Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aim of this module is to further expand student’s knowledge of open and transparent research. The focus of this module is to build upon research methods and data analysis training in semester 1 (PSY1013) and for students to gain further practical experience as a researcher. Students will carry out experimental quantitative designs and practice how to produce rigorous and reproducible projects. Students will continue to develop their data processing skills. To continue their teaching of data analysis techniques, students will develop knowledge of appropriate statistical testing in quantitative designs.

They will practice communication of their findings in the form of a scientific report. This will further facilitate student’s ability to appraise scientific claims in psychology, and develop their skills as an independent researcher.

Outline Of Syllabus

For students to learn independent research skills, they will gain first-hand experience in quantitative data collection. Students will further consolidate their understanding of different quantitative research designs by developing knowledge of the use of appropriate statistical methods using a statistical toolbox. This will include being taught about central tendency, variability, data distribution, and the principles of hypothesis testing, as well as how to compute and interpret parametric and non-parametric statistical tests.

Students will communicate their findings in the form of lab report which adheres to a common standard for scientific report writing, e.g. the American Psychological Association (APA) format. Students will have awareness of different research paradigms and approaches.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this module, students should be able to:
•       Distinguish between different quantitative research designs and the selection of appropriate analyses.
•       Formulate hypotheses and statistically test for predictions
•       Apply and interpret statistical concepts in psychology
•       Apply theoretical concepts to explain scientific results.
•       Critically appraise experimental evidence, and its relation to theoretical development

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of this module, students should be able to:
•       Write a quantitative laboratory report in the style of the American Psychological Association (APA)
•       Collect quantitative data with scientific rigour and integrity
•       Carry out basic data organisation and management
•       Select and compute appropriate statistical tests using statistical computer packages
•       Analyse and generate visualisations that report the descriptive statistics of a dataset
•       Interpret statistical output from a primary dataset

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The overall aim of this module is to equip students with the practical skills to be an independent researcher in psychology. Typically, each week will follow the same structure. The first lecture will introduce key concepts in study design and data analysis. The second lecture will teach necessary software skills for data manipulation, visualisation and analysis. The practical workshop will provide students with the opportunity to apply the concepts and practise the skills taught that week. Self-assessment quizzes will reinforce learning and prepare students for the type of questions that will be set in the final exam

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessments provide students with the opportunity to develop and practice the necessary skills that map onto the skill outcomes of this module. Students will be required to submit one laboratory report following the quantitative strand of this module which will follow the standard APA guidelines for report writing. This will include a Title, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References and any necessary Appendices. The ability to analyse, present and interpret experimental data, as well as their scientific written communication will be assessed by the written report. The word limit for each report is 1,500 words following APA guidelines.
A formative assignment will provide students the opportunity to practice building a concise rationale for a quantitative research project. This will provide feedback on their ability to write concisely and will feed into the Introduction of their quantitative report. This will also include describing the research design and appropriate statistical tests required, which will provide input for both the methods and results components of their report.

The statistics exam is designed to assess the current state of the students’ statistical knowledge.

In order to pass this module, students are required to attain a pass mark in both of the assessment components.

If the module is failed or deferred students will resit failed or deferred assessments in the same format during the August resit period.

General Notes

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