This document outlines a proposed research study that will examine how the introduction of a new, higher quality coffee machine at a university impacts student coffee choices and preferences. The researcher hypothesizes that while the new machine was desired, most students will continue choosing the cheaper original coffee despite complaints about quality. Semi-structured interviews and surveys will collect data on factors like taste, price, and perceptions of indulgence versus university lifestyle that may influence coffee selection. The goal is to evaluate if the new machine faces a similar fate as New Coke by determining what guides students' coffee decisions.

2. The
Birth-­‐Rate
Dilemma
Empirical
Research
v The
research
made
by
Peter
Haan
and
Katharina
Wrohlich
(2011)
on:
‘Can
child
care
policy
encourage
employment
and
ferBlity?’
v Variables:
u The
socio-­‐economic
situaBon
of
the
parents:
financial
incenBves
u Women
who
already
have
a
new-­‐
born
child
u Behavior
of
women
returning
to
work
aLer
birth
and
the
adeptness
of
child
care
policies
Methodological
Approach
A
qualita:ve
and
induc:ve
approach
Sample:
v The
research
will
be
using
purposive
non-­‐probability
sampling,
based
on
strategically
chosen
women
with
a
background
of
higher
educaBon.
v The
Interview
will
be
organised
semi-­‐
structured,
thus
having
a
list
of
relevant
quesBons
but
fiQng
them
to
the
Interviewee’s
profile
and
answers.
v The
Interview
will
evolve
around
a
spectrum
of
ques:ons
such
as
the
wish
for
children,
the
percepBon
of
the
image
of
modern
women,
responsibility
of
women
vs.
men,
view
on
childcare
and
maternity
leave
policies
and
influences
such
as
the
partners
opinion,
society
or
economic
situaBon.
v To
analyse
the
interview
it
is
proposed
to
use
a
thema:c
analysis,
trying
to
idenBfy
themes
and
paTerns
within
the
collected
qualitaBve
data.
Research
Ques:on
Are
low
birth
rates
a
consequence
of
women
in
workforce
or
a
result
of
changing
image
of
modern
women?
Introduc:on
v Many
countries
in
Europe
face
a
demographic
struggle
of
a
shiL
towards
an
aging
populaBon
because
of
an
increasing
gap
between
birth
rates
and
mortality
rates.
v The
research
focuses
on
the
quesBon
why
the
birth
rates
in
Europe
are
decreasing,
thus
trying
to
find
the
underlying
root
to
the
problem.
v It
is
directed
towards
understanding
contribuBng
factors
such
as
women
in
workforce,
childcare
and
maternity
leave
policies
and
significance
of
the
image
of
modern
women.
Female
populaBon
with
higher
academic
educaBon
10
Employees
10
Students
References
Morgan,
S.
P.
(2003).
Is
low
ferBlity
a
twenty-­‐first-­‐century
demographic
crisis?.
Demography,
40(4),
589-­‐603.
Haan,
P.,
&
Wrohlich,
K.
(2011).
Can
child
care
policy
encourage
employment
and
ferBlity?:
Evidence
from
a
structural
model.
Labour
Economics,
18(4),
498-­‐512.
Philosophical
Reflec:on
v Applied
will
be
a
phenomenological
paradigm,
the
basic
beliefs
that
the
world
is
socially
constructed
and
based
on
subjecBve
context.
v Looking
at
the
socially
constructed
Image
of
women
and
her
role
in
society
Scien:fic
Relevance
v This
paper
aims
take
the
scienBfic
approach
of
comple:ng
gaps
in
knowledge,
by
finding
all
contribuBng
factors
and
uncover
missing
links,
helping
to
understand
why
the
birth
rate
shiL.
v Fulfil
its
social
relevance
to
discover
pracBcal
soluBons
that
will
help
the
society
with
the
birth
rate
dilemma.
I6081409
KersBn
Pohlmann
Why
don‘t
they
want
me?

3. Andrea Grundke!
I6068940
SKI1005: Research Methods II April 25, 2014
The Result of the Chameleon Effect on Different Personality Traits
Results
Problem Statement Data & Methodology
Data - Descriptions of 16 Personalities!
- Sample size: 30!
- Sample type: University students
Methods - Multiple answer questionnaires
(Psychometric assessment)!
- Social Experiments (The
Chameleon Effect)!
- Observation!
- Surveys & Interviews!
- Gathering of opinions and
results
Dependent
Variables
- 16 Personalities Traits!
- According to the Chameleon
effect:!
- Smoothness!
- Liking
16-item questionnaire (16
possible results according
to psychometric
assessment)
Independent
Variable
- Results of ‘Chameleon effect’
social experiment!
- Sample size
- Likert scale (0-10:
Higher scores indicate
well-liked)!
- Numerical scale (0-30)
Control
Variables
- Age!
- Gender!
- Education!
- Geographical Location
Abstract
!
The chameleon effect is a psychological term that was coined by
Chartrand and Bargh in 1996, which refers to the unconscious
tendency to mimic the behavior of others.This has become a
common social technique thats used by both aware and
unaware individuals in everyday social interactions, in order to
create a bond between them and make interaction easier and
smoother.
! Despite this technique being commonly used, it has been
observed that individuals with certain personality traits both
make use of it as well as it affecting them differently. Another
psychological term, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
assessment is then used to distinguish each of the different
personality traits in order to investigate the relationships between
them. This psychometric assessment measures the
psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and
make decisions.!
! The objective to this research is then to determine
whether the chameleon effect is of any actual use or just a by-
product of social interactions. Through this, it then can be
determined whether the different personality traits influence the
effectiveness of this psychological effect. Through this, potential
leaders could be identified easier as well as the ability to
manage group members more efficiently.!
Research Question
!
What kind of impact does the chameleon effect have on different
personality traits, according to the Myers and Briggs, in order to
achieve optimal productivity?
Hypothesis
!
H1: Individuals who have been mimicked indicate that they liked
the interviewer more and conversation has gone more smoothly.!
!
H2: Individuals in the Diplomats group are usually caught in the
chameleon effect and thus, are easily influenced.!
!
H3: Individuals in the Analysts group make good use of the
chameleon effect and thus, are influential.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment: 16 Personalities
During the social experiment, research has shown, that individuals
will more likely respond in an open and friendly manner, the more
similar and synchronized subtle forms of behavioral actions are. !
! Participants who had been mimicked indicated that they
liked the person who had imitated them more and that the
interaction with that person had gone more smoothly, in comparison
with participants who had not been mimicked. Data are from
Chartrand and Bargh (1999).
According to each specific personality profiles, the
different personality traits, such as the introvert and
extrovert traits, influence the relationship with the
chameleon effect greatly.!
! Due to this, one observation from the social
experiment that could be made is that of those individuals
who fall more into the extrovert trait, they would be able to
easily interact with others. This means that they are able
to handle behavioral actions better and thus be more
influential.!
! In conclusion, results from the social experiments
are according to the hypotheses stated.

4. References
Schindler,R.M.(1992).Thereallesson
ofnewCoke:Thevalueoffocus
groupsfor..MarketingResearch,
4(4),22-27.
Theaccessibilityoffreshandgoodqualitycoffeeis
arguablyofmajorimportanceforastudent’saca-
demicsuccess.Atleast,ifonecarefullylistensto
courtyardandcommonroom conversations.Itis
thereforeoflittlesurprise,thattheUCM community
welcomedtheinstallationofanew coffeemachine
thatprovidesabetterbeverage.Nonetheless,there-
searchergottheimpressionthatmanystudentsef-
fectivelystilldrinkthecheapcoffee,regardlessof
earliercomplaints.Thus,thearisingquestionisif
UCM coffeemightfacethefaith ofNew Coke.
Althoughseeminglydesired,theintroductionofa
newproductdoesnotalwaysengendertheintended
resultandtheevaluationofthisphenomenonisthe
aimofthisresearch.
ResearchQuestion
WhichcoffeemachinedoUCM studentsuseand whatfactors
influencetheirchoice?
Hypotheses
1)Although thepossibility topurchasegood quality coffeeis
providedthemajorityofstudentschosesthecheaperalternative.
2)2)Whilethetasteofcoffeeisconsideredtobeimportant,itisnot
valuedhighenoughtobeanincentivetopayahigherprice.
3)Regardlessofearlierclaimsofthebenefitsofbettercoffee,the
indulgenceofthemoreexpensivecoffeeisnotconsideredtobe
combinablewithuniversitylife.
Expectations
TheTheresearcherexpectstofindouthow thedifferent
variablespointedoutinthemethodologyinfluence
thestudent’schoiceforeitherofthecoffeemachines.
Theseresultswillbevaluabletoevaluatethesuccess
oftheinstallationofanew coffeemachine.Notonly
willthefindingsbeofinterestforthesupplierbutwill
also allow insights into the student’s consumer
behaviobehavior.EspeciallyatUCM,wherestudent’scritique
isoftentakenintoconsideration,itisnecessaryto
evaluateifthechangesbroughtaboutinreactionto
thecomplaintsareactuallyfrequented.Ifthisisnot
thecase,itmayposeaproblemregardingtheefficient
handlingofstudent’scriticismanddesires.
UCMi6074879
Abstract
CareforaCoffee?

