Psychological Research

Course Description

A survey of core issues involved in scientific psychological research. Includes the study of the nature of explanation in psychology, the role of theory in research, the connection between research findings and theory, the distinction between experimental and other forms of research, the design of experiments, threats to the validity of research findings, operationalizing psychological concepts in a manner that yields quantitative data and ethical considerations in terms of confidentiality, informed consent and the possibility of doing harm to subjects.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain behavior in terms of the scientific method.
• Develop research ideas and hypothesis.
• Perform library research.
• Choose appropriate research design.
• Make systematic observations.
• Choose subjects.
• Delineate restrictions of the use of human and animal subjects.
• Specify differences in non-experimental, quasi-experimental and developmental research designs.
• Describe the designing, administering, and assessing surveys.
• Determine differences with between-subjects, within-subjects, combined, and single-subject designs.
• Explain how to describe data and use inferential statistics.
• Report research in APA and university formats.
• Describe theories and theory-driven research.

Prerequisites

• PSY435