MSTP/Research ideas

[stgermaine]

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Hi

I'm currently a second year psych student and also premed. I'm interested in applying to MSTP programs.
Right now, I'm working at this lab that is associated with a hospital. I just assist the researchers.

My question is do you have to be a genius to come up with research ideas? or if you study enough and have passion for what you study, then you won't have that much trouble coming up with your own research?

 

[Ollie123]

There are very, very few things in this world you need to be a "genius" to do. Certainly, you need to be smart and a hard-worker to be successful at it. I know many successful scientists who don't have anywhere near the creativity of true genius...they just found simple questions to ask that hadn't been answered yet, and answered them. In some ways, this is probably better for your career than trying to chase down some truly wild discovery, at least in the behavioral sciences.

Sure, a true genius might single-handedly revolutionize thinking on a topic, but many more mere mortals still manage to be successful at it. You do need some creativity and smarts. I'm not sure "studying" is actually all that important, at least in the traditional sense (i.e. memorize stuff). I did it more frequently in undergrad than grad school...science is more about being able to quickly find and synthesize/process information rather than just being able to spit it back, which is what studying is usually geared towards.

 

[stgermaine]

So I guess coming up research topics shouldn't be a major stumbling block provided you are a hard worker and have some curiosity and creativity?

Right now my lab is full of bio/chem PhD/postdocs and the concept of a research paper in psychology seems a bit vague. When bio/chem researchers do research, one can imagine them pipetting and culturing cells in white lab coats but when I try to imagine psychology research, I have no idea what they would do

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

...the concept of a research paper in psychology seems a bit vague. ... when I try to imagine psychology research, I have no idea what they would do

I see you've said that you're a second year psych student. If you don't know what psychology research is like, then either you haven't taken many psychology classes, or the psych classes you're taking are total crap.

You should be learning about psychology research in your classes. First off, as a psych undergrad most schools would have you take a class on research ("Research Methods in Psychology" or similar).

But more importantly, good professors will tell you not only what we know about psychology, but how we know it. They'll tell you about classic experiments that helped us to understand: fundamental attribution error... learned helplessness... cognitive dissonance... opponent process in sensation...

Hopefully the reason you haven't seen much research is because you're just getting started.

But I have to tell you--having taught psychology classes at two different universities--some schools teach to the bottom of the class and some teach to the top, and hopefully you're not at one of those schools where you can just get an easy A without really learning the material because it will bite you in the a** when you try to take the GRE subject test in psychology.

 

[Ollie123]

So I guess coming up research topics shouldn't be a major stumbling block provided you are a hard worker and have some curiosity and creativity?

Right now my lab is full of bio/chem PhD/postdocs and the concept of a research paper in psychology seems a bit vague. When bio/chem researchers do research, one can imagine them pipetting and culturing cells in white lab coats but when I try to imagine psychology research, I have no idea what they would do

...I'm not sure what to tell you, or really even what you are asking. It depends on the lab. Bring people in, give them questionnaires, get data and analyze it? Just like any human subjects research? Have you read a psychology research paper? There's a wide range...some are clinical trials, just like you'd see in medicine, some are surveys where you just give out a bunch of self-report measures, some are experimental where you manipulate variables (say, someone's mood) and measure the effects. Some involve physiological variables where you study the effects of various manipulations on say, brain activity or hormonal levels. We also have psychologists who spend all day dissecting rat brains, etc.

As for getting ideas...again, read papers, figure out the next question, design a study to answer it?

If you don't have any exposure to psychology, I'm not sure what to say other than that you should get some and it will de-mystify the process. For better or worse, we are definitely driven more heavily by theory than work in other fields, just by nature of the work. We rarely deal in absolutes, and our effects are inherently less consistent than you will typically see in a bio/chem lab. Put two chemicals on a slide and chances are, you'll see the same thing if you repeat it. Put two people in a room and its pretty unlikely you will see the same level of consistency - there's just a lot more noise in the equation.