5. The Brain - A Creativity Machine?!
A functional MRI study of colour perception
Expectations
Different neuronal activation patterns in participants
from distinct cultural backgrounds.
!
Hypotheses
-Living in a specific culture influences a person’s
_memory.
-People from different cultures use different
_memory schemata.
-These differences can be measured.
Abstract
Perceiving incoming information
means that stimuli are combined with
cognitive schemata consisting of prior
experiences.
Therefore, perception is an active
process, involving personal memory.
This research project aims at further
defining this creative process by
investigating cultural schemata:
!
Is there a cultural specific perception
of visual stiumli, at the example of
colour?
!
Earlier Research
Ernst Gombrich
The Beholder’s Share: The beholder
uses hypothesis testing in viewing.
!
Demorest et al., 2009
Cultural specificity in musical
memory.
!
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Theory
Recognizing information involves
identifying categories and comparing
these to stored memory.
Methodology
Approach: quantitative
Sampling
_systematic, within sampling frame
_2 goups of N from 2 countries
Variables
_dependent: brain activation pattern
_independent: colour sequence
Measurement tools
_fMRI machine
Testing
_-Exposing paritcipants to different
_colours while surveying their brain
_activation.
Analysis of Data
_-Generating activation graphs with
_statistical programme.
Work Schedule:
_Data collection Week 1 and 2
_Data analysis Week 3
_Writing paper Week 4
!
Limitations
-Small sample due to time
_limitation
-Professional assistance for
_machine handling and data
_analysis necessary
Bottom-Up
Top-Down
Associations!
Luna Kamps - I6074170

6. • How often do students participate in cultural life?
•What motivates the students to participate or not to participate
in culture?
• What are the preferences of the students when selecting
specific cultural forms of entertainment?
• What forms of culture are the most popular among students?
• What does the choice of subsequent forms of cultural
entertainment depend from?
• What type of culture integrates the students the most?
High culture – “the accumulation of art, literature, and humane
reflection that has stood the „test of time‟ and established a
continuing tradition of reference and allusion among educated
people” (Scruton, 2007). E.g. theatre, opera, ballet, museums,
classical music and literature.
Popular (mass) culture – is that “provided by mass media and
consumer goods industries” (Gans, 1974). E.g. cinema (films
watching), TV watching, rock/pop concerts and bars events.
Cultural capital - forms of knowledge, skills, education, and
advantages that a person has, which give him/her a higher
status in society. (Wikipedia, from: Bourdieu, 1986).
Hypothesis:
1. UCM students participate more often in mass culture than in high culture (Damen, Van Klaveren,
2010).
2. Participation in mass culture is attractive for UCM students because of possibility to spend less
money, participate in large groups and more active time-spending.
3. Parents‟ occupation and education influence the student‟s choice of the type of culture: the better
education and profession of the parents is, the more likely student tends to participate in high
culture. (Bourdieu, 1984)
4. More than half of UCM students dedicate some of their free time to UCM-organized activities
(dinners, pub-crawls etc.).
5. Carnival is one of the most popular cultural events for UCM students.
Methods
• Quantitative research
• Questionnaire sent by e-mails to all UCM current students (expected response ~40%)
• Analysis with SPSS and/or Excel software
Dependent variables: frequency of taking part in culture (mass and high), frequency of participating
in different types of cultural life (incl. theatre, museums, opera / films, concerts, TV), participating in
UCM activities, and Carnival.
Independent variables: material situation, level of education and occupation of parents, individual or
group participation in culture, importance of active life, country of origin.
1. Bourdieu Pierre (1984), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Harvard University
Press, 640 p.
2. Bourdieu Pierre (1986), The Forms of Capital in: in J.G. Richardson's Handbook for Theory and
Research for the Sociology of Education, pp. 241–258
3. Damen M., Van Klaveren C. (2010), Did Cultural and Artistic Education in the Netherlands increase
Student Participation in High Cultural Events?, Tier WP 10/22
4. Gans J. Herbert (1974), Popular and High Culture: an Analysis and Evaluation of Taste, Basic
Books, 179 p.
5. Scruton Roger (2007), Culture counts: faith and feeling in a world besieged, New York, 117 p.
“Did Cultural and Artistic Education in the Netherlands
increase Student Participation in High Cultural Events?”
(Damen, Van Klaveren, 2010)
The aim of the research was to examine whether the changes in
education in 1999 influenced students‟ participation in high
culture. Panel data was used from the project “Youth and
Culture”. The participants were 15-17 years old students from
68 Dutch schools. Students were free to choose what kind of
cultural events they liked to participate in.
•Intervention increased the participation of students in high
culture a little, however, it did not decrease their
participation in popular culture.
•Gender, ethnicity or birth month did not influence the
results.
UM is rather an international university. It is a home for many
students who came here from around the globe. It is also a
place for many exchange students. UCM, in particular, is not
only an international faculty, but there are also people who
study different disciplines: science, humanities or social studies.
As it is an international and heterogeneous faculty, it combines
many different people with different backgrounds and interests.
And we are a part of it. What is the life after classes? What
unites all of us?
9-11.06 12-13.06 14.06 15.06 16-19.06 20-25.06 26.06-2.07 3-4.07
Makingaquestionnaire
Pilotage
Corrections
Distributingquestionnaire
Collectingdata
Analyzingdata
Writingareport
Presentingresults

7. How to measure employee satisfaction in order
to improve employee performance? !
Research FrameworkIntroduction
u Companies have shifted in recent years from a
pure cost-accounting approach to a capability
approach
u Intangible Assets such as employee
performance have become vital for
international operating firms
u Thus: How can employee satisfaction be
measured as empirical studies by Harter and
Schmidt show a positive relation between
employee performance and satisfaction
u By an effective measurement of employee
satisfaction, issues within a company can be
outlined and companies can develop a business
plan to address the specific issues
Benefits
Promotio
n
Superviso
r
Co-workers
WorkCondi
tions
Emp
Satisfaction
Productiv
ity
Safety
The
Work
Itself
Communicat
ion
Pay
Berry, Lilly M. (1997). Psychology at Work. San Francisco:
McGraw Hill Companies Inc.
What determines employee satisfaction?
u Applied Research – deductive research design
as it is built on already existing empirical
research
u Survey for quantitative data that includes at
least one question for each component of
employee satisfaction
u Positivist Paradigm : information derived by
quantitative measures
u Sample. 1. All employees 2.Stratified sample
in order to recognize differences within
specific departments
Variables
u Employee performance (satisfaction) =
dependent variable
u Influencing factors (components of employee
satisfaction) = independent variable
u Employee satisfaction = latent variable
implying that it can not be measured directly
only by measuring the influencing factors,
which make up employee satisfaction
Necessary Conditions
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L. & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee
satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 87
(2), p. 268.
u Surveys about private information have to be
voluntary (legal matters)
u Employees need an incentive to answer e.g.
improvement of working conditions
u Collected Data will be handled secure,
privately and anonymous
u Results will determine an action plan to
address the issues creating dissatisfaction
Oceantomo.com. (2012). Ocean tomo's intangible asset market value study | ocean tomo. [online]
Retrieved from: http://www.oceantomo.com/media/newsreleases/Intangible-Asset-Market-
Value-Study-Release [Accessed: 9 Mar 2014].
Sources:

