Designing Research for Psychology

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Recognise and appropriately address ethical issues that apply to psychological research.
• Describe the main concepts relevant to the design and conduct of a variety of research methodologies including small N, interventions, and mixed methods designs.
• Identify and describe key features of the philosophical underpinnings of research methods used in psychology.
• Select and apply strategies for effective and systematic literature searching.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key principles and practices in the development and planning of psychological research

The aim of the module is for you to develop the knowledge and skills you need to begin to design your own research project. Indicative content includes: planning the research study, research questions and hypotheses, philosophical underpinnings of research, systematic literature search processes, ethics and governances, clinically significant / statistically significant change, case and small sample studies, mixed methods and applied research design

This is a 10 CATS (5 ECTS) module, which translates into a total study time of 100 hours. These 100 hours are split into 18 teaching hours and 82 hours of independent study. Teaching will consist of six three hour long workshop sessions. During teaching sessions a variety of teaching and learning methods will be used including lecture presentations; group work (for example assessing research questions and forming hypotheses, discussing study designs), using a computer to conduct literature searches and calculations. Opportunities for formative assessment and feedback are built into the module in the form of in-class teaching and learning activities. Staff provide verbal feedback during these activities to help you gauge and develop your knowledge and understanding. Test-yourself multiple choice questions (with automated feedback/answers) are available on Blackboard so that you can evaluate your own knowledge and understanding.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.