Course Syllabus

Course Description: This course aims to provide an introduction to the different research methods to undertake empirical research in psychology and other disciplines of the behavioral science. Topics include identifying and conceptualizing potential topics into problem statements, articulating research questions and hypotheses, conducting literature reviews, selecting and designing specific research methods and techniques appropriate for answering key research questions, and develop a viable research proposal.



Course Objectives:

1. Encourage students to think critically about the fundamental concepts of the research process and how psychological research conducted

2. Develope information literacy and technology skills to retrieve and synthesize information and critically evaluate published psychological research

3. Provide understanding of the different research designs and data gathering techniques to bring evidence and find answers to the problem

4. Develop students ability on how to prepare a research proposal based and supported by existing research



Course Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the foundations of empirical research in behavioural science.

2. Develop an ability to think critically about research and critically evaluate empirical research reports.

3. Understand and critically evaluate various research methodologies used by psychologist.

4. Design a research proposal with an appropriate research methods and techniques.

5. Develop skills in research proposal writing



Course Stucture

Class activities include interactive lecture presentations and tutorial sessions with online activities via recommended readings that underscore the research process in behavioral sciences. Evaluation of students' performance include assessment methodologies such as annotated list of bibliographies relevant to their topics and reviews of weekly acitivities and online learning portfolio of each group.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Week Nine

Week 9 :   Independent Groups Designs

SHORT-ANSWER


1.   Identify the two major reasons why psychologists conduct experiments.

2.   Identify and briefly define the three primary types of control that are used in experiments.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE

3.   When researchers use the multimethod approach they can reach comparable conclusions about a research question after using different methods to study it. Our confidence in these conclusions increases and the conclusions are said to have:
      A.  convergent validity.
      B.  concurrent validity.
      C.  multiple validity.
      D.  crossing validity.

4.   One major purpose of conducting experiments is to decide whether a treatment or program effectively changes behavior. The second major purpose for doing experiments is to provide:
      A.  definitive answers to theoretical questions.
      B.  simple and relatively quick ways of testing and revising hypotheses.
      C.  methods to obtain results that demonstrate that what we expect from our hypothesis will be confirmed.
      D.  an empirical test of hypotheses derived from theories.

5.   The factors that researchers control or manipulate in order to determine their effect on behavior are called the:
      A.  independent variables.
      B.  dependent variables.
      C.  intervention variables.
      D.  confounding variables.

6.   In a study that investigates the effects of two different doses of a drug on memory performance, the drug doses represent the ____ variable and memory performance represents the ____ variable.
      A.  correlational, confounding
      B.  dependent, independent
      C.  independent, dependent
      D.  experimental, control

7.   A researcher has manipulated only one independent variable at two levels, has held constant as many other variables as possible and has balanced individual differences by using random assignment. The researcher is likely to be able to claim that the independent variable caused the observed changes in the dependent variable because the experiment is:
      A.  externally valid.
      B.  reliable.
      C.  a pretest-posttest design.
      D.  internally valid.

8.   Which of the following arises when the independent variable of interest and a potential independent variable are allowed to covary?
      A.  contamination effect
      B.  confounding
      C.  decrease in external validity
      D.  illusory correlation
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