary.
? An ANOVA summary table.
? All the results of the multiple regression, in the appropriate format.
? A verbal description of the results.
Supporting documents:
Two papers have been provided as background reading to help you understand the relationships
between the variables. These can be found in the resit section of Moodle.
This section should be no more than 1500 words.
Section Two
In this section you must complete a Departmental Ethics Form and attachments based on ONE of two
proposed pieces of research, either qualitative OR quantitative. The pieces of research are presented
below. The ethics documents can be found in the Resits section of Moodle.
For either option you must complete:
? Ethics form (‘RM4 Comprehensive Reassessment Section 2 Ethics form’)
? Briefing (information) sheet
? Consent form
? Debrief
You do NOT have to create materials for your study (e.g. questionnaires, stimuli materials or
interview schedules. However, you should describe any such necessary materials within the ethics
form as needed.
Support for this section can be found in the Departmental Ethics Guidelines and the associated
templates included there.
There are no word limits for this section, except where specified on the form itself.
Qualitative option:
Complete the ethics form and attachments as above, for the following scenario:
A researcher wants to explore the experiences of 10 young women (18-30) who have had a sister
with an eating disorder. She wants to explore their experiences of the diagnosis, the impact on them
as a sibling and family member, and their current thoughts and feelings about the experience. She
plans to qualitatively analyse the data.
Develop this idea as you think appropriate, in order to complete the documents, including identifying
an appropriate research question, method of data collection, and method of data analysis.
NB: All research studies have potential risks – think these through carefully.
Quantitative option:
Complete the ethics form and attachments as above, for the following scenario:
A researcher wants to explore the relationship between anxiety, perfectionism and restricted eating
behaviour (i.e. limiting what you eat). He plans to use standardised questionnaires to measure these
variables, and to use quantitative methods to analyse the data.
Develop this idea as you think appropriate, in order to complete the documents, including identifying
an appropriate hypothesis/hypotheses, research design and data analysis method.
NB: All research studies have potential risks – think these through carefully.
Section 3
Develop an idea for your own piece of research. This could be based on your final year project ideas,
or could be something else.
Hint: If you are struggling to develop an idea independently, you could think of how you could extend
or develop one of the scenarios used in part one of this assessment (i.e. a quantitative study may
look at variables that relate to stroke rehabilitation, or a qualitative study may explore intimacy and
health or disability).
Write this up as follows:
? Title
? Introduction – Include an overview of the area, a literature review and a rationale for
undertaking your study
? Aims and Research question or Hypothesis(ses)
? APA references section
The word count for this section is 1000 words (+/-10%)