9. Investigating eyewitness testimony
RQ: To what extent can the misinformation technique be used to alter event-specific recall?
WHY? PRIOR WORK
• Eyewitness testimoy is widely used as evi-
dence in the legal system
• False imprisonment due to eyewitness testi-
mony
• Contribute to a deeper understanding of
memory processes and provide scientific ev-
idence to support court and police proceed-
ings
• According to the Innonce Project, 73% of 311
convictions overturned by DNA evidence
were initially false due to eyewitness identifi-
cation1
HOW?
• Methodological design: quantitative, experi-
mental
• Video of simulated burglarly shown to partici-
pants, subsequently asked to recall the event
• Experimental group: covert experimenter/as-
sistant asks about the weapon during video
• Control group: no question asked
• Indicates that it is possible to influence the
formation and recall of a memory by employ-
ing several techniques
• Consolidation - the period in between the
formation of a memory and its‘solidification’-
underpins several of these techniques2
• Memories are left‘active’after formation, in
which they can be influenced by outside in-
formation3
=>
=>REFERENCES:
1:“Eyewitness Identification Reform”, Innoncence Project, no date, retrieved from: http://www.innocen-
ceproject.org/Content/Eyewitness_Identification_Reform.php
2: Memory - a Century of Consolidation, McGaugh, J. L.
3:“Planting misinformation in the humand mind: A 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory”,
Loftus E. F., 2005

10. The Color of Food
Introduction
Methodology
Earlier Empirical work
Expectancies References
Most children are known to be
picky eaters, especially when it
comes to their daily portion of
fruits and vegetables. Previous
research has already shown that
changing the shape of the food
into something relatable – a
cartoon figure for example –
increases a child's appetite.
Besides their preference for
cartoon figures children are also
notorious for their love of color.
Therefore the aim of this research
will be to decrease picky eating
behavior by the use of color. Does
brightly, unnatural colored food
increase children's appetite?
The influence of color on picky eating behavior
©MarloesHoogstad
Mixed
methods
Qualitative
Interview
Quantitative
experiment
Repeat
until each
group has
eaten
every color
Weigh the
leftovers
Serve food
to the
children
Weigh all
the
portions
Prepare for
each group
food in a
different
color
Interview
Sample Parents of the children that
are selected for the
experiment
Tools Pen and paper
Room with desk and 2
chairs
Execution Series of questions to
determine current eating
behavior of the child
The Experiment
Sample 4 groups of 25 children aged between
6 and 10
3 groups of picky eaters
1 control group of non-picky eaters
Tools Food coloring red • blue • yellow
Food to color
Plates, cutlery, pots and pans
A room with enough tables and chairs for 25 children
Execution 3 groups get food in one of the 3 colors
1 control group gets natural, ‘uncolored’ food
The process
Children tend to:
• Be less picky when the
food is turned red or
yellow
• Be pickier when the
food is turned blue
Spence, C., Levitan, C., Shankar, M. U., and Zampini, M. (2010)
Does food color influence taste and flavor perception in
humans? Chemosensory Perception 3.1: 68-84.
Rolls, B. J., Rolls, E. T., and Rowe, E. A. (1982) How Sensory
Properties of Food affect Human Feeding Behavior.
Physiology & Behavior. Vol 29. pp 409 - 417
How Sensory Properties of
Food affect Human Feeding
Behavior
• After eating one color the
pleasantness of the taste
of the eaten color declined
• When 3 shapes were
offered a significant
increase (14 %) in food
intake was observed
• Changes in flavor led to a
significant increase in food
intake when all 3 flavors
were presented
Does Food Color Influence Taste
and Flavor Perception in
Humans?
• people’s judgments of flavor
identity are affected by the
changing of a food or drink’s
color
• Different colors lead to
different flavor expectations
based on people’s
background
• Intensity of color can
increase the perceived
intensity of sweetness

11. University College Maastricht
Media coverage in Wartime
The case of the Iraq War
Aims & Objectives
• Explore language and patterns used in newspaper coverage of Iraq War
• Identify whether coverage was biased, if so how?
• Were there clear distinctions between US and Non-US coverage
• Demonstrate difficulty with neutrality/impartiality in Wartimes
Justification
• Insight in important aspects in political, sociological and communication
realm
• Iraq War as central issue in the field of International Relations, thus
importance of analyzing how such a crucial event was differently
covered by newspapers
• Raise awareness in the sense that patterns and frameworks will be
exposed, that might be evidential of biased reporting
• Important analysis of the crucial role language might play
• Possible suggestions of follow-up research
• Once lack of neutrality is established, which influence did it have?
• Contribution to academic community
Methodology
Comparison of coverage and framing in two newspapers (One US, one non-US)
Qualitative Approach
• Content Analysis of several Articles
• Establish patterns/ codes in different Newspapers
Quantitative Content Approach
•Determine presence of certain words/ concepts
Conclude and compare whether certain patterns evidentiate lack of neutrality/ bias/
partisanship
Research Question
To what extent do American Newspapers differ from Non-US newspapers with respect
to their coverage of the Iraq War?
& Hypothesis
• American newspapers were biased in their coverage of the war
• By filtering the information, newspapers published more supporting articles, thus
failing to neutrally cover the Iraq War
• Non-US newspapers succeeded in reporting a wider range of opinions
• There is a difference in tone and content between US and Non-US newspapers
Philosophical reflection
• Epistemological paradigm of critical inquiry
• Deconstruct ideas (in this case articles and language)
• Challenge assumptions  emancipating interest
• Reflection on possibility of neutrality in news reports, specifically in Wartimes
Access, Ethics & Limitations
• Research conducted in responsible and morally defensible way
• One or two fellow students needed in order to correctly perform qualitative analysis
• Access to online newspaper archives
• Possible limitations: problems with access to news articles
• One month might be short for extensive analysis of several sources
Literature Review/ Previous Empirical Work
• Different roles of media: Agenda-setting type of media (Maxwell, McCombs &
Shaw, 1972)
• Concept of media frames
• “The New York Times and the Washington Post barely covered the anti-war
movement in the US” (Hafez, 2004)
• U.S. newspapers implement more pro-war motivations
• “Mass media in following the lead of the state become willing accomplices
in wartime propaganda, and may even play a significant role in instigating conflict”
(Maslog, Lee & Kim, 2007)
References
McCombs, Maxwell & Donald Shaw (1972), "The agenda-setting function of mass media, Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, (2), pp. 176-185.
Hafez, K. (2004). The Iraq War 2003 in Western Media and Public Opinion: Case Study of the Effects of Military (Non-) Involvement on Conflict Perception, Global Media Journal, 3 (5)
Wilhelm, S. (2005). Covering the war in Iraq, Journal of Intercultural Communication, 10
Maslog, C. C., Lee, S. T., Kim, H.S. (2007). Framing Analysis of a Conflict: How Newspapers in Five Asian Countries Covered the Iraq War, Asian Journal of Communication
Francisca Costa Reis
I6080471

