Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,
I’m interested in doing a behavior experiment where I test how well a characteristically sympathetic person
responds to stress. My hypothesis is that they will respond better according to the implications of my literature search
(although there is conflicting evidence, I chose to trust the most recent studies). I would like to ask a nearby University
professor for help on how to narrow down my topic and perhaps lead me to directions I have not considered before.
But I already have my research topic; so how should I approach said Professor? Thank you and hope to hear from
you soon!

Hi,

While it would be useful to have a mentor, in your case it would not be absolutely necessary. You do have some challenges to setting up your hypothesis and testing it but solving them yourself will be more satisfying and useful than having someone tell you how to do the project.

If you do decide to seek a mentor, Scibuddies has a lot of helpful tips in preparing a project outline and proposal before you attempt to talk to prospective mentors:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ce-project

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tem-mentor

You said you had done a lit search for creating and testing your hypothesis about sympathetic people and stress. Did you find sufficient information that would enable you to identify a group of volunteers as "characteristically sympathetic"'? What group would you be comparing them to--nonsympathetic? How will you induce stress and measure a response? I did a search for this and found one reference that sounds promising. Maybe you saw it already:

The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3227197/

The TSST sounds like a well-tested and effective method for causing stress. The result can be evaluated by questionnaire or even by a physical method such as using a wearable heart-rate monitor.

Check with your school about using volunteers in a science project. There are many regulations with regard to human subjects that you have to pay attention to and your teachers should have access to these guidelines.

Good luck,

Sybee