Posted by: lhisham on: October 29, 2009
Research Proposal
“But, what are you going to do with Psychology? You can’t find a job with THAT!” The sheer presumptuousness of that phrase describes the essence of ‘Major Stereotypes’; something that is slowly spreading throughout the AUC community like an infectious disease. English majors are book freaks, Biology majors are studious and nerdy, Art majors are supposedly “creative”; and the list goes on and on. These kinds of stereotypes are present all over the world, and they are (usually) surprisingly similar.
As a Psychology major, I’ve received all kinds of typecasting comments and quandaries, ranging from plain curiosity to mild scorn to straightforward hands-down rudeness. The ridiculous amount of stereotyping I’ve received in my 1 year (only) stay at AUC prompted me to wonder: what makes people think this? Stereotypes are, typically, based upon some kind of generalized action or perceived quality of the stereotyped group. What made Psychology a moneyless dead-ended profession? What made Archeology come with the “mad scientist” image? Why do the “scientific” kinds of majors always gain an advantage? These kinds of questions are essential to uncovering this myth of “Major Stereotypes”.
In my research, I want to basically explore 4 questions: 1) what are certain stereotypes attached to certain majors? (I’m going to limit myself to 3-5 majors within the AUC community), 2) History of those stereotypes i.e. where do these stereotypes come from, 3) Why do people rely so heavily on them? Why is it that these are actual representations in some peoples’ opinions? And 4) What is the effect of these stereotypes? By examining these questions using diversified methods, I am hoping to gain further understanding about how stereotypes form and the obviously judgmental human nature.
Thesis:
Major stereotypes exist with every major there is, then why are some majors more accepted than others?
Methods:
The first key method to my research would be interview. I am planning to interview as much people as a can within the AUC population. I’m also planning to create a distinction between Foreigners’ replies and Egyptians’ replies in order to later on cross-reference them and determine whether this kind of stereotyping has something to do with the kind of culture one is used. These are preliminary questions that I’m planning to include in the interview:
The last two questions are going to be last regardless of how many questions precede it in order to ensure that the idea of “stereotypes” is not embedded into the answer. It would be interesting to know how people think of majors without them thinking of stereotypes since this would prove/disprove their presence to begin with.
The second method I’m planning to use is researching the whole concept of “Major Stereotypes” within Psychology. For this I will probably rely mostly on psychology journals and scholarly articles from the university’s database. Also, maybe some psychological researches regarding this topic would be useful.
A third method I’m considering utilizing is looking at this topic from a historical context to see for how long have certain stereotypes existed and in conjunction with which Majors. Perhaps there was a time where more “literary” majors were considered the real norm and people within areas of science were more prone to ridicule?
Sources:
|
Online articles about experiences with Major stereotypes
Anticipated Difficulties and Possible Solutions:
The first problem I may face is with the interview and its wording; certain ways of saying things may imply certain answers and may create bias in answers. Also, the arrangement of the questions matter to the answer to be given. In order to avoid this, I have to be very careful with my wording and make sure that any noticeable biases certain questions give are amended.
My second difficulty is the kind of pure objectivity this research requires in order to present facts about different stereotypes that are independent from yours. This requires a certain amount of awareness while writing the research paper or reaching any conclusions.
Significance:
TO ME:
This research would have great meaning to me personally because this has been something that has bothered me ever since I came to AUC; the discovery of the reasons behind it may make it seem more acceptable or, at the very least, understandable to me.
TO OTHERS:
This is an interesting field of research that will undoubtedly be of interest to anyone in college since this is a universal concept that everyone is exposed to. The universality of this concept also means that this a problem everywhere, one that requires a decent amount of exposure and awareness on this issue, something that I’ve yet to come across. This kind of article will highlight the importance of this issue and raise attentiveness towards this issue, especially within the AUC community.
Suggested Timeline:
October 20th - Submission of Research Proposal
October 21st – BLOG POST: notes on conference and proposal feedback
October 25th and 26th – Work on final draft of Research Proposal
November 1st to November 12th- Work on interviews and sources, collect notes to go in first draft
November 16th to November 21st – Work on First Draft Research Paper
November 22nd- First Draft Research Paper due
November 24th to December 10th- Work on Final Paper
November 8, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I think overall it’s a really good start and an interesting topic i would personally like to know about. However, i think that there is no argument, i think that she’s talking in general about major stereotypes but without really specifying a certain argument.
Overall it’s really good and well organized, she has a certian procedure she is planing to follow and i think it’s going to be a fun, interesting research