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Overview

This unit provides students with an understanding of different research designs and research methods for psychology. Students will gain familiarity with the scientific method, ethical issues in research, measurement, experimental research, survey research, qualitative research and mixed methods research. Students will be given the opportunity to develop professionally relevant knowledge in the selection and evaluation of research designs and methods. Students will also develop the capacity to undertake independent statistical investigations, including the development of practical skills to allow them to meaningfully interpret the results of various hypothesis tests.

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

1. Critically evaluate and effectively communicate the application of the scientific method and ethical principles in psychological research
2. Select and justify appropriate research designs, research methods, and sampling methods for specific psychological questions
3. Evaluate key concepts of measurement and justify level of measurement of a variable
4. Generate and interpret appropriate descriptive statistics and data visualisations to support evidence-based inference
5. Produce and interpret appropriate hypothesis tests for different population parameters and describe the relationships between variables
6. Synthesise and contextualise the outcomes of data analysis to communicate evidence-based insights on theoretical and applied problems in psychology

Teaching methods

All applicable locations

Assessment

Nil

Content

• Scientific Method
• Research Approaches and Data Collection Methods
• Measurement and Sampling
• Ethical Issues in Research
• Experiments and experimental designs
• Quasi-experiments and non-experiments
• Survey research
• Qualitative and Mixed Methods research
• Analysing and Interpreting Data