12. THE LIMBURGER AND THE OTHER
WHAT?As a reaction to globalisation and increased transna-
tionalism, regional identity has become more important in the
last years. Lately, more and more scholarly attention has been
paid not only to the nature of these identities – their functions
and meanings – but also how they are both deliberately and
unintentionally constructed by different actors (Simon, Huigen
& Groote 2010; Terlouw 2012). This study seeks to address this
topic with regards to the regional identity of the Dutch prov-
ince Limburg.
Due to history and geographical location the Limburg
identity has for long been constructed in relation to others. On
the one hand the “Hollanders” of the rest of the Netherlands
and on the other hand the other nationalities surrounding the
region (Knotter 2008). Additionally, the region is at present
home to a significant number of students and expatriates im-
portant for region’s vitality and economy. The forthcoming
study seeks to investigate these “others’” significance to the
construction of the regional identity of Limburg.
WHY? This topic is of great relevance in a time when the importance of a distinct,
regional identity increases at the same time as the interconnection between regions
and their people are an undeniable fact. The way this tension is negotiated has re-
mained largely unresearched to present date. Limburg provides a highly relevant
example of this tension with its constant presence of and relation to several different
others . Thus, the province provides as an interesting case study and can consequent-
ly address the knowledge gap at hand. Additionally, this research is largely relevant
in the light of recent Xenophobic tendencies in Europe – a phenomena that also have
been relatively prominent in the election results of this southern region.
Focus groups
- 4 focus groups, 6 partici-
pants each. All Limburgers as
well demographically spread
as possible.
- Analysing both actual state-
ments but also contradictions,
jokes, behaviour etc.
REFERENCES
Knotter, A. (2008). Limburg bestaat niet. Paradoxen van een sterke identiteit. BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review, 123(3), 354-367.
Simon, C., Huigen, P., & Groote, P. (2010). Analysing regional identities in the Netherlands. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 101(4), 409-421.
Terlouw, K. (2012). From thick to thin regional identities?. GeoJournal, 77(5), 707-721.
A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A REGIONAL IDENTITY SITUATED AMIDST OTHERS
RESEARCH QUESTION
What role does the present and distant other play in the contemporary
construction of Limburg’s regional identity?
In order to be more graspable, broken down into the subquestions
1. How Limburgers themselves negotiate and position their idenity in
relation to “others”?
2. How professional actors in their deliberate construction of Limburgs
idenitty relate to the “others”?
Textual analysis
- Collection and analysis of logos, bro-
chures and other representations pro-
duced by professional with the aim of
promoting or informing about Limburg.
For instance images used, slogans etc.
- Method established by Simon et. al.
(2010)
HOW?
WHEN? Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Literature review, preparing focus groups X
Data collection X X
Structure and analyse data X X
Write and revise X X

13. Is Meat Manly?
An investigation of the influence of subjective perception of masculinity
Research Question:
How are the perception of - and identification with masculinity
related to meat consumption?
A. In how far do men identify with the different concepts
of masculinity?
B. In how far do the subjects relate their concept of mas-
culinity to meat consumption? How much meat is con-
sumed by the subject?
Theoretical Framework
The phenomenon of men consuming more meat than women is common
amongst various cultures. A study investigated the gendering of food by
evaluating pro red-meat statements of both men and women, and found that
men were more likely to be in favour of red meat consumption. This would thus
mean that values differ amongst the genders. However, meat consumption is
often pointed out as “strong” and “manly” by both males and females.
Therefore, it could also be assumed that both genders hold the same values and
simply place themselves differently in society. However, this would mean that
all men would consume large quantities of meat, however in Europe, an
opposite trend can be observed.
Sobal (2005) comes up with a solution to this problem. The concept of multiple
masculinities implies that even within one social context, different perceptions
of masculinity can coexist. Therefore, the identity of the members of society can
be influenced by different concepts and therefore differ largely. Coming back to
meat consumption, this entails that some males might perceive meat
consumption as very masculine, whereas others, for instance, influenced by the
concept of the “healthy man” find it unmanly to consume large quantities of red
meat. The phenomenon of more meat being consumed by men could thus be
explained through a dominant identification with concepts of masculinity that
are related to high meat consumption.
Introduction
Global land use change, partly driven by the increasing demand for livestock
products, has been identified as one of the major drivers of climate change.
Additionally, the increasing demand for agricultural land causes increasing
global food prices, which harm especially the global poor. Therefore, a
reduction of meat consumption can be an effective mean to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions as well as world hunger. First of all, however, the causes for high
meat consumption need to be identified. This research is going to investigate
one of those possible causes.
Methodology
Independent variable: meat consumption
Dependent variable: identification with concept of masculinity
Population: Dutch men
Sample: 30 Dutch men, randomly selected
Conduct: Quantitative survey (for amount of meat consumed) and qualitative interviews (to identify concepts of masculinity and their influence)
Expected Outcome
Taking the previous research on meat consumption and veganism into account, two main conclusions are to be expected:
A. Those men who identify themselves with a conception of masculinity that sees meat consumption as a masculine act will have a higher meat
consumption than others.
B. Many dominant conceptions of masculinity give meat consumption a masculine character, which causes the gender differences in meat
consumption.
References
Dickson-Hoyle, S., & Reenberg, A. (2009). Shrinking Globe: Globalization of Food Systems andthe changing geographies of livestock production The Royal
Danish Geographical Society, Volume 109(1), 105-111.
Kubberød, E., Ueland, Ø., Rødbotten, M., Westad, F., & Risvik, E. (2002). Gender specific preferences and attitudes towards meat. Food Quality and
Preference, 13(5), 285-294.
Sobal, J. (2005). Men, meat, and marriage: Models of masculinity. Food & Foodways, 13(1-2), 135-158.
A research proposal by Clara Overweg (i6080562)
In Research Methods II (SKI1005)

14. Does the use of a „memory palace“ help students to efficiently increase their long-term memory power?#
#
!
!
!
!
6. Methodology
Hypothesis #
1. The use of a „memory palace“
leads to an increase of a
students long-term memory
power.
2. The „memory palace“ looses
its appeal to be used for
memorizing if it becomes too
energy-intensive
Experiment#
• Select 10-20 students and
divide them into two groups
• Instruct and familiarize half of
the participants with the
method of „memory
palace“ (Group A)
• Provide both groups with a list
of random 40 items and ask
them to memorize it. Group A
is asked to use the loci method.
• Ask each student to recall the
remembered items and note
the number of correctly
remembered items.
• Ask participants to recall the list
1, 7, 14 days later
• Ask Group A if loci method is
viewed useful for future:
• ( ) Yes (x) No. If no, why?______
Data & Evaluation#
• Compare and evaluate result of
both groups using contingency
table and scatterplot
THE POWER OF A MEMORY PALACE
5. Theoretical
Framework
The Memory Palace#
The „Memory Palace“, also referred to
as the method of loci, is an ancient
mnemonic device that relies on
memorized spatial relationships
between familiar loci to arrange and
retrieve memorial content (Dalgleish
et al.,2013). It works as follows:
• Step 1: Create a Memory Palace
• Step 2: Define Items and Route
• Step 3: Commit it to Memory
The human mind is good at
remembering familiar places. Thus,
the first step is to create a „memory
palace“ by choosing a well-known
location such as one’s home. Next,
items-to-be-remembers need to be
placed there and visualized, e.g.
using symbols. The more salient,
vivid, and bizarre the image linking
the material to the location, the easier
it is to recollect (Von Restorff, 1933).
!
1. Introduction
Knowledge is one of the most valuable resources
students can gain from their studies, yet parts of it often
seem to turn into useless temporary acquisitions once
the testing moment is over. Without memory, some of
the hard-studied facts can become mere ghosts of a
glory past. While some might consider this the perfectly
justified outcome of a natural selection of knowledge,
others might regret the waste. At either end, however, it
could be perfectly useful to get at least acquainted with
tools and skills to enhance one’s memory power before
giving in to the „just google it“ mentality. The „memory
palace“ is one such mnemonic device and it is often
used by geniuses like Lu Chao who is able to recall π to
67,890 decimal places without error (Raz et al., 2009).
Could the average person achieve that as well? The
research proposal at hands seeks to explore the value of
a „memory palace“ for average people, particularly for
students. It seeks to answer the question of whether a
„memory palace“ helps students to efficiently increase
their long-term memory power. Efficiency is key here for
it introduces the idea (1) to assess the success of the
„memory palace“ for the average person and (2) to
assess its desirability, that is, whether the achieved result
is worth the effort put into building a „memory palace“.
2. The Forgetting Curve
In 1855, Ebbinghaus confirmed the hypothesis of
the decline of memory retention in time. His so-
called forgetting curve illustrates how information
is lost over time if there is no attempt to retain it.
3. Grand Masters of Memory
While the majority of people succumb the law of
forgetting, some „Grand Masters“ like Frost McKee
memorize with a single sighting a random
sequence of 36 decks of cards within a hour using
the method of a „memory palace“
4. Relevance of Research
The „memory palace“ has a great potential to help
students enhancing their performance in school
and long-term knowledge repertoire, provided it
works well for the average person and can be
easily internalized. If so, the research proposal at
hands can contribute to the organization of
curriculum content and motivate a re-design.
References: Dalgleish, T., Navrady, L., Bird, E., & Hill, E. (2013). Method-of-Loci as a Mnemonic Device to Facilitate Access to Self-Affirming Personal Memories for Individuals With Depression. Clinical Psychological Science, 1(2), 156-162.Ebbinghaus,
H. (1964). Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology. New York: Dover Publications. , Raz, A.,et al . (2009). A slice of π: An exploratory neuroimaging study of digit encoding and retrieval in a superior memorist. Neurocase, 15(5), 361–372.
Von Restorff, H. (1933). Uber die wirkung von bereichsbildungen im spurenfeld [The effects of field formation in the trace field]. Psychological Research, 18, 299–342.
Gizem Kaya

