Consequences Of Predicting Adjustment During The Transition To College

“Good design goes to heaven. Bad design goes everywhere.” – Mieke Gerritzen. This quote beautifully captures just how difficult it can be to create a solid research study. There are an incredible amount of things to consider when crafting a strong design and when it is done well there are numerous benefits. However, when it is does not go according to plan the intended outcomes crumble like a house of cards. The research study Predicting Adjustment During the Transition to College, had many strengths and also some very clear areas for growth.
This study took a close look into understanding the potential consequences at play during the transition to college. The researchers conducted a series of interviews and had participants take a number …show more content…
After reading the introduction and procedure I was slightly confused about whether or not this study was testing first year students adjusting to college or first year students with alexithymia adjusting to college. This was hard to differentiate throughout the study even down to the research results. It would have been helpful if within the study’s design there were two separate experiments one that solely focused on first year students who appear to have alexithymia and students who do not. This would have allowed the researcher to have data on both how students adjust to college and how students who already grapple with emotional stress on a daily basis adjust to college. A more specific research question that orients itself to separating these two groups would have helped in keeping the narrative clear and …show more content…
Additionally, it mentions in one spot that personal interviews were going to take place however; I did not see any data from that in the results section. This was potentially a mixed method research study. When it comes to the largest potential area for growth in this study I believe it is rooted in the methodology and research methods. The study needed to narrow the focus there were far too many variables tested and personally, I think this impacted the reliability of the data. Moreover, some tests were unable to be administered when planned for example, the TAS (Toronto Alexithymia Scale) was given only on one occasion during the fall testing session due to funding. In order to find a strong correlation between adjustments over time, this test would need to be given twice. There was a special interest in analyzing the results of students with Alexithymia evidenced by the detailed introduction about what the condition means, yet, it was unable to be carried out completely. Overall, I thought the data collection was strong, there is a lot of numerical data, my only concern here is that the tests were 90 minutes long and this can be a long time for a participant to remain engaged in the