Choosing Your Research Topic: Some Pointers

If you're doing a research project in counselling, psychotherapy, or counselling psychology, choosing your topic can be one of the hardest things to get right. And often one of the things you get the least advice on. So how should you go about it?

Read through previous counselling/psychotherapy/counselling psychology research theses

Invaluable! Essential! Probably the most useful thing you can do to get you started. This will give you a real sense of the ‘shape’ of a research study in this field, what is expected of you, and the kinds of questions that you might want to ask.  Should be in your college library or ask a tutor.

originalITY is not everything

Often, in my experience, students come into Master’s or doctoral research projects thinking, ‘I must do something original… I must do something original.’ So they work away at finding some dark corner somewhere that no-one has ever looked into before. Of course, there does need to be originality in your research, but if you’re burrowing away into a corner somewhere then there’s a real danger that no-one else is going to be particularly interested in where you’re going—you’re off into a world of your own. So instead of asking yourself, ‘What can I do that no-one else has ever done before?’ ask yourself, ‘What can I do that builds on what has been done before?’ And that means…

…Get a sense of the field

What are the key questions being asked in your field today?  What are the issues that matter and that are of relevance to practice?  It’s great to draw on your own interests and experiences, but also make sure you develop some familiarity with the field as it currently stands.  This will help to ensure that your research is topical and relevant—of interest and importance to the wider field as well as yourself.  A great thing to do can be to find out what your tutors are researching and what they see as the key issues in the current field.  And do remember that there may be the possibility of developing your project alongside them in some way, so that you can contribute to a particular national- or international-level research initiative.

Also, right from the start, think about how your work and your research question might have the capacity to influence practice and policy.  This may be the biggest research project you’ll ever do.  So make it count.  Think about doing something that can really help others learn how to improve their practice, perhaps with a particular group of clients, or with respect to a particular method.  If it’s a doctoral level project, you’ll become a leading expert in that field, and you’ll be in a position to teach the rest of us how to be more helpful.  So think about what you’d like to find out about, which you can then disseminate to the field as a whole.

If you want to make your research count, have a really long think before you dive into doing research on therapists’ experiences or perceptions.  Lots of students study this: it’s reflexive, and it’s a relatively easy group to access.  But it also raises the question of how interested people are really going to be in how therapists’ see things.  After all, we’ve all been trained in particular beliefs and assumptions, so if we’re the subject of research, we’re often just going to reiterate what we’ve been taught to think.  Generally, clients make a much more worthwhile participant group, because you’re hearing first hand what it’s really like in therapy, and what works and what doesn’t.

Consult the literature

Once you’ve got some idea of what you’d like to look at, find out how other people have tried to answer that question. If no-one has tried to answer it before, that’s great, but you need to be really sure about that before going on to furrow your own path—after all, you don’t want to get to the end of your research to find out that somebody ‘discovered’ the same thing as you decades ago. So have a look on Google Scholar, and particularly on social science search engines like PsychInfo. Undertaking such searches also ensures that your research will be embedded within the wider research field, and it may well give you ideas about the kinds of questions that are timely to ask.

Make sure it's related to therapeutic practice

Choose a topic which is related, at least in some way, to the field of therapeutic practice. Most directly, this may include things like: clients’ experiences of helpful and unhelpful factors, how psychological interventions are perceived from those outside the field, or the applied role of counselling in such fields as education. Exploring people’s experiences of a particular phenomenon—for instance, women’s experiences of birth trauma—can also be related to therapeutic practice, but just be clear what the association might be. For instance, could that help therapists know how to work most effectively with that client group, or to know what issues to be sensitized to.

Find yourself a clearly-defined question

Try to find a single, clearly defined question as the basis for your study (see my Research Aims and Questions pointers). This can then serve as your title. If you can't encapsulate your research project into a single question/sentence at some point, the chances are, you're probably not clear about exactly what it is you are asking.

