Introductory description

The module provides skills and knowledge necessary for understanding the nature of empirical work in psychology.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Scientific writing for psychology: Structure and purpose of an article, content of title, abstract, introduction, method (and subsections of method), results, discussions and reference section, and citations and referencing formats

Structure and components of experimental and non-experimental research designs

Types of data collection techniques

Application of statistical hypotheses to research, and selection of statistical tests for analysing data

Statistical calculation using software (SPSS) of t-tests, chi-square (goodness-of-fit and contingency table) tests, correlation and simple regression, one-way ANOVAs, factorial ANOVAs and repeated-measures ANOVAs

Reporting of statistical evidence in scientific reporting for psychology

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• the ability to understand, implement and discuss the principles of psychological research;
• the ability to understand the principles of experimental, observational and questionnaire methods;
• the ability to understand the principles of qualitative methods in psychology;
• the ability to understand ethical issues in psychological research.
• the ability to design studies to collect, analyse and interpret data, and to apply these skills to write reports of empirical investigations that conform to the standard American Psychological Association format.

Indicative reading list

Howell, D. C. (2008). Fundamental statistics for the behavioural sciences (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. (or a more recent edition of this text)
Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS (3rd ed.). London: Sage. (or a more recent edition of this text)

Howell, D. & Cramer, D. (2014). Introduction to SPSS in Psychology (6th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson.

Research element

Research Project Report
Design, run and orally present (in groups of c4 students) and write up (independently) a replication study, using one of several suggested studies as a starting point:
(i) Obtain ethical approval (does not directly contribute to the grade, but if late, late penalties will be applied to the write-up, and if absent, no marks will be awarded for the write-up);
(ii) Write a 2500-word APA-format manuscript based upon it.
Students are advised that the project write-up must be passed for the module to be passed, as well as the weighted average needing to be above the pass mark.

Subject specific skills

critical analysis, formulation and testing of hypotheses
write reports of empirical investigations that conform to the standard American Psychological Association format; this includes, but is not limited to, article structure and referencing conventions.
understand ethical issues in psychological research.

Transferable skills

written and oral communication skills;
use of SPSS;
group work.