15. A UCM Application of Bentham’s
Panopticon Theory
Johanne Emmélie La
Research Methods II • University College Maastricht
Introduction
Literature Review
Ø Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational model that has
been at the core of Maastricht University ever since it was founded
Ø Although PBL aims for a student-centred and active learning
approach, which would ideally lead students to conduct fruitful
discussions, exchange knowledge and motivate themselves to do
research, it can be argued that PBL is not always successfully
applied
Ø Can PBL be improved?
Ø Research Question: Can the implementation of cameras in tutorial
rooms at UCM, inspired by the Panopticon Theory, help to increase
the effectiveness of PBL?
BENTHAM’S PANOPTICON THEORY (1791)
• Panopticon: Large courtyard with a watchtower in the centre
designed to be an instrument reinforcing a system of social
control
• Prisoners would be seen without being able to see the watcher
• Architectural algorithm worked perfectly as it would still
function even if there were no guards present in the watchtower
• Reinforces power of authorities
CCTV SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS
• Representation of the watchtower in the Panopticon Theory
• Hope (2009): Social control and security achieved with CCTVs
UCM APPLICATION
Establish link between:
• The Panopticon and its effects on prisoners
• The implementation of CCTV cameras and its effects on
civilians
Substitute the use of CCTV cameras with camcorders for feasibility
Ø Aiming to improve the effectiveness of the PBL system, increase
student participation, encourage active learning and debating
between students
Ø Testing whether the Panopticon model can be reproduced in a
tutorial setting
Ø Examining whether the implementation of cameras in tutorial
rooms at UCM could reinforce a system of social control and thus
affect the behaviour of students during tutorials
Ø Examining whether the installation of a camcorder in a tutorial
room would serve the same function as the watchtower in the
Panopticon, thus reinforcing the power of authorities
Purpose of the study
Prison model inspired by Panopticon theory.
Methods
PARTICIPANTS
• UCM students
• One tutorial group
MATERIALS
• Pre-test: Conducted during the entire first half of a period and
ask the tutor to collect data regarding students’ participation and
behaviour during tutorials. This is unknown to the students
themselves and thus qualifies as a covert observation
• Announcement made to tutorial group prior to data collection
informing them of the installation of a camcorder in the tutorial
room with the aim to assess the effectiveness of the PBL system
at UCM
• Post-test: Conducted during the entire second half of a period
although the data collection is made with the help of the installed
recording device
• Comparison of data collected in pre-test and post-test
APPARATUS
• Camcorder is installed in a tutorial room
• Must be made visible and a constant red light must flicker at all
times to induce a perpetual impression of being observed
Pre-test Intervention
(Camcorder)
Post-test
Control group O1 O2
Experiment
group
O1 X O2
Design
Table 1. OXO Notation of the Quasi-Experimental Design
• Behavioural experiment
• Pilot study: small-scale experiment or set of observations
undertaken to decide how and whether to launch a full scale
project
• The current experiment would have to be reproduced in
numerous tutorials in order to successfully prove the increased
effectiveness of PBL with camcorders, thus increasing the
validity of the experiment
• Quasi-Experimental Design:
“The major effect of the Panopticon is to induce
in the inmate a state of conscious and
permanent visibility that assures the automatic
functioning of power”
(Foucault, 1984)

16. A NEW GENERATION OF PENSIONERS
JuliusHeisei6068399
Are pensioners willing to play an
essential role in saving the German
welfare system?
Introduction Research Question
Method
Usability
Statistics
References
Are pensioners in Germany willing to invest
some of their time to support children in the
process of growing up?
Demographic change, Germany
Demographics 2014
Demographics 2040
Statista 2014
Reasons to remain childless
The German welfare system is challenged by the demographic
change society is going through. People are getting older and
older. The birth rate is shrinking (see statistics). As a conse-
quence more people receive a pension while less people fi-
nance the system through paying taxes (Tagesschau, 2012).
Based on the ideas of Bengtsson and Scott the rejuvenation
of the population is one possible solution (2011). Through
reversing the downtrend of fertility one can counterbal-
ance the increasing share of old people within society. Look-
ing at the reasons why couples remain childless (see statistics)
one can see that a lack of time and support are key factors.
Pensioners have assumingly more time than people who work.
Further they embody resources (expertise, wisdom, skill) that
can help shaping a society that is more child-orientated. On top it
is in the of the pensioners to have as many “future tax-payers” as
possible. Due to these reasons organisation as the “Bundesarbe-
itsgemeinschaft der Seniorenorganisationen” (Tagesspiegel, 2012)
introduce models where pensioners support children in the pro-
cess of growing up and at the same time help the parents in their
goal to manage both the career and the family at the same time.
The presented research tries to investigate whether German
pensioners are willing to attend these models or not. Based on
the research findings the research team aims to make a state-
ment about the probabilistic success of the models in Germany.
Bengtsson, T., & Scott, K. (2011). Population aging and the future of the welfare
state: The example of Sweden. PoPulation and develoPment review,
37(s1), 158-170.
Tagesspiegel, (2012). Kinderbetreung: Senioren an die Front. Retrieved April 25,
2014 from http://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/kontrapunkt-wie-
kann-man-die-aelteren-mobilisieren/6328322-2.html
Tagesschau, (2012). Durchblick bei der gesetzlichen Rente. Retrieved April 25,
2014 from http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/faqrente102.html
Spiegel, (2014) Graph 1 and 2. Retrieved April 25, 2014 from http://www.spiegel.
de/thema/demografie_deutschland/
Statista, (2014). Warum gruenden viele Deutsche keine Familie?. Retrieved April
25, 2014 from http://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/190234/
umfrage/gruende-fuer-kinderlosigkeit-in-deutschland/
Qualitative Study
- Semi-structured, open ended, in-
depths inverviews
Focus group
- all people that receive state pension
- 25 German pensioners as interview
participants
Grounded Theory approach
- data analysis witht the aim to derive
general theory from it
- research conduction within 4 weeks
- questionnaire to obtain basic information
such as age, educational level, gender
- ascertainment of willingness to
potentially reform of system by using
the resources pensionist embody
- first step to possible increase of
interaction between young/old

17. Does smell affect taste perception?
0
2
4
6
8
10
Neutral
smell
Fish
smell
Sweet
scent
Initial cake
grading
cake grading
after tasting
Hypothesis
The taste perception of cake depends on the
smell experiencing when tasting it. Therefore
the initial rating for cake is likely to
differentiate depending on the smell present.
A bad smell is likely to result in a larger
differentiation with the actual opinion than a
good smell.
Taste perception
The sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue
and throat convey information about the chemical
composition of a soluble stimulus (Oxford dictionary,
2012).
Method
Applicants will grade a
piece of cake on a scale
of 10 before taking part
in the experiment,
afterwards they will taste
a piece of cake and
subsequently they will
grade the piece they
have eaten.
Situation 1: tasting a piece of
cake with a neutral scent
Situation 2: tasting a piece of
cake with the smell of fish (open
can of sardines)
Situation 3: tasting a piece of
cake with a sweet smell (vanilla
scent)
Argumentation
The sense of smell is the major contributing sensory
system in the perception of food aromas and flavours.
Illustrations of the importance of olfactory sensations
can be found in the literature on product quality defects
and in the importance of aroma and flavour
characteristics in driving consumer acceptability of foods
(Lawless, 1991).
Correlation
The sense of taste is the result of a complex interaction between
multiple sensory mechanisms: when food is placed in the mouth,
taste receptors are stimulated. Simultaneously, other types of
sensory mechanisms that monitor several food characteristics
such as texture, temperature and scent are also activated. Taste
perception serves as a controller of voluntary ingestion of
substances (Gutiérrez, Vexo & Thalmann, 2008).
Stage 1
• Initial
cake
grading
on a
scale of
10.
Stage 2
• Taste a
piece of
cake
while
smelling
a certain
scent.
Stage 3
• Grade
the piece
of cake
that has
been
eaten.
Variables
Independent variables: initial cake
grading, scents.
Dependent variables: cake grading
after tasting.
Control variables: sight, texture,
age.
References
DICTIONARIES, O. (2012). Oxford dictionary of English.
Gutiérrez, M. A., Vexo, F., & Thalmann, D. (2008). Smell and Taste. Stepping into Virtual Reality, 157-161.
Lawless, H. (1991). The sense of smell in food quality and sensory evaluation. Journal of Food Quality, 14(1), 33-60.7

