Overview of the Research Project and Report

1.   ABOUT THIS RESEARCH STUDY

Assume you are working on a research team as a research assistant. The lead researcher has provided you with a research question, some literature, and a data set. She has been studying the traits of grit and openness in relation to career development. She explains that most previous research has examined each trait separately, even though both are important. For example, openness enables individuals to think beyond rigid assumptions, reframe challenges, and incorporate new information—skills that help overcome obstacles in finding career opportunities. Grit, on the other hand, provides the persistence needed to pursue long-term goals.

The lead researcher asks you to begin by contributing to the literature review. Five articles have been provided, and you will locate and add two additional articles through your own research. As a research assistant, it is also important that you receive training in research ethics. Next, you will write the hypothesis statement and the research method sections of the research report. Finally, you will conduct the statistical analysis and complete the remaining sections of the research report.

Regardless of the results of the statistical analysis, this research will offer valuable insights. It represents one step in a series of studies aimed at advancing understanding of how grit and openness develop. The lead researcher is particularly interested in your ideas about practical implications and future research directions—these are the final two components of the project— because your contributions may inform the next phase of studies and interventions designed to support college students in their career development.

2.   FOUNDATIONAL INFORMATION FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECT  

2-1 RESEARCH QUESTION

Is there a positive significant relationship between grit and openness to experience in adults?

2-2 RECRUITMENT

Adults were recruited in many countries through Qualtrics. All participants filled out a demographic form along with the Big 5 Personality Assessment and Duckworth’s 12-item grit scale.

2-3 DATA SET

See links to two data sets in the Week 6 assignment—one JASP and one Excel.

3. FINAL RESEARCH REPORT TIPS

Take a look at the final research report assignment template. Note that your report will include four main sections: a literature review, research method, results, and discussion. These tips are for the final two sections.

3-1. RESULTS SECTION OF YOUR RESEARCH REPORT

To run your statistics to prepare the results section, here are some tips:

You can find a one-minute video showing the first statistical analysis you will do, JASP Grit Big 5 Tutorial, along with other JASP resources, in the What You Need to Know for Week 6 activity.

Note that you only need openness and grit—you do not need to include conscientiousness.

Next run your descriptive statistics. You will see that you have many options such as gender identity, marital status, education level, et cetera. You can select two of the demographics to use for your descriptive statistics.

View JASP Tutorial Videos section on the JASP Statistical Software Campus page.

•        The Descriptive Statistics Table video helps for continuous data (for example, age or anything where it makes sense to get a mean, median, or mode).

•        The Frequency Tables video helps to get percentages of people in a given category.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Note that the final research report template requires you to include implications for practice, as well as two ideas for future research—one quantitative and one qualitative. To help you get started, the lead researcher has provided a few initial suggestions.

MORE INPUT FROM THE LEAD RESEARCHER  

To begin thinking about practical implications and future research, the lead researcher gives you this coaching. Remember that regardless of how the study goes, your ideas for implications for practice and ideas for future studies are important. Here is just one of many possibilities. If a significant correlation is found between grit and openness to experience, it may suggest that curiosity and openness to experience are linked to greater persistence in pursuing longterm goals. This could inform future studies exploring how these traits influence one another over time. For example, openness may promote adaptive thinking and exploration, while grit supports sustained effort.

On the other hand, if no significant correlation is found between grit and openness to experience, this may indicate that the traits develop independently. Since both creative exploration and sustained effort are important—but may not naturally co-occur—career development interventions should aim to foster each trait separately, recognizing that strengthening one does not automatically enhance the other. In this case, ideas for interventions

and future research would focus on identifying distinct strategies for cultivating each trait within one program. For example, a component aimed at enhancing openness might emphasize activities that promote curiosity, reflective thinking, and exposure to diverse experiences, while grit-focused component could involve goal-setting, resilience training, and sustained practice.