SUMMER SESSION

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PSYCH 205-0 : Research Methods in Psychology

Description

The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of basic methodologies in psychological research. Students will learn how to design, conduct, analyze, and write reports about their own research studies in a psychology topic of their choosing. The course will also cover the ethics of research, how to read and understand published research, and how to distinguish studies that are scientifically sound from those that are not. There will be a heavy emphasis on the process of writing up a psychological research study.

In this course, we will use both a book that will serve as our primary text and additional required articles that will be posted on Canvas. Both sources of reading will be critical for understanding this course and will not be fully covered in lectures. There will also be in-class demonstrations, data gathering, and group work.

Objectives: By the end of this course, my goal is that you will be able to: Read a peer-reviewed journal article and have a reasonable understanding of the authors’ hypotheses, methods, and analysis of their research. Select what kind of basic statistical procedures should be used to analyze different kinds of data. Design a simple but scientifically sound psychological experiment, survey, observational, and developmental study. Design and implement one of the above kinds of studies with a group of your peers. Write a clear, coherent scientific research paper from beginning to end.

Prerequisite: PSYCH 110

Teaching Method The course will be a combination of lectures, group work, in class projects, and in class demonstrations.

Evaluation Method Evaluation is based on completion of 3 APA style research reports (10, 20, 40%), 1 group presentation (15%), 4 short (1-2 page) papers (10%), and class participation (5%). The research reports build over the quarter, with the final paper being a complete APA style research paper based on a group designed original research project.

Class Materials Textbook: Gorvine, B., Rosengren, K, Stein, L., & Biolsi, K. (2017).Research methods: From theory to practice. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-020182-1. Additional readings to be found on Canvas