PSY5012 - Research Methods in Psychology 2

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

Demonstrate a range of basic skills and methods for the investigation of human behaviour and experience;
Generate hypotheses and research questions and identify and implement the most effective and appropriate method for their exploration;
Design and conduct basic research studies in psychology using a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, either individually or in collaboration with others;
Understand the ethical issues that might arise during research and address these;
Analyse data using a range of basic statistical and qualitative methods;
Present and evaluate research findings using a range of methods.

Content:

Ethical issues in conducting psychological research. The design, control and analysis of experiments with more than one independent variable. Using experimental software (E-Prime) to implement complex experimental designs. The design of scales to measure psychological concepts, including issues of internal reliability and validity. The analysis of quantitative data, including distributions and transformation of data; the use of two-way analysis of variance; post-hoc analyses; multiple regression; reliability analysis. The use of specialist software (e.g. SPSS, G*Power) to perform and interpret statistical analyses. Issues in qualitative research, including ethical issues. The collection and analysis of qualitative data using a range of approaches (e.g. discourse analysis, grounded theory, IPA, narrative analysis). Presenting the outcomes of research.

Learning and Teaching Information:

This module will be taught using both weekly lecture sessions and practical sessions of two hours. Lecture content will introduce the key concepts and will include lectures presented via the VLE. Practical sessions will focus upon students to designing, conducting, and participating in studies and analysing data.
The emphasis will be on active, collaborative and student-led learning. Students will undertake weekly directed activities, completing tasks and engaging with learning materials on the VLE.on Moodle.

Lectures
Hours: 20
Intended Group size: Cohort

Practicals
Hours: 40
Intended Group size: 30-40

Guided independent study
Hours: 140

Further details relating to assessment

In order to ensure that all students meet Learning Outcome 4 (Understand the ethical issues that might arise during research and address these); it is a requirement that students actively participate in the practical sessions of the module, particularly with regard to the design of studies and the collection and reporting of data.

Each element of practical work undertaken must be accompanied by students securing ethical approval for their study. By competing and signing the ethics form, students undertake to conduct research ethically and professionally, and this includes safeguarding data.

Consequently, students who have not participated in practical work and who have not, as a result, been a signatory to an ethics form that has received ethical approval will not be eligible to submit an assignment that is related to that piece of practical work.

Students in this situation will be required to devise an equivalent piece of practical work, including gaining ethical approval, before being permitted to submit the related written report. This will be during the resit period.

Assessment:

001 Report 1; 3,000 words; end of semester 1 50%
002 Report 2; 2,500 words; end of semester 2 50%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Ben Morris
Level - 5
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 5YL

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