That's ‘question’, not ‘questions’

One of the biggest problems students face is that they ask too many inter-related questions, with too many constructs of interest, and therefore get very muddled in what they are doing. For instance, they’re interested in attachment styles, and how it relates to dropout as mediated by the client’s personality in EMDR for trauma. But that’s five different constructs (attachment styles, dropout, personality types, EMDR, trauma—and, indeed, a sixth implicit one, which is the outcomes of EMDR for trauma), and generally you want to focus down on just one or two constructs (particularly in qualitative research), or maybe three at most if you are doing quantitative. So, for instance, you could focus on how attachment style influences dropout, or how clients experience EMDR for trauma, or the role of personality styles in mediating outcomes in EMDR for trauma. Or you could even just focus down on how clients experience dropout. All nice, straightforward questions that you can really get into at Master’s or doctoral level depth. So think about the constructs that you definitely want to focus in on, and let go of those that are maybe less central to your concerns. Of course, that’s difficult, and three of the main reasons why are given below—along with the things you may need to remind yourself of:

'I won't have enough material otherwise.'  Your word limit may seem like a lot, but you'll be amazed at how quickly it goes. If you just focus on one question, you will be able to go into it in a great amount of depth—far more appropriate to Master’s or doctoral study than trying to answer a number of questions and subsequently coming away with numerous superficial answers.

'There's lots of different aspects of this area that I'm interested in.' That's great, but you won't be able to cover it all in this one project. You can always do further research after this one. In limiting yourself to just one question, you may well experience feelings of loss or disappointment as you let go of areas you're really interested in, but it's better to feel that loss now than after you've put months of work into areas that are just too dispersed.

'I've already started to ask this other question, and I don't want to lose the reading that I've already done'. Again, it can be painful letting go of things, but there is no value in ‘throwing good money after bad.’ Sometimes in research you need to be brutal, and cut out areas of inquiry that don't fit in—even if you've sweated blood over them. Remember what authors say: the quality of their book is defined by what they leave out!

That’s ‘question’, not ‘answer’

Some of the most problematic projects come about when researchers try to show that a particular answer is the correct one, and consequently won’t let anything—including their own findings—get in their way. So if you really believe something about psychological therapies, like ‘person-centred therapy is much more effective than cognitive-behavioural therapy’, or ‘women make much better counselling psychologists than men’ then you may want to steer clear of this topic. That is, unless you can really get yourself into a frame of mind in which you are open to the possibility that you might find the absolute opposite of what you want—and you can enthusiastically write about the implications of this finding. Good research is like good therapy: you put to one side your own assumptions as much as possible, so that the reality of whatever you are encountering can come through. So, in trying to work out your research question, here’s something to really ask yourself:

What is the question that I genuinely don’t know the answer to (but would love to find out)?

And ‘genuinely’ here means genuinely. It means you really, actually, don’t know what the answer to that question is. If you can find that question, it’ll help enormously in your whole research project, because it’ll mean that you’re genuinely open to, and interested in, finding out what’s out there. That’s research!

But make sure there’s not too much literature on it

If you ask a question on which much has already been written—like the effectiveness of person-centred therapy—then you’re likely to be drowned in material before you even get to the end of the literature review. So narrow down your question—e.g. the effectiveness of advanced empathy in person-centred therapy—until you’ve got a manageable number of references in your sights. Don’t worry if it seems too few, you’ll no doubt pick up more references as you go along. And remember, you need to have full mastery of the literature regarding the question your asking, and it is a lot easier to master the information in five or six papers than it is in hundreds.

What’s often ideal is if you can move one step on from some pre-existing literature: e.g. extending a study about depression in men to looking at depression in women, testing out a theory that you’ve found in a book, or using qualitative research to address a question that has previously only been addressed through quantitative research. So don’t get too hung up on being totally ‘original’: in fact, if you try to be too original you can end up in a sea of confusion with no theoretical or methodological concepts to anchor yourself to. Having an original twist is often much more productive—you’re saying something new, but you’re building on what’s already been laid down.

Think methodology from the start

It’s no good coming up with a brilliant question if there is no way of actually answering it, or if answering it is going to be such a headache that you’ll wish that you never started in the first place. So as you come up with ideas, think about how feasible it might actually be to put them into practice. This is something you may really want to discuss early on with a colleague or research tutor.