18. Introduction
Maastricht University is a rather large one, with 8
main faculties and several programs within those.
It inhabits close to 16,000 students that interact with
each other on a daily basis. But how interconnected
are they? Do the main interactions mainly take place
within the faculties or also across faculties? What
role do Student Associations and Sports Teams play?
All these questions will be answered after this
research project.
How socially connected are students from
different faculties within Maastricht University?
Maastricht
University
SBE
FaSoS
FHS
FHML
FNP
Law
This diagram shows
Maastricht University as the
main hub that connects the
faculties. The goal of this
research is to create a
network model that shows
the true connections
between faculties based on
sudent interactions
Aims & Objectives
The aim of this research is to find out
whether students identify as a
member of their own faculty or as a
member of the Maastricht University
in general. Furthmore, we will collect
opinions on Student Associations and
Sports Teams and to what extent they
influence student relationships.
Concerning the relevance of the
research, the students will be asked
whether they wish to get to know
more people from other faculties and
if they are happy with the existing
possibilities to do so. This will help
the university in discovering a
possible lack of community withing
the university and give suggestions
for how to strengthen the
community..
Earlier Empirical Work
• Rosenthal, Russell & Thompson (2007)
examined the social connectedness among
international students at the university of
Melbourne . They conducted a maiil-back
survey and also investigated 4 different apsects
•  only focuses on international students,
however, same research approach
Reference: Rosenthal, D., Russell, J., & Thomson, G. (2007). Social
connectedness among international students at an Australian university.
Social Indicators Research, 84(1), 71-82. doi: 10.1007/s11205-006-9075-1
Methodology
Online questionnaires will be distributed across all faculties
that should reach at least 50 students students per faculty.
Four aspects of social connectedness will be investigated:
(1) connectedness with their own faculty , (2) social mixing
and interaction with other Maastricht University students, (3)
involvement in organisations, associations and sport groups,
and (4) interest/participation in university-wide events
Research Question & Hypothesis
RQ: How interconnected are students from different faculties
within Maastricht University?
Hypothesis: Their own faculty acts as the main interaction
hub for students and therefore a low interaction between
students of different faculites exists.
Time Planning
• 2 days to create questionnaires
• Distributing questionnaires via the internet
to UM bachelor students for a period of 2
weeks
• Sorting of results according to the 4 aspects
while questionnaires are coming in
• Analysing the results of the questionnaires
for 4 days
• Writing of the research report
Annika Schwochow – I6067595

19. 30%
4%
17%
42%
Howoftendoyou
lookthroughads
ontheInternet?
never
sometimes
often
fromtime
totime
AydaDarban,WeiLi(2013).Theimpactofonlinesocial
networksonconsumers’purchasingdecision.Jonkoping
ElisabetaIoanăs,IvonaStoica(2011).SocialMediaand
itsImpactonConsumers.TheBucharestUniversityof
EconomicStudies
PreviousResearch
IntroductionAdvertising
hasanenormouseffecton
consumers’decision-making.SocialMedia
asasarelativelynewplatformforadvertising
hasbeengainingmoreandmorepopularity
amongyoungstartupsaswellasamongcor-
porations.Thispopularitycanbeexplained
byeasinessinreachingthecustomeraswell
aslowcostsforonlineadvertisingcam-
paigns.Nevertheless,companiesaroundthe
world have already spent
11.87$billionin2014foradvertisingin
SocialMedia,whichmakesthiswayofprod-
uctpromotiononeofthemostpopularin
theworld Researchquestion
“DoSocialMediaaffect
people’spurchasing
behaviourandifyes,to
whatextentdothey
affectit?”
Quantitativeanalysiswillbeusedforthisresearch.Questionnaireisthemostappro-
priateform.Itwillincludemultiple-choiceanswersandwillbedistributedonlinevia
socialnetworksaswellasbyissuinghardcopiesiftheamountofonlineparticipantswill
below.Thequestionnairewillbedrawnuptakingintoaccounttheexperienceofprevious
researches.
Secondarydataanalysiswillprovidewideroutlookonthephenomenonaswellas
allowtocomparethepreviousfindingsofresearcherswithnewones.
Samplewillinclude40participantsaged16-37,whohaveonlineprofiles,astheyare
themostfrequentusersofSocialMedia.
Methods
Analyzedataand
writereport
Distributequestionnaires
andcollectdata
Workoutquestionsand
answersforthequestionnaire
Identifydependantandinde-
pendentvariables

20. DECODINGSOCIALMOVEMENTSTHEORY:
CASESTUDIESOF2010MIDDLEEASTUPRISINGS
AhmedAl-haddad UniversityMaastricht I6059844 ResearchMethodsII
RELEVANCE
•Makingsenseoftheprotestphenomena
•Weretheseprotestsactuallyunpredictableevents?
•Aretheysuddenandspontaneousprotests?
•Exclusivityofpreviousstudies.
HYPOTHESIS:
TheThevariaonsoffourvariablescausethedifferent
scopesofimpactontheeffecveness
ofsocialmovements.
RESEARCHQUESTION:Whysocialmovementsinautocracsystemssuccessful,whereastheywereunsuccessfulinmonarchicstates?
OBJECTIVE
Theresearchpaperaimsatstudying,comparingand
disnguishing, between autocrac and monarchic
ssystems,byanalyzingthetwodifferentkindsofregimesin
TunisiaandEgypt,andJordanandBahrain.Bydoingthis,
thecharacteriscsofbothsystemswillbecomeclearanda
discussiononwhatmadethesocialmovementssuccessful
orunsuccessfulwillbepossible
FACTORSOFDETERMININGTHESUCCESS
ANDFAILUREOFTHESOCIALMOVEMENT.
•Thebreakofunitywithinthe
powerstructureoftheregime.
•Theunityofethnicies
•Receivingexternalforeignaid
••Diffusionofthemovementinto
socialmovementorganizaons
•Thelevelofdemocrazaon.
HypothesissuggeststhatBahrainandJordan
hadlackedthemenonedfactors,thus,
socialmovementstherefailed(Table1).
TABLE1:SOCIALMOVEMENTVARIABLES
JeroenMoes
Lynch,S.(2013).TheArabSpring:UnderstandingTheSuccessofProtestThroughSocialMovement.UniversityHonors.
Snow,D.A.,Soule,S.A.,&Kriesi,H.(2008).TheBlackwellcompaniontosocialmovements:JohnWiley&Sons.
EXPECTEDRESULTS
METHODS&DATA
DATA
MULTIPLECASESTUDIES
•Tunisia
•Egypt
•Bahrain
•Jordan
UNOUNOBTRUSIVEMEASURES
•Documents
•Digitalarchives
SECONDARYDATA
VARIABLES
•Movementdiffusion
•Spillovereffect
•Externalresources
•Internalinnovaon
•Unityofpolicalelite
••Ethniciesfusion
•SMOdiffusion
•Democrazaonlevel
DATAANALYSIS
•Groundedtheory
•Opencoding

