In no order of priority, I would base this decision on:

1) Which format are you most comfortable with?
2) How much are you willing to come out of your comfort zone?
3) What does the evidence say? If you notice that most of the evidence has been individual interviews, you could either go with that for the sake of consistency, or you could be the one to say "well, individual studies have found XYZ, but let's see if focus groups can bring anything else to the table". Perhaps there is research to say that focus groups are actually more engaging for young people? That would work in your favour.

But definitely definitely definitely do consider your own comfort level and how much you are willing to come out of it a tad. As you rightly pointed out, they require different skill sets but they are also not worlds apart!

I hope you manage to figure this one out soon.

Hi!

I am trying to synthesize the results of my systematic review and had a question regarding the participants count.

If a study reports to have, for eg, 100 ppts, 80 of which answered a particular question (agree/disagree), of which 50 selected "agree" - does that mean 50 out of 80 "agree" or 50 out of 100? I need to know this so I can further figure out the % of ppts who "Agree" and combine this with the other study with the same finding.

I have tried to read through other SR's but I have not yet seen one that makes any sense to me with regards to my question!

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

ohh really? my uni careers advisor said that participating in PhDs was a common thing for people to do. i was surprised when i first heard it but i took her word for it seeing as shes the expert. yes thanks, iv already looked into research assistants at universities-thats not a problem. iv found plenty of those in recent weeks. Its just that when my advisor mentioned that i could spread my search to current PhDs too, i thought id give it a go! Thanks for the direction, il be looking into the links youve provided above :)

I should have said i was looking to be a research assistant as PART of a PhD. Im not looking to do a PhD myself-i want to participate in one as part of the team doing it. i hope that makes sense

so im looking to be a research assistant for a person/team currently working in a project or a project that is about to commence. are these jobs advertised anywhere specific? will they be visible on regular jobs websites like guardianjobs etc?

thanks!

i spoke to my supervisor about it and she said although my uni says it is a 3 year FT course, 4 years in a more common timelength that students take to complete and that going beyond that time frame is not a big deal. same with Part time. part times are 4 years but can easily take 12-18 months longer and thats fine. no strict rules there.

yupp iv still got plenty to think about. ive yet to meet my supervisor who im suuure will bring the sorts of things into light that havent even crossed my mind before :/ i have days where im really confident about a phd and then days where i think its turn into tatters :s i prolly shudnt think either of those two feelings until iv actually fully researched what im about to do. cheers for the link!

sooo im cooking up ideas for a phd and am due to make initial contact with a potential supervisor soon. but to make the time-scale, i needed to know how many ppts is an expected size for quantitative data and how many for qualitative data? its a 3 year course and i have no idea why it will take me three years to get this project done. any advice? suggestions?

hiiii

iv completed my MSc Health Psychology (am awaiting my results) in London and want to go on to study a PhD. to do that, i need a job. so i started job hunting and nothing is making sense! i havent received my results yet so im not a 'qualified' health psyt either. most jobs are for qualified persons (which im not really, yet) so i feel like im stuck in the net at the moment. iv looked into psychologist assistant posts but i dont see what else there is for me to do until i receive my result for MSc. any direction where i can job hunt in my position? any past experience advice?