Respondents MUST be accessible

In terms of the feasibility of the study, probably the most important question is whether or not you are actually going to get anyone to participate—to respond to your interviews, questionnaires, etc. It is essential to the success of your study that you get a good response rate, so thinking about who you do research with is often as important as thinking about what you do (see my research pointers here on recruiting participants). A number of factors will determine how good your response is likely to be: how big the population is in total, their motivation to help you, how easy it will be for you to get in touch with them, how cautious you will need to be as a consequence of ethical safeguards. So don’t just come up with an idea and hope blindly that someone out there will be interested. However hard you think it will be to get participants, you can guarantee that it will actually be several times harder than that, so make sure this is something you think about, and address, at an early stage.

Ethics come first

The principles of non-maleficence—doing no harm to your respondent—and, ideally, beneficence—promoting the respondent’s well-being—should be an integral part of your research design. So, right from the very start of your project, think about ways in which your research might benefit those that are involved; and also make sure that you have read and familiarised yourself with appropriate ethical guidelines, as well as any other sets of relevant standards.

Aside from ‘doing the right thing’, the issue of ethics will be an important one for you because, in any research study, you will need to submit your project to an ethics committee (see above), and the more sensitive your work, the more committees and the longer the time this is likely to take. For instance, if you wish to carry out research in the National Health Service, you will almost certainly need to go through an NHS ethics committee, which can take many months to consider and respond to proposals. So, as you start to develop your research ideas, be aware of the ethical issues and processes that it might raise, and try to find out about the ethical submissions that such a study is likely to entail. That way, you won’t suddenly find yourself facing a long and uncertain wait before you can proceed with your work -- or, if you do, at least you’ll be prepared for it.

Writing: Some Pointers

We all have different ways that we like to write, but it's not something that often gets talked about. So here's the stages that I go through when I'm writing something academic. It's maybe not the most creative and free-flowing method; but it ends up with a fairly coherent, clearly structured and comprehensive text which, ironically, people often say reads with a real flow. If you're just setting out on writing essays for a course, or have been doing it for some time but want to improve, you may find some useful ideas here for your own writing.

1. I start off by spending some time reading through books, chapters and papers on the topic. This might involve a literature search, for instance on Google Scholar. Years ago, I used to make handwritten notes on everything I read; but these days I just pencil notes directly onto the book (except if it's a library one!) or paper. This makes the process vastly quicker, meaning that I can cover much more literature in whatever time I have. My notes generally just consist of a word or a short sentence, reminding myself of what I want to cover in my paper. Being obsessive/pedantic, I've even developed a 'star system' over time: two stars if I definitely want to cover a point, one star if I want to review it later, and underlining any other text that seems important.

2. Either before, after, or alongside the reading, I work out a 'skeleton' structure for my paper. I'll either do that using the Style/Headings feature on Office Word (and I always do that at some point, see below), or I'll do it with the bullet point feature, so i can do higher and lower level bullet points. I'll revise and check over that a few times, to make sure it makes sense, and that it's answering the question. If you're writing an assignment for a course, this is something that can be really helpful to run past your tutor or supervisor, so that you know you are on the right lines.

3. I go back over all my notes and type out the points and quotes I want into my document, under the appropriate heading/sub-heading/sub-sub-heading. This is where the headings and sub-headings on Office Word are essential, to give a structure that I can then flesh out. At this stage, I always make sure I add in where the reference came from (both text and page number): so that I can go back to it later if I need to check, and also so that I don't have to scrabble round for references at a later date. Referencing software, like Endnote, can be invaluable here.

4. I read over what I have in my document, move things about using cut and paste, change headings and subheadings, etc. Until I'm a bit happier with the structure.

5. I do a very very rough first draft. What I call 'Draft 0'. It's awful, I give myself permission for it to be, but it's essentially just getting all my points together in some kind of logical sequence so that they roughly follow on one from the other. This often involves some changing around of the structure. I'd never let anyone read it at this point!

6. I go back over it all and try and get a half-decent first draft. Now that I don't need to be consulting my sources when I'm writing, I can get more flow into it. Often, at this stage, I'll be rewriting the whole of what I wrote at the previous stage, or large parts of it. Personally, I often find that rewriting from scratch gives more sense of flow. But only if I'm feeling in flow! This is also where being a fairly fluent typist helps. It's really difficult to do this if you're poking away one finger at a time (see 'Six things that can really help improve your writing' blog entry).

