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Thesis & Data analysis


Kimmeh

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First of all, I just want add that I'm not a graduate, I'm in my final year of my undergraduate course. Statistics is by far my weakest area over the entire programme.

I am in the early stages of planning my final year dissertation. So far, I have devised this:

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the intensity of attachment and grief responses among adults following the death of their pet. It is hypothesized that:

1. Participants with higher levels of attachment to their pets will report higher levels of grief following the death of their pet.

First of all, as it currently stands, is it ok to just have 1 hypothesis? Secondly, I'll be using two measures (attachment questionnaire and grief severity questionnaire). What type of data analysis will I need to perform?

Furthermore, I would like to include disenfranchised grief (No social recognition or validation that the person has the right to grieve or claim for social support) and use a questionnaire to measure that also but not sure how to incooprate this aswell.

In my last meeting with my supervisor, I gave a different research question which he tore to shreds and made me feel dumb as I couldn't answer his questions. Kept asking me "So what is your research question" even though I told him. He kept saying he didn't understand my research questionn(s) and made me feel very uncomfortable. So now I am doing a revised plan for our next meeting which I am dreading. For anyone that's curious, what I presented to him before was:

"What is the relationship between complicated grief and disenfranchised grief among bereaved pet owners? Subquestions included: (a) what effect does disenfranchised grief have on bereaved pet owners? (b) what effect does complicated grief have on bereaved pet owners? (c) what effect does attachment strength have on the severity of grief (d) what effect does social support have on disenfranchised grief?"

To further add, in the revised plan, he is expecting me to briefly mention results. Not sure how as I haven't started the study yet.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Edited by Kimmeh
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It's typical to have more than one hypothesis in this type of research. It would be difficult, I think, to write a good paper with just one predictor and one outcome variable. Perhaps you could add a mediator and/or moderator to make the study a bit more interesting. As it stands, the hypothesis isn't all that surprising, and I wonder what the contribution might be to the literature. (I do realize this is an undergraduate thesis and not likely aiming for an A-publication, but I think trying to add one or two more hypotheses would strengthen the final product if a grade is involved). 

Aha - the disenfranchised grief might serve as a moderator depending on the story you tell. You might also want to consider other outcome variables, such as how grief severity might lead to other aspects of a person's wellbeing. In that case, grief severity would become a mediator. 

You can do a simple regression analysis for this type of relationship.

As for the research question, think about what your motivation is for doing this kind of research. Why is it important to do this kind of research - how does it help people experiencing the loss of a pet, and/or how does it help advance research in this area? Your research question should be interesting and address a gap in the research that hasn't been filled. I don't think your original research question was bad, it just needs a little focus. Your subquestions seem to be addressing a few different things and gets messy, but stepping back and trying to draw a clearer path, as you seem to be doing, will help.

Feel free to message me if you'd like to discuss further. 

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