PSY002-1 Introduction to Psychological Research Methods and Data Analysis

1. Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding

• of the knowledge base of the theoretical underpinnings and accompanying research methods and analyses used to investigate human behaviour.

2. Demonstrate the following skills and abilities

• Interpret, report and evaluate the methods and analyses used in an empirical study in relation to theory.

What am I required to do in this assignment?

This assignment will require you to write a 2000 word report based on an in-class experiment that will take place at some point during your

tutorial sessions. Your report will be structured using the format that is taught to you in both lectures and tutorials and will involve a

combination of skills to produce a piece of work that is like an empirical journal article.

This report will assess your report writing skills and introduce you to hypothesis testing and descriptive and inferential statistics.

ATTENDANCE TO LECTURES AND TUTORIALS IS ESSENTIAL

Failure to attend may result in your missing crucial information meaning you cannot complete this assessment. The experiment, data

collection, analysis, and support of the writeup all take place in tutorials. Certain aspects of the data collection cannot be easily repeated

without taking up considerable amounts of tutor/lecturer time so you must attend.

You will be able to use the feedback from your first report to feed forward to your second report.

What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF)

• Use information literacy skills to identify relevant and credible sources of information relating to quantitative and qualitative studies from recognised databases that can be summarised, synthesised and incorporated into the reporting of your empirical investigations.

• Produce a detailed empirical report using APA report guidelines, following the BPS ethical guidelines, using given quantitative and qualitative methods and analysis that are used in contemporary psychology.

• Generate and analyse data using SPSS and qualitative approaches and relate analytical findings to previous research and theories.

How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade?

To start writing this report read generally about the topic area as soon as possible using your core textbook. Then look at the journal articles on provided for you on BREO relating to the topic area. You will then need to use Discover to expand your literature search in order to complete this report.

Make sure you attend every tutorial as we run the experiment and go over ALL sections of the report in the tutorials.

Please read the Assessment section on BREO for detailed information particularly of the materials and results.

Ensure that you read broadly. Look for specific journal articles from academic sources, NOT Wikipedia or similar sources.

Write in your own words.

Most typical comments from previous years:

• The introduction is often too similar to previous sources.

• No evidence that any research has been carried out to write the report, students do not always find journals beyond those given.

• The method section sometimes sounds like a shopping list rather written in prose.

• In-text references aren’t in the Reference section and vice versa.

• SPSS tables are in the results section instead of own tables in word.

• Discussion just ends, does not relate back to previous theories, empirical studies or new ideas for research.

How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions?

This assignment is a scientific report based on an experiment that is undertaken during tutorial sessions. The skills you learn in both the lectures and tutorials are new and essential skills required to write scientific reports. You cannot complete this assessment if you have not attended all sessions.