7. And then I go back over it and over it again until I'm happy with it -- sometimes three or four further rewrites; sometimes from scratch again, but building up on the previous text and ideas. A lot of it is dependent, as above, on whether I'm feeling in flow and can just 'run' all the way through it, or through particular sections of it. But having the previously drafted text there is really essential for me in terms of having the content and the material to build on. So even if I am re-writing something afresh, I've always got in front of me what I was trying to say. At this stage, a lot the process feels to be about really trying to bring out the essence of what I am wanting to communicate. It's not about trying to find cleverer words, but going back over it again and again and thinking, 'What do I really want to say here?'

8. Getting feedback from others is essential for me, as part of finishing off a piece of writing. Generally, apart from the skeleton structure, I won't ask for much feedback until I'm at least two or three drafts in, and am fairly happy with it. I ask a few people that I trust, and who I know will be honest with me. And, ideally, I can say to them the specific things I'd like feedback on and the level at which I'd want it (for instance, if I'm a few days away from a deadline, I'll make that clear to people so they don't spend time giving me extensive comments I won't be able to work through). If you're working on an assignment, I would really recommend that you try and run it past peers or friends or family at some point. And the more specific you can be about what you want from them, the better you can use their time.

For me, the process of writing is a bit like what I imagine painting can be. You start off with building the canvas, then some loose pencil sketches to get a sense of what you are going to do, then slapping things down, then refining over and over again with an increasingly fine brush. I don't always love it, but I do love getting to the end and seeing the finished product. and there's everthing I want to say there: in the right place, and saying it like I really want it to.

Five Simple Ways to Radically Improve your Papers

A lot of us hate writing essays or papers.  And there's nothing worse than going to all that effort and then getting your work failed, rejected or slated. So here's five things that you might want to learn (if you don't know them already) that can help you improve your writing--and perhaps even help you enjoy it a little more.

1. Touch typing. If you're poking away at your keyboard with one finger at a time, it's really going to make it difficult for you to write with fluency and gusto. You want to be able to capture all those ideas flowing out of you, and then you want to feel fine about writing and rewriting and re-editing without worrying about how much time it's going to take. So try out one of those touch typing programmes if you're a slow typist. Yup, that means using your little finger too, but it'll be worth it. I said to my 12-year old son just recently that touch typing was one of the most important skills I ever learnt in my life (Answer, ‘Dad, that’s so sad!’).

2. Styles. Not Harry. Yes, those annoying things at the top of your screen on Microsoft Word. They might seem pointless, but they're a great way of being able to organise your essay, particularly the different levels of headings. Essentially, if you attribute a style to your headings, and then use the headings tab in navigations, you can see the outline of your essay as you are going along. It means that you've always got a sense of the overall shape of your essay, can put things where they need to go, and means that you'll end up with a much more coherently structured piece of work.

3. Reference software. Programs like Endnote or Refworks are amazing, and there's ways of using them on the Web for free. Essentially, they keep a list of all the text you've read through, and then you can really easily paste them into your essay as and when needed. Brilliant thing is that they also do the reference list for you and if you need to change your style of referencing... hey presto! They can do that at the touch of a button. Never scrabble around amongst your files for references again.

4. Formatting. There's so many things about how to format that are really easy to learn. If you're doing a psychology or counselling course, I'd strongly, strongly recommend getting hold of the APA 7th Publication manual, having a really good read through of it, and then just keeping it as a deskside guide every time you're writing essays. It tells you everything you need to know: how to reference, what to put in the different sections of a research paper, how many spaces you should have after a full stop, etcetera, etcetera. Of course, it's the content of an essay that ultimately counts, but if you use a standardised format your writing will look really professional and you'll be able to express your ideas in the clearest possible way. And once you get into the habit of it it will just stick with you, so why not learn it now?

5. Citation searches. Say you've found a really brilliant book, or research article, on just the topic you're working on. Great. Only problem is, it was written back in 1957: Has anyone done anything relevant since? Citation searches are a really cool way of finding out. Go to Google Scholar (or even better an online database like PsychINFO if your library gives you access to it), search up the text you like, and then click on 'Cited by'. That'll tell you everything since then that references your original text. And, of course, if you find anything else you like, you can citation search that one as well.