Supervisor chosen and finally, my idea!

Okay, so today we had to write down three ideas or topics that we were interested in and then two supervisors that we'd like to work with. I felt good that I had two solid ideas for my dissertation, both of them in some form of research question too, but I was anxious about the fact I had no clue what other areas of psychology I was interested in. I spent the time in the lecture trying to think of something I wanted (in case my first two options couldn't happen) but my mind was blank, I guess that's what I get for staying up most of the night!

Anyway, I finally managed to settle on one very brief idea just for the mere fact I needed to write something down. So, here goes in order of preference, my ideas for my dissertation;

1. Self-Harm in adolescent males
2. Adult/Parent views on mental illness in children and the implications this could have on the successful treatment of mental illness in children.
3. De-individuation

Okay, so the first topic is one I really want to do. Mainly because from things I've read, and from my own experience as a self-harmer and the people I have come across, it is clear to me that self-harm is very rarely reported in male adolescents. I want to find out why this is, whether it be due to a certain "macho man" stereotype or whether it actually is just less frequent in males than females. I haven't got much more information on this yet, but I'm hoping when I meet with my supervisor (bearing in mind that I do get the lecturer I need to do this research) that they'll be able to guide me to the right places.

My second topic is one that I came to with the help of my friend (his blog: deanmnicholls.wordpress.com). As I mentioned in my previous post I was interested in adult views of mental illness in children (things such as does it exist?) but couldn't think of how to reason doing that as a research project. However, thanks to Dean he made me think about looking at the views in terms of the implications it could have on the treatment of mental illness in children, brilliant! I had originally started with this being a quantitative report (basically, a questionnaire designed built of mainly yes/no answers) but I'm not sure if it would work, or if I would be better approaching it at a qualitative angle. I'm hoping that I can do it quants, as that would mean I could use it for applied experimental and still get to do both ideas :) (even though i wouldn't be carrying out the applied experimental research).

Thirdly, this really is my last last last resort. I AM interested in de-individuation, especially after watching the Derren Brown experiment on the subject. I would love to do a similar study (although I imagine getting passed ethics would be VERY difficult!) so it wouldn't completely suck, but fingers crossed I can get either of my first two choices!

It all really depends on the supervisor I am allocated and I have to wait until Wednesday at the earliest before I'll find out! It also kind of freaked me out to see that the guy in front of me today, had wrote down the exact same lecturers as me, in the same order! So I am slightly worried! Fingers crossed it'll work out, and both lecturers I've chosen are awesome so I will be happy no matter what :).