The ideas and skills developed in this unit will provide an excellent foundation for further training in psychology and other academic disciplines related to a students chosen profession. This unit provides an integrated treatment of research methods and statistical techniques. The unit prepares students for carrying out independent research and the use of computers to perform statistical analysis is emphasised. The unit aims to prepare students to:

• Critically evaluate research.
• Design their own research project
• Analyse and interpret empirical data

The content covers interesting concepts and skills that will be useful in the study of psychology, as well as later in the students professional careers. During this unit, students will learn about project design, ways to collect evidence, and particularly how to analyse data. This builds on the skills and knowledge that students may have gained from school and also from their first year units in the Bachelor of Behavioural Science degree. The unit starts with a revision of basic ideas and skills in statistics. The main topics in PSY247 Research Design and Analysis are covered in the set text and associated readings and include:

• Research methods (ethical issues, observation, surveys, hypotheses, experiment design)
• Descriptive and inferential statistics (such as t-test, one-way analysis of variance, correlation)

Unit Description