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PSYCDATA Backstory
(Fall 2007)
I apologize in advance for being long-winded, but please allow me to tell you the story of how I got to this point. For a number of years I have been interested in studying the perceptions of our students about a number of issues, from teaching approaches to graduate school preparation to knowledge about career opportunities with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. I’ve had modest success in publishing this work, including in Teaching of Psychology (ToP). Occasionally, however, my work had been criticized because it lacked external validity due to being a single institution (Boise State University) study. This criticism usually didn’t prevent publication, but to be honest, it is a legitimate criticism. Knowing the attitudes and opinions over and over of Boise State students and alumni loses value after a while, and clearly limits generalizations.

On one of these ToP submissions (and I know we don’t ever “talk” about this stuff publicly), Chris Hakala of Western New England College was one of the reviewers, and included a note at the bottom of the review noting that he too was interested in and concerned about this issue. Chris and I began this conversation, brainstormed about thorny issues, and decided to present a symposium at APA 2007 about this idea of a national coalition.

Essentially, the idea is this: psychology faculty from around the country contribute a set of survey questions about their research interest with the particular group being studied (undergraduates, alumni, or departmental faculty). We coordinate all of these individual surveys into one omnibus survey, perhaps administered on an annual basis. Each institution contributing to the survey also agrees to collect data on its campus (as well as additional campuses if possible).  Think of the types of questions we could ask with a more representative national sample:
  • How satisfied are psychology alumni with their undergraduate experience?
  • When a student applies to graduate school, on average how many schools does he/she apply to?
  • What is the persistence rate of psychology majors as undergraduates when psychology was not their first major?
  • For students applying to graduate school, what suggestions would they make about the graduate school application process?
  • How do psychology graduates perceive their opportunities for meaningful employment with a bachelor’s degree in psychology?
  • How does a bachelor’s degree in psychology prepare students for post-graduate work in fields other than psychology (e.g., medical school, law school)?
  • What are faculty opinions about workload policies and the division of effort between teaching, research, and service?
  • What are ‘best practices’ for promotion and tenure guidelines in psychology departments? How do we balance fairness and objectivity with high standards?

This list only scratches the surface! In the past, to conduct a multi-institutional study I essentially had to ask/beg faculty to help.  For a sabbatical project, I did have 23 faculty members help administer a humility survey to students, and I had 6 faculty recently help distribute a link to an online survey about alumni perceptions of the job market. I appreciate these efforts, but those faculty members took on extra work out of the goodness of their hearts! What I propose here is that everyone can have some benefit; not only answer your own questions of interest, but also have access to a participant population that none of us has easy access to now.

 

Many groups are interested in the types of questions I have asked. I know that APA Division Two (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) is keenly interested in student learning and faculty concerns. I know that the APA Research Office has a continuing interest in looking at the success our baccalaureates have in the workplace. I am asking you to help continue the conversation, work out all the kinks, try to think of the problems and issues before they occur, etc. Here are some of the concerns Chris and I raised at the APA convention in San Francisco:

 

·         IRB concerns your local campus.

·         Length of survey and response rate.

·         Paper-and-pencil or online data collection?

·         What is the best way to coordinate efforts? Web page? FTP? PDF?

·         Who “owns” data? What school is going to allow this information to sit on a server?

 

I think the eventual benefits of such a coalition could be significant. Such as…

 

·         We can begin to answer questions of a national interest in psychology

·         We can improve the external validity of the studies conducted

·         We can help to make significant contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

 

Now everyone has the same ‘backstory.’ I welcome your ideas and concerns about such a proposed effort. If I could do this alone, I would. However, I need your help, and I think the chance to collaborate makes this all the more rewarding.
Copyright © 2010 R. Eric Landrum