Journal #2

What is your topic? Or what are your key words thus far?

My topic is mental health, and its impact on academic performance. My key words are:

         Mental health

         Depression

         Bi Polar Disorder

         Student Health

         Student Academics when in therapy

What is your research question? Have you decided to change it at all? And, if you have, how do I know that the way in which this question is formulated is appropriate to conduct a literature review with a systematic approach? 

My research question is:

         What effect do mental health disabilities have on students’ gpa and overall academic performance. What academic benefits does therapy provide for students in with these problems?

And what are the definitions on which it depends?

My question depends on the outcomes of previous correlation studies between academic performance and mental health.

Participants: The individual participants create a large unknown factor. Individuals have different degrees of intelligence, severity of their disability, and react differently to therapy treatment

Therapists: The therapists interacting with the participants affect the study greatly. Their personal capabilities, gender, training, and overall ability to communicate could severely impact the progress of their patients, and therefore potentially affect their academic performance.

College: The specific school that the participants attend would have an affect on academic performance.

What is your hierarchy of evidence? And how do I know you going about finding the most appropriate evidence/method for your research question?

The initial and most important question is how severe is the patients condition. Are they mildly depressed? Severely depressed? Bi polar? The type of mental health condition and the severity of it impact their ability to learn/perform. The second question is the change in academic performance over the course of the therapy. Third, are the changes significant? It is important to analyze academic change, and note factors such as the difficulty of classes. Also, students may naturally be stronger students in certain fields. All such factors must be taken into account whenever possible.