21. Differences in narcissistic traits between German students and their parents
- A survey research -
Empirical literature review
Twenge et al. (2008) found
that the narcissistic levels
among college students in
the USA have risen.
Conclusion: College students
are nowadays significantly
more narcissistic than they
were 30 years ago.
Trzesniewski et al. (2008) did
not find evidence that college
students nowadays score
significantly higher on the
Narcissistic Personality
Inventory (NPI) than did
students 30 years ago
Conclusion: No evidence that
students are more narcissistic
nowadays
Generation ME
(Twenge & Campbell, 2009)
On the contrary, Roberts et al.
(2010) suggest that changes in
narcissism are larger regarding
the age-graded role rather than
the generation
It is not Generation ME but
Developmental ME
(Roberts, Edmonds, & Grijalva, 2010)
2 main gaps in scientific knowledge
1) Predominant studies in the field were conducted in the USA and
it was found that narcissism is more prevalent in the USA than in
other cultures (Aronson et al., 2013)  A study in a European country
would fill in current gaps in knowledge
2) Twenge and Campbell (2009) suggest a change in narcissism
across generations whereas Roberts et al. (2010) suggest a
change across developmental stages, i.e. age-related roles,
Trzesniewski et al. (2008) did not find any significant change As
generational changes are more investigated than are
developmental ones, the suggested research will focus on
changes across age-graded roles  Students and their parents
Scientific relevance of the proposed study
Why would the potential tendency of an increase in narcissism be a
problem?
1) Narcissistic people tend to be more aggressive (Twenge & Campbell, 2003)
2) Narcissistic people are disliked by others (Twenge & Campbell, 2009)
3) Narcissistic people are less successful in business and do less well
academically (Aronson et al., 2013)
The long-term consequences of narcissism are destructive to society
(Twenge & Campbell, 2009)
Research Question
Are there differences regarding narcissistic traits
between German students and their parents?
Hypothesis
German students will score higher on the Narcissistic
Personality Inventory and are therefore more
narcissistic than their parents.
Gantt chart
Reference list
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2013). Social Psychology (8th ed.): Pearson Education Limited.
Baron, H. (1996). Strengths and limitations of ipsative measurement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 69, 49-56.
Raskin, R. , & Terry, H. . (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct
validity Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54(5), 890-902.
Roberts, B. W., Edmonds, G., & Grijalva, E. (2010). It is developmental me, not generation me: Developmental changes are more important than
generational changes in narcissism. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(1), 97-102.
Trzesniewski, K. H., Brent Donnellan, M., & Robins, R. W. (2008). Do today's young people really think they are so extraordinary?: An examination
of secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement 19(2), 181-188. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02065.x
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2003). "Isn't it fun to get the respect that we're going to deserve?" Narcissism, social rejection, and agression
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 261-272.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement. New York: Atria Paperback.
Twenge, J. M., Konrath, S., Foster, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Egos inflating over time: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the
Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality, 74, 876-901.
Operational definition of narcissism
Narcissism is the combination of excessive self-love and a lack of empathy
towards others (Aronson et al., 2013). Pathological narcissism reflects un
unrealistic sense of entitlement and grandiosity. Narcissistic adults are more
impulsive, histrionic, active and self-focussed than others (Roberts et al., 2010).
 Note: Narcissism is both a form of pathology and a developmental stage.
The proposed research will focus on a narcissistic tendency rather than on
pathological narcissism
Methodology + Sampling
- Quantitative research  appropriate to statistically analyse data
- Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) will serve as a base for the
creation of the questionnaire and will be assessed by (ordinal) Likert
scale measurement (participants need to indicate their degree of
agreement (1-7) towads a number of statements)
- Example statements: “I am an extraordinary person” & “I am assertive”
(Raskin & Terry, 1988)
 Anonymous online survey, no purpose will be added on questionnaire in
order to avoid bias
- Independent variable: age-graded role as student or parent
- Dependent variable: score on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory 
indicates tendency towards narcissism
- The independent variable will be controlled by factors such as
nationality (German) to avoid confounding variables
- The German UCM population and their parents will serve as a sample
- Stratified random sampling will be used if this is feasible
- Study can be filled out from at home  hopefully large response rate
Preliminary limitations
- Social desireability bias: participants may try to portray themselves in a
positive way  Can be minimized by anonymous questionnaire
- Central tendency bias: Participants might avoid extreme answers (1 +7)
when answering Likert scale items (Baron, 1996)
- Asquience bias: The tendency to answer positively to a statement,
regardless of its content  avoid by negating statements
- Reliability: To be enhanced by a large sample  1/6 of UCM population
- Stability: Hard to guarantee as participants will fill out the study at home

22. Birte Strunk
Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, University College Maastricht, student number I6067089
Introduction and Background
Maastricht University is known for its great number of international
students (Figure 1). Some of those students are politically active in one of
the student parties, such as NovUM or DOPE, which do not only attract
local students. This may seem striking at first sight, given the fact that
many students only stay in the city or at the university for a limited time
and will most likely not enjoy the changes they bring about.
There is a large amount of literature on factors that generally
motivate people to be politically active. One example is the feeling of
efficacy, which assesses whether one feels like he or she can understand
political processes, as well as whether he or she feels like he or she can
effectively change things within the system (Schulz, 2005). Another
example is the effect of peer pressure (Wendel, 2012) or the information
avaibable through media (Dahlgren, 2009). Figure 2 visualizes the
assumed external and internal factors that play a role for political
participation. This research tries to apply those factors to the specific
context of foreign UM students in local political parties or associations.
Which Factors Motivate International Students at Maastricht
University to Participate in Political Associations?
Faculty of Humanities and Sciences
Facts and Factors
The number of international students at UM (figure 1):
retrieved from:
http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/AboutUM/FactsFigures.htm
Assumed External and Internal Factors that motivate students to be
politically active in local associations (figure 2):
Objectives, Research Question and Hypotheses
The objectives are (a) to identify which factors play a role in the decision
to be politically active and (b) to investigate whether some factors are
more important than others. The aim is to have a set of factors which will
help to motivate even more students to participate by addressing those
factors which have been identified as most influential.
Research Question: Which factors motivate international students at
University Maastricht to participate in local political associations?
Hypotheses:
(1) Students are motivated by external factors (eg. media, peer pressure)
(2) Students are motivated by internal factors (eg. political knowledge)
→ see Figure 2
Methodology
The research will adopt a qualitative approach, as it deals with the
student's attitudes and motivations towards their political participation. It
will be conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews of 30-45
minutes each, which try to address the factors identified in Figure 2 while
at the same time leaving space for the students to express ideas or
feelings that have not been considered so far. As the interviews are
designed to allow for in-depth evaluation of the student's motivation, the
size of the sample (N) will be limited to 12-15 students. The sampling will
be selective, as the interviews are conducted with students from different
faculties who are already members of political associations.
Expectations
After the interviews have been conducted, they will be transcribed and
codified, whereby, in the sense of open coding, the pre-assumed factors
will be put aside (rather inductive step). Only after this step has been
completed it will examine in how far the patterns from these interviews
match with the factors in Figure 2 (rather deductive element). It is
expected that most of these factors will show up in some form, but that
further factors will be added. Moreover, the interviews allow for the
weighting of factors, as they will investigate which ones are most
important to the students. After the report has been finished the results
can be passed on to the political associations, which can then react on it.
References
Dahlgren, P. (2009). Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication and Democracy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Schulz, W. (2005). Political Efficacy and Expected Political Participation among lower and upper secondary students. ECPR General Conference: Budapest.
Wendel, S. (2012). Dynamics of Political Participation: An Analysis of the Dynamic Interaction between Individuals and their Microenvironments. Doctoral Dissertation.
Correspondence
Birte Strunk
b.strunk@student.maastrichtuniversity.nl
University College Maastricht
Faculty of Humanities and Sciences
Research Methods II
Maastricht University
P.O. Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

