Students should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the following research methods, scientific processes and techniques of data handling and analysis, be familiar with their use and be aware of their strengths and limitations:
1. Case studies.
2. Content analysis and coding. Thematic analysis.
3. Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. Analysis and interpretation of correlation, including correlation coefficients
4. Reliability across all methods of investigation. Ways of assessing reliability: test-retest and inter-observer; improving reliability.
5. Types of validity across all methods of investigation: face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity. Assessment of validity. Improving validity.
6. Features of science: objectivity and the empirical method; replicability and falsifiability; theory construction and hypothesis testing; paradigms and paradigm shifts.
7. Reporting psychological investigations. Sections of a scientific report: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing.
Students should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of inferential testing and be familiar with the use of, and feature of, inferential tests:
8. Levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal and interval.
9. Probability and significance: use of statistical tables and critical values in interpretation of significance;
10. Type I and Type II errors.
11. Factors affecting the choice of statistical test, including level of measurement and experimental design. When to use the following tests: Spearman’s rho, Pearson’s r, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney, related t-test, unrelated t-test and Chi-Squared test.