¶ … Yoga to Psychology List your goals for the activity undertaken.

My goals for the activity undertaken are to come up with a study design whereby I can target the efficaciousness of introducing a yoga class -- or the very least a series of yoga exercises -- into the adolescent psychology unit that I am tasked with maintain. I need to determine if implementing such a measure can help to assist with the recurring problem in which the students are too inactive.

What is the problem and the problem statement?

The principle problem is that the students I work with in my psychology unit are much too inactive. These students face lengthy days at the facility in which they are treated. However, the majority of their days do not involve any sort of true activity. The problem statement is: the students I work with in my adolescent psychology unit are frequently inactive, which dulls their responses and potentially affects the usefulness of their treatment.

3.What is the significance of addressing this problem?

The overall significance of addressing this problem is that students who are inactive are not the most responsive to psychology treatment. Sluggishness and torpor can penetrate adolescents who experience minimal or no activity, which can actually interfere with the efficacy of the treatment that they receive. Thus, it seems as if one could truly maximize psychology treatment by first injecting activity into the routine of these patients.

4.What search terms would you include in a literature search for this proposal?

There are a couple of different search terms I would include in a literature search for the current proposal. I would search for both psychology and psychiatry, for the simple fact that there is a correlation between these fields. Additionally, I would search for adolescents and activity, inactivity, or quiescence, as the latter two terms are synonyms. I would also include the search term treatment to find a link between the activity and treatment of teens.

5.Provide a 1 paragraph summary of the findings of two research articles that you find appropriate to include in your literature review.

The first article I researched was Otto's "Yoga for PE." The author is a school teacher who discusses how she came to teach yoga to high school students and the effect that it had on her classes, which helped with the "mind-body" (Otto, 2014) connection. The second article is Singh's and Ridhwan's "Effect of yogic activities." The findings are that Yoga can reduce aggression in adolescents, although the authors also note that it can "energize" (Signh and Ridhwan, 2014) them as well.

6.Is there evidence of gaps in the literature related to your research problem? Give 1 example of a gap in the existent knowledge about your topic that you determine after reviewing some of the relevant research literature.

One gap I found in the existent knowledge about my topic was that relating to the mind -- body connection referenced in the first of the two articles reviewed for this assignment. Although the author acknowledges that there is a connection between the mind and the body that Yoga facilitates, she does not expressly explicate what that connection is and what, if any, causal relationship exists between the mind and the body.

7.What is your research question?

The research question is: what effect will inducing activity in the form of yoga exercises have on the psychological treatment of adolescents in an adolescent psychology unit? The goal is to determine some sort of correlation between the proposed exercises and the ability of adolescents to internalize and respond to various psychological treatments that they encounter while at the aforementioned facility.

8.What research approach and design would you use?

The research approach and design that I would incorporate would be fairly straightforward. I would merely split the group of adolescents in half. I would implement very basic yoga exercises for approximately the first third of the sessions of one group of the students, and continue without any exercise whatsoever in the other group. The latter would provide the control to determine the effects of the study. Students could fill out a questionnaire specifically designed to indicate their perspective on the treatment and its efficacy, which they could fill out after each session.

9.If appropriate (based on your approach and design) provide a research hypothesis.

The hypothesis is that adolescents that are able to perform yoga in order to exert themselves in a form of physical activity will respond better to the questionnaire about the efficacy of their psychological treatment. This hypothesis is partly based on the notion that a dearth of physical exercise...

As such, this variable is independent. The concept that I will investigate is the relationships between physical quiescence and mental and psychological quiescence. Specifically, I hope to determine if a lack of exercise truly relates to a lack of mental or psychological exercise as well.
11.Identify your target population.

My target population would ideally be one that is well balanced. Specifically, such balance relates to an equal number of males and females -- in both groups. Also, the target population would contain individuals of many different ethnicities and nationalities. Doing so would help to decrease the incidence of bias that this particular study might have. It might even be good to have other differences in the population to account for those existent in society, such as varying sexual orientations.

12.Identify your accessible populations.

My accessible population, unfortunately, is the one that I see consistently at the adolescent psychology unit. For the most part, there are more males than there are females, which is a fact which I would like to balance out some type of way. Additionally, the racial and ethnic makeup of this population is not as diverse as I would prefer it to be. There are few Asians, Blacks and Latinos in the population.

13.What sampling procedure would you employ and why?

More than likely I would utilize a cluster sampling procedure. I believe that I could attain the best results with this procedure because it would enable me to use all of the participants in what is actually a limited group (my adolescent psychology unit). Furthermore, this sampling procedure is effective when one needs to separate population groups, which I will do with the control and the other group.

14.Discuss the researchability of your proposed study. Use the researchability article for further information.

The researchability of this particular article is extremely relevant and attainable. A brief review of the literature reveals that there is certainly room for, if not an outright need for, exploration of the relationship between physical activity and psychological treatment. As such, there is certainly need for the particular study proposed in this document. Moreover, its results could certainly help to add to the body of knowledge for psychology.

15.Is this proposed study feasible? Why? Use the researchability article for further information.

The proposed study is actually feasible for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the readily available research design should be able to yield results that can inform the research question. As such, it is feasible because the goals of the study are attainable. Even though the population used might contain room for some degree of bias, the study as a whole certainly appears feasible.

16.Address what you have learned from this assignment about the research process and the challenges of conducting research.

This assignment has taught me a number of critical facets of conducting research. Firstly, it has taught me that research should be organized in way that it should directly relate to a problem that one routinely encounters in clinical work. Additionally, it is imperative to ensure that there is a research design that directly identifies that problem and helps to shed a degree of insight about it.

17.Include a conclusion (labeled as such). It should begin "In this paper I discussed." and refer back to the major topics included in the paper.

In this paper I discussed how information about the nature of yoga and psychology can benefit an adolescent population that seemingly has a dearth of activity. I also detailed a research design that could obtain empirical evidence that could lead to an answer about the research question, which seeks to determine if physical activity in the form of yoga can benefit adolescent clients. I examined evidence about this relationship, too.

References

Archer, S. (2015). Mind-body personal training. IDEA Fitness Journal. 12(7), 72-81.

Otto, V. (2014). Yoga for P.E.: engaging high school students physically and mentally. The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. 85(2), 19-23.

Ridhwan, R., Singh, C.A. (2014). Effect of yogic activities on the aggression of secondary school students. International Journal of Sports Sciences & Fitness. 4(2), 193-200.