23. To what extent can people rate their own
performance on a given task?
“Overestimation of incompetent“
“Better-than-average heuristic“
The hypothesis is that people are to some extent
accurate in their estimates, but these estimates are
off due to the better-than-average (BTA) heuristic and
the Dunning-Kruger effect. The BTA heuristic tells us
that most people believe there are better and perform
better than average (Krueger & Mueller, 2002). The
Dunning-Kruger effect shows that ignorance more
often than knowledge leads to self-esteem.
People with less than average knowledge
overestimate themselves as they
1. overestimate their ability
2. do not recognize the ability of others
3. do not realize the extent of their own
incompetence
However, people with above average knowledge
slightly underestimate themselves as they expect
others to find the tasks as easy as they found these
themselves (Kruger & Dunning, 1999).
As a methodology an
online survey will be
used, and this should
thus be constructed. The
survey will capture all
relevant information.
An UCM case-study | Thomas Verbeek | i6073761
This paper is a proposal for research on the ability of people to predict their performance accurately, making use of
UCM as a case-study. The main research question will be:“To what extent can people rate their own performance on
a given task?”Next to the main research question, questions on the influence of gender, age, year of study, and
actual performance for the accuracy of the estimation will be raised as additional research questions.
EARLIER EMPIRICAL WORK
Surveys
Quantitative
To give a very brief overview of the methodology:
with the use of surveys the grades people expect to
obtain will be collected a week before their exams,
just before their exams, right after their exams, and
three days after their exams. Conclusively, the data
will be compared with their actual results by the use
of EleUM. This yields data on the expected and actual
results. It shows how the estimations vary over time,
age, year of study, and gender.
OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY
PHASES OF RESEARCH
Preparation Collection of data Interpretation of data Writing paper
Distribution of the survey
online and hardcopy right
before and after exams.
Interpretation of all the
yielded data by the use of
SPSS.
The paper will be written
on the results and an
explanation for these
results by reasoning
and the use of earlier
empirical work.
4321

24. I don’t care?
Problem Statement
Life in Maastricht, the capital of South Limburg, is dominated
by its 16.000 students living there. It is therefore striking that
in the municipality elections in March 2014, the “Senioren
Partij Maastricht” received most votes and therefore most
seats in the city council. Their manifesto naturally is not very
student-targeted. One of their aims for instance is to set a
quota for the number of students living in one neighbour-
hood. The elections had a 46 % voter turnout and consider-
ing the above mentioned, this low turnout possibly is a result
of not many students in Maastricht making use of their right
to vote.
The research question for the suggested study therefore is:
What are the reasons for Maastricht students not to vote in
municipal elections?
Maastricht Municipal Elections 2014
References: Facts and Figures. (2012). Maastricht, Maastricht University. Retrieved from
http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/AboutUM/FactsFigures.htm
Heywood, A. (2013). Politics: Palgrave Macmillan.
Totaaluitslag Verkiezing Gemeenteraad. (2014). In Gemeente Maastricht. Retrieved April 22,
2014, from http://www.maastricht.nl/stemmen/html/index.html
Verkiezingsprogramma 2014-2018 Seniorenpartij Maastricht. (2014). Retrieved April 22, 2014,
from http://www.rtvmaastricht.nl/upload/documents/Verkiezingen_2014_programmas/
Verkiezingsprogrammaa%20Senioren%20Partij%20Maastricht.pdf
Relevance
If it is possible to find out several reasons for most Maastricht
students to not vote, this knowledge could be used in order
to take measures to increase the voting turnout amongst
students in the next elections. This will hopefully result in
students’ interests being better represented in the city council
and make Maastricht even more student friendly.
Data and Method
Variables:
• Independent Variable: Student is not eligible to vote /
Student did not know what to vote / Student thinks that
his vote does not count (determined based on earlier
research about people not voting) / possible other reasons.
• Dependent Variable: Student not voting.
Sample Size:
• 200 Bachelor and Master students from different faculties
proportionate to the number of students at each faculty
Sampling Method:
• Handing out questionnaires first asking the student if they
voted in the elections.
• If they did not, which is to be expected, they continue
with part two including:
- One multiple-choice question about reasons for not
voting (based on expectations).
- One open ended question about why the student did
not vote in order to give respondent possibility to state
his reasons to not vote in case this is not an option in
the multiple choice question.
• Information about age, field of study and year of study to be
able to discover possible correlations between these factors
and the students’ voting behaviour
Others:
35,5 %
CDA:
13,1 %
Partij van de Arbeid:
11,2 %
Senioren Partij
Maastr.: 15 %
Socialist.
Partij:
12,3 %
Democr. 66:
12,9 %
CDA
Partij Van de
Arbeid
Senioren Partij
Maastricht
Democraten 66
Socialistische
Partij
Others
Source: http://www.maastricht.nl/stemmen/html/index.html
What are the reasons for Maastricht students
not to vote in municipal elections?

25. Methods
!As the aim of this deductive research contains Maastricht’s environmental impacts on the Maas river, it is of relevance to test water
that has not been contaminated by Maastricht;s runoff to enable comparisons. Therefore probes from three different locations are
going to be examined. A sufficient amount of water will be extracted in Maastricht and 5km respectively downstream and
upstream from the city. This water will then undergo three forms of testing:
1) General Water-quality variables: pH; hardness of water; temperature
The objectives in measuring pH and temperature primarily serve as evidence for a changing water milieu outside of the city’s
pollution and within Maastricht and its pollutants. They are also indicators of dissolved oxygen amounts and buffering capacities.
Finally the potential differences in the hardness of the water (% of dissolved compounds) are going to be tested. ’Softer’ water is
an indicator of the industrial use of salt and chloride, as hard water is unfavorable and these chemicals soften it. Especially
elevated salt levels can have tremendous effects on ecological balance. Temperature is measured with an thermostat and both pH
and the hardness of the water are measured by the same test stripes, which indicate the different amounts present.
2) Nutrients: Ammonium, Nitrate, Nitrite
Nitrogen plays a significant role in the negative process of human induced eutrophication. Ammonium, Nitrate, and Nitrite are
components of the natural nitrogen cycle and easy measurable through test stripes that display the amounts present by color
changes. This is relevant as they indicate nitrogen levels, which may act as a pollutant, responsible for eutrophication.
3)General Toxicity: Daphnia
This organism, popularly known as water fleas, is fast maturing, easy to culture, and an inexpensive indicator of present water
toxins, as they are sensitive to changes in water chemistry. Daphnia bioassays will be set up with the three different water samples.
The aim of such a bioassay is to calculate the LC50 (estimated lethal concentration for 50% of population over time). Prior
observation of numbers of deaths allow the calculation of the LC50. The LC50 will give a range of time and is easily comparable
between the three samples.
Finally all data will be evaluated and presented. This will mainly be in the form of graphs and charts, as only quantitative data will
be collected.
Introduction
!
The oldest river of the world (380Ma) Maas rises in
France and ends its journey at the North Sea after
flowing northwards through Belgium and the
Netherlands, also Maastricht, with a total length of
925km.
Maastricht itself may have a negative influential
character to the ecological stability and balance
towards the section of the Maas passing through
the city. It holds the historical roots of various
industries, such as the ceramic and cement ones,
which up to the present day remain active. In
addition to the potential industrial pollution,
pollution caused by residents and small businesses
may also severely reduce water quality.
Water-Quality of the Maas
Background Information
Urban & Residential runoff both equally can
effect waters through heavy pollution. Pollutants
may influence water quality in various ways and
therefore impact living conditions for marine
organisms and disrupt ecological balance. Two
important chemicals play a crucial role in
detecting pollution and explaining its effects:
Nitrogen (N) and Salt (NaCl). The former is often
found in fertilizers, whereas the latter can be
found in road salt or water softeners, which are
heavily used in industrial processes. An excess
caused by humans of these naturally occurring
chemicals however activates various chemical
pathways which all result in an ecological
imbalance. This imbalance mainly centralizes on
an unnatural shift of resource distribution, for
example the nitrogen caused eutrophication.
Research Question
Does the city of Maastricht influence the water quality of
the river Maas in measurable accounts through residential-
and economy (urban) -related pollution?
The major focus of the research will lay within an
investigation of changes in nitrogen, salts, and general
toxin levels; as they are the major pollutants. Hence, the
objective of this research is the trial to proof the theory
that a link between Maastricht’s runoff and the potentially
decreasing water quality of the Maas in urban areas exists.
Significance
The work of Pesce in Argentina and Vega in Spain has proven
a direct link between man-made pollution and a decreasing
water quality. Hence, the chance that Maastricht’s runoff has
an effect on the Maas’s water quality is relatively high. This
needs to be investigated further to have clear data, which
proves that the pollution originated in Maastricht actually
directly affects the river. Such data is significant to show that a
more environmental friendly behavior of residents and
industry is important for ecological balance.
Eutrophication
Sarah Valeska Kunze, I6072615