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Research Topics, Interests and References
Haylee N, Goral
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
PSYC 255, B14: Introduction to Research
Professor Rachel Burger
January 27th, 2025
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Research Topics, Interests and References
Research subjects, interest, and references provide a variety of reasons, as can be seen
when we look at them. Today, however, we are discussing an understanding of research
questions and an in-depth understanding of the topic's themes. In addition, we will learn how to
relate our study to our own interests. Finally, we will demonstrate correct APA style and learn
how to correctly acknowledge library sources.
Research Topics and Questions
The term "area of interest" is typically used when discussing research topics. (Crawford,
2023, p.4) This is usually the foundation of and the beginning of a research process. This allows
the researcher to focus on a specific area of study and bring clarity and theories to the topic of
interest.
But as we see it's just a topic and it is not clarified extremely well. Which is why our
research questions are the foundation of our research topics because the question is “a better-
defined idea” (Crawford, 2023, pg. 114) The research question supports focusing your concept
from a general one.
What makes both research topic and research questions verily different is the research
topic is just the general idea of what you will be reading/researching about and the research
question is the thesis to allow you to create an in depth question that will allow you to have a
detailed understanding of your topic. The similarity between these is how they connect with one
another and in order to have a research topic you need a research question in order to fully
understand the topic you are talking about. (Crawford, 2023, pg. 5)
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Personal Interests
The major I am currently pursuing right now is Psychology counseling. The career I hope
to pursue in the future with my degree through the School of Behavioral Science is to become a
therapist or any type of counselor. With my degree I want to be able to study a variety of mental
health concerns in children and youth but one topic that sparks my interest is Childhood Trauma
and Adult Mental health and how each of these concerns tie into one another. My goal with this
passion of this topic is to help childhood trauma not negatively impact humans for their life and
help adults reflect on their childhood in a healthy manner. A research question that will help with
this study and passion is “how does experiencing childhood trauma impact the development and
presentation of mental health disorders in adulthood?” This question will allow me to see the full
process from where it starts and what areas it truly affects from childhood to adulthood.
Review of Literature
Letkiewicz, A. M., Spring, J. D., Li, L. Y., Weinberg, A., & Shankman, S. A. (2023).
Childhood trauma predicts blunted error monitoring in adulthood: An event-related potential
study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 23(2), 427-439.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-023-01061-z
In this article that was provided by the Jerry Falwell Library talks about the effects of childhood
trauma such as neglect, abuse and loss of a loved one and how that plays into the adulthood
mental health disorders we see today. It talks about the cognitive effect it has for the child’s
developmental process; it proves this study through a survey experiment and logical statistics
about groups of men and women and the percentage suffer from PTSD that stems from their
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childhood.
Klinger-König, J., Erhardt, A., Streit, F., Völker, M. P., Schulze, M. B., Keil, T., Fricke,
J., Castell, S., Klett-Tammen, C. J., Pischon, T., Karch, A., Teismann, H., Michels, K. B.,
Greiser, K. H., Becher, H., Karrasch, S., Ahrens, W., Meinke-Franze, C., Schipf, S., . . . Grabe,
H. J. (2024). Childhood trauma and somatic and mental illness in adulthood: Findings of the
NAKO health study. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 121(1), 1-8.
https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2023.0225
In this article found from the Jerry Falwell Library, it goes into depth on childhood trauma and
the responses of being asked about it. They did a questionnaire on multiple ages and sexes and
let their answers only vary from moderate to severe. This led them to analyze the types of
childhood trauma and their severity then study their life behaviors and personalities to reflect on
the effects of the trauma from a young age to experiencing trauma in adulthood.
References
Crawford (2023). Introduction to Research: Less Fright, More Insight: A Customized
Version of Research Methods: Are You Equipped? Second Edition by Jennifer Bonds-Raacke
and John Raacke. Designed specifically for Ray (4th ed.). Kendall Hunt Publishing.
https://libertyonline.vitalsource.com/books/9798385105748
Letkiewicz, A. M., Spring, J. D., Li, L. Y., Weinberg, A., & Shankman, S. A. (2023).
Childhood trauma predicts blunted error monitoring in adulthood: An event-related potential
study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 23(2), 427-439.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-023-01061-z
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Klinger-König, J., Erhardt, A., Streit, F., Völker, M. P., Schulze, M. B., Keil, T., Fricke,
J., Castell, S., Klett-Tammen, C. J., Pischon, T., Karch, A., Teismann, H., Michels, K. B.,
Greiser, K. H., Becher, H., Karrasch, S., Ahrens, W., Meinke-Franze, C., Schipf, S., . . . Grabe,
H. J. (2024). Childhood trauma and somatic and mental illness in adulthood: Findings of the
NAKO health study. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 121(1), 1-8.
https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.m2023.0225
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References
