Home » Introduction to Research Methods

Introduction to Research Methods

Unit Outline Unit Outline Exam Information
Week Readings Lectures Summaries Tests
Week 1,

  • To understand the difference between a sample and a population,
  • To be able to identify bias,
  • To become familiar with SPSS

  • Critical thinking in Statistics
  • Week 1 Introduction
  • Outline

  • Introduction to Critical Thinking
  • Topic Test
  • 9/10
Week 2,

  • To be able to produce and interpret the SPSS outputs used to summarise data.
  • To be able to choose the most appropriate output to describe a distribution
  • To be able to use z-scores to understabd where values lie in a normal distribution
  • To be able to produce and interpret the SPSS outputs used to summarise data.
  • To be able to choose the most appropriate output to describe a distribution
  • To be able to use z-scores to understabd where values lie in a normal distribution

  • Describing Distributions
Week 3,

  • Know how to describe the distribution of individual variables
  • Know how to use the sample to make statements about the population (generalisation)

  • Reporting on single variables
  • Trial Test
  • Topic Test
  • 21.25/25
Week 4,

  • Understand what a sampling distribution is.
  • Know what the key features of sampling distributions are.
  • Know how sampling distributions are used to calculate probabilities (p values)

  • Sampling Theory
  • Outline
  • Theories behind Significance
  • Activity 1: Binomial Report Structure.
  • Solutions
  • Activity 2: Evaluating one sample t test reports.
  • Solutions
  • Summaries
  • Trial Test
  • Topic Test
  • 14/20
Week 5,

  • Understand the difference between observational and experimental design
  • Learn to identify independent and dependent variables
  • Know what nuisance variables are, what effects they can have, and how they can be controlled

  • Experimental Design
  • Experimental design
  • Sampling Techniques
  • Looking for relationships
  • Confounding Exersise
  • Solution
  • Summaries
  • Trial Test
  • Assignment 1
  • Solution
  • 2/10
Week 6,

  • Be able to describe the distribution of two independent groups
  • Be able to produce SPSS independent groups t-test
  • Be able to write a report on a hypothesis test regarding 2 independent groups

  • Comparing Independent Samples
  • Summaries
  • Trial Topic Test
  • SPSS component
  • Topic Test
Week 7,

  • Be able to produce a paired samples t-test in SPSS.
  • Be able to write a report on a hypothesis test regarding 2 paired samples.
  • Be able to distinguish between independent and paired samples research designs.
  • Comparing measures of the same thing
  • Summaries
Week 8,

  • Review Week
  • Review Week
  • Summaries
  • Review Week
Week 9,

  • Be able to produce and interpret a scatterplot and Pearson’s r in SPSS
  • Be able to interpret a 95% confidence interval for a correlation
  • Understand that a correlation does not necessarily mean a causal relationship
  • Relationship between Metric Variables
  • Summaries
Week 10,

  • Be able to produce a regression analysis in SPSS
  • Be able to interpret the slope of the regression line
  • Write a report on a correlation and regression analysis
  • Does more of this mean more of that
  • Regression
  • Summaries
Week 11,

  • Be able to produce a cross-tabulation and Chi square statistics in SPSS
  • Be able to interpret and write a report on the the relationship between two categorical variables
  • Relationship between catagorical values
  • Chi Square
  • Summaries
Week 12,

  • Revision and prep for exam.
  • Summaries

Rounding