Case Study

Based on the course material, explain how consulting a psychology faculty member helps Mia overcome her specific challenges. Contrast the faculty member's specialized knowledge with Mia's struggle of searching database engines alone.

Case context: Mia is an undergraduate psychology student beginning a research project. She has conducted several keyword searches in academic databases but is overwhelmed by the thousands of search results. She is unsure which sources are high quality and foundational, and she is struggling to narrow down her broad topic. A peer suggests she use the expert consultation search strategy.

Question: Based on the course material, explain how consulting a psychology faculty member helps Mia overcome her specific challenges. Contrast the faculty member's specialized knowledge with Mia's struggle of searching database engines alone.

Sample answer: Mia is struggling with database overload and finding a clear direction for her research. A psychology faculty member is a subject matter expert who is already familiar with prior research in their area of expertise. By consulting them, Mia can leverage their expert familiarity to bypass random database searches. The instructor can directly suggest relevant articles and book chapters and recommend specific topics to narrow her focus, helping her find inspiration and locate high-quality scholarly sources efficiently.

Key points:

  • Subject matter experts possess familiarity with prior research in their field
  • Experts can suggest specific, relevant articles and book chapters to bypass database overload
  • Experts can suggest specific topics to resolve the student's struggle to narrow down their project
  • Consulting an expert helps novice researchers find inspiration and locate high-quality scholarly sources

Rubric: Full credit: The response must explain that faculty members are familiar with previous research, which allows them to guide the student directly to relevant articles/chapters and specific topics, thereby addressing the student's lack of inspiration and search overwhelm. Partial credit: The response explains that consulting a faculty member is helpful, but does not clearly link the expert's familiarity with previous research to solving the specific problems of database overwhelm or topic refinement.

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Updated 2026-05-27

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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