PSYC3007 Research Methods 3

This topic is designed to provide students with the skills needed to understand, evaluate and carry out research in psychology. It covers research ethics, research design; causal inferences; validity and reliability; the purpose of descriptive and inferential statistics; the key concepts of effect size, interaction and mediation; and a range of statistical tests, including factorial ANOVA and multiple regression. Students will gain experience at thinking critically about research, generating and writing hypotheses, designing studies, analysing data, and interpreting and reporting results.

This topic aims to equip students with knowledge and practical skills used by researchers in psychology so as to enable them to be (a) discerning consumers of others' research and (b) competent at generating research questions and using research to anwer those questions.

1. Describe Psychology's obligation to provide a sound test of, and evidence for, its claims
2. Describe researchers' ethical obligations
3. Explain the strengths and limitations of experimental and non-experimental designs
4. Evaluate research studies (at an appropriate level for third year students)
5. Define and apply the concepts of effect size, interaction and mediation
6. Interpret a range of descriptive and inferential statistics (including factorial ANOVA and multiple regression)
7. Write a research report that includes hypotheses and appropriately chosen and reported data analyses, and one that draws appropriate conceptual conclusions from the findings