INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS AND DATA ANALYSIS

Description

The module introduces students to basic statistical theory and critical thinking, building throughout the year towards an intermediate level of understanding of statistical analysis and reporting. It aims to develop students¿ understanding of statistical methods and foster the skills needed to think critically about psychological research. Teaching involves a combination of theory lectures and practical workshops with real world research examples. Each week, lectures cover a specific statistics or critical thinking topic. This is followed by a workshop that typically focuses on applying and practicing the theoretical content of the preceding lecture. Together, lectures and workshops provide knowledge of statistical analysis and critical thinking from both a theoretical and practical perspective, resulting in a good introduction and grounding in statistical research methods. The weekly lectures and workshops will cover theory and practice related to and including the following indicative topic areas: - Introduction to research methods - Hypothesis testing and research designs - Descriptive statistics & significance testing - z-scores and normal distribution - An introduction to statistical testing, including t-tests, correlation, regression, ANOVA, nonparametric tests, analysing categorical data - Identifying and evaluating critical arguments - Evaluating theory & evidence - Constructing critical arguments Enable students to correctly analyse experimental data using basic statistical procedures and understand the assumptions and limitations of these. Enable students to correctly interpret statistical results and understand the correct formats used to present data and results. Introduce students to the critical evaluation of psychological research Enable students to develop sound arguments based on critical evaluation of psychological research Attributes Developed 001 To understand hypothesis testing, and it's relation to statistical parameters such as the p-value, effect size, power and significance K 002 Be familiar with descriptions of data, categorisation of data and basic statistical terminology K 003 Understand basic research design, methods and the role statistical analysis has herein CK 004 Be able to calculate descriptive statistics, understand the limitations and assumptions of these, and how to report them most effectively CKPT 005 Demonstrate in workshops and coursework the ability to conceptually understand a range of parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses and their assumptions, run them in jamovi, and report the results in standard APA format CKPT 006 Demonstrate in workshops and coursework the ability to interpret results from a variety of basic statistical procedures CKT 007 Demonstrate critical evaluation of psychological research in tutorials and coursework CKT 008 Demonstrate in the critical thinking coursework assignment the ability to construct sound arguments about psychological questions based on a critical analysis of psychological research CKPT