Research Design and Analyses in Psychology

Description

Overview: This class aims to introduce students to the main features of research ethics and design, measurement, and statistical analysis in psychology. The class will cover fundamental concepts related to measurement and inferential statistical testing. Students will be familiarised with various inferential statistical tests, as well as a brief introduction to qualitative research methods. Syllabus: Semester 1 Week 1: Research in Psychology: An introduction. The ethics of conducting research in psychology. Week 2: The nature and levels of measurement, variables, and samples. Reliability and Validity. Week 3: Summarising quantitative data using measures of central tendency and dispersion. The nature and use of distributions of data. Week 4: The use of inferential statistics, the rationale for null-hypothesis testing, effect sizes, 95% confidence intervals, and power. Week 5: Inferential statistics for independent group designs. The Chi-Square test. Week 6: Inferential statistics for repeated-measures designs. 1. Correlations. Week 7: An introduction to linear regression analysis. 1. Simple regression. Week 8: An introduction to linear regression analysis. 2. Multiple regression analysis. Week 9: Inferential statistics for repeated-measures designs. 1. Paired-samples t-test and Wilcoxon’s test for non-parametric data. Week 10: Inferential statistics for independent designs. The Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test for non-parametric data. Semester 2 Week 1: Inferential statistics for single and multifactorial designs. 1. An Introduction to Analysis of Variance. Week 2: Inferential statistics for single and multifactorial designs. 2. Analysis of Variance for independent group designs. Week 3: Inferential statistics for single and multifactorial designs. 1. Analysis of Variance for repeated-measures designs. Week 4: Inferential statistics for multifactorial designs. 1. Analysis of Variance for mixed designs. Week 5: Follow-up tests for Analyses of Variance. Week 6: Designing surveys and questionnaires. Week 7: Introduction to qualitative methods. Week 8: Qualitative Methods 1. Week 9: Qualitative Analyses 1. Week 10: Qualitative Analyses 2. Learning Outcomes: Cognitive skills 1. To gain a critical awareness of a wider range of research methods and analyses that can be applied in psychological research. 2. To be able to evaluate the appropriate application of a range of designs and research methods. Knowledge and understanding 3. To provide students with the ability to analyse data using various statistical tests (descriptive and inferential), interpret the output, and understand the assumptions on which these analyses are based. 4. To provide students with knowledge and understanding of basic qualitative methods and analyses. 5. To provide students with knowledge and understanding of the issues involved in designing an experiment and developing a survey or questionnaire. 6. To provide students with the knowledge and understanding of the issues involved in the ethics of research involving human participants. Practical skills 7. Students will develop the ability to carry out various statistical analyses using standard computer software SPSS. 8. Students will be able to carry out a review of relevant literature and design a simple experiment. 9. Students will be able to conduct simple experiments, collect data from human participants, carry out appropriate analysis of the data, and write up the results of experiments in an APA report format. 10. Students will gain experience of explaining their research to others, the writing of the practical report, and in the writing of the group ethics application. Generic/transferable skills 11. Students will further develop the ability to write clear and concise practical reports in conventional APA format. 12. Students will further develop the ability to select and adopt appropriate methods of statistical analysis, use statistical software package SPSS, draw logical conclusions from statistical analyses, and communicate the meaning of numerical and statistical information. 13. Through the group research projects, students will develop teamwork skills via collaborating in decision making about research design and data collection, as well as preparing a group ethics application, and giving effective oral presentations as part of a group. Assessment: • Practical report (45%) • x2 Written assessments (22.5% each) • x2 multiple choice quizzes (5% each)