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• Undergraduate study:
• Courses
• Order a prospectus
• How to apply
• Information for applicants
• Why choose Kingston University
• Disability and mental health support
• Accommodation
• Undergraduate fees
• Fees, funding and payments
• Access, participation and inclusion

Psychology Research Methods 1

• Module code: PS4001
• Year: 2018/9
• Level: 4
• Credits: 30
• Pre-requisites: N/A
• Co-requisites: N/A

Summary

This module is a core requirement for students taking psychology in level 4. The module will introduce you to key strategies which are used in psychological research, including designing an experiment, hypothesis testing, and statistical analysis. The main features of the module will involve the acquisition of practical skills in psychological research, learning how to apply and carry out statistical tests using SPSS, and how to report research findings.

Throughout the module you will learn how to design a research project, analyse data and report a psychological experiment.

Aims

• To present and discuss research design in psychology
• To provide an overview of data analysis including statistics and SPSS
• To provide the opportunity to learn practical skills needed to design, analyse and write up psychological research

Learning outcomes

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

• Recognise basic issues involved in research design and statistics
• Demonstrate an ability to use basic functions on SPSS
• Produce a psychological research report

Curriculum content

• Designing research: Conducting literature reviews and developing hypotheses; types of experimental, survey, and qualitative designs; issues of reliability and validity
• Ethics: Ethical issues surrounding research design, informed consent, conducting research with vulnerable groups, the use of placebo control groups, and participant confidentiality
• Data characteristics and Inferential Statistics: Measures of central tendency; measures of dispersion; the normal distribution; z scores; standard errors and confidence intervals; type I and type II errors
• Relationships between variables: Parametric and non-parametric correlation tests; chi-square tests; how to use SPSS to conduct correlations and chi-square; how to interpret and report statistical findings
• Comparing two means: Within-subjects and between-subjects t-tests; non-parametric alternatives; how to use SPSS to conduct t-tests and non-parametric alternatives; how to interpret and report statistical findings
• Qualitative methods: Different types of qualitative data analyses; strengths and limitations of qualitative approaches; how to analyse and report qualitative data
• Disseminating research: How to report quantitative and qualitative research in a variety of formats (poster presentation, oral presentation, and lab report); APA guidelines for reporting results; how to use SPSS, Word and Excel to create tables and graphs

Teaching and learning strategy

This module will be delivered through a series of two hour lectures and two-hour workshops. Lectures are designed to introduce students to the key features of research design and quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Students will apply the knowledge gained from the lecture to practical examples and group activities during the workshop sessions. Students will also be guided in designing and developing a small group research study which address the different types of research methods introduced in the lectures. The teaching and learning strategy is designed to enable students to learn key skills in research design, data analyses, team work, and reporting psychological research. 

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Assessment strategy

Learning will be assessed summatively via coursework comprising a portfolio of in-class tests (40%) a 1,500 word lab report (30%) and a 1,500-word lab report (30%). These assessments will enable students to demonstrate the practical skills they have learnt with respect to designing, analysing and writing up psychological research. Explicit formative feedback will be given during the workshop sessions to enable students to practice, revise, and improve their work before the summative assessments are completed.

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Elements of Assessment

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any element of assessment is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.

Bibliography core texts

Dancey, C.P., & Reidy, J.G. (2014). Statistics without maths for psychology (6th ed.). London: Prentice Hall.

Howitt, D, & Cramer, D. (2014). Introduction to research methods in psychology. (4^th ed.) London: Pearson.

Bibliography recommended reading

Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). London: Sage.

Field, A., & Hole, G. (2003). How to design and report experiments. London: Sage.