Course Description
The first course in a two-course sequence that provides foundational knowledge in scientific thinking, psychological research design, methods of data visualization, and statistical analysis. Pre-requisites: PSYC 1310; MATH 1530 or MATH 1910. Co-requisite: PSYC 3051.
Required Textbooks & Materials
There are no required textbooks for this course. However, you will be required to purchase the APA Publication Manual for PSYC3051.
American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.
Course Purpose & Goals
This 3-credit hour course is designed to introduce students to scientific thinking and basic statistical analysis in psychology. This course will enable students to differentiate valid research from pseudoscience, understand how to develop research ideas, and understand the integration of statistical analysis and research design within the field of psychology.
Major course topics include scientific thinking, philosophy of science, pseudoscience, ethics, plagiarism, developing research ideas, hypothesis development, role of theory, measurement scales and types of variables, constructs and operational definitions, observational techniques, survey designs, psychometric instruments, reliability, validity, sampling, descriptive statistics, data visualization, correlation, simple linear regression, and basic experimental design.
Course Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, students are expected to:
Understand the scientific method and how to think scientifically/critically.
Discriminate pseudoscience from valid science.
Explain the ethical considerations involved in designing and conducting psychological research.
Be able to summarize, paraphrase, and appropriately cite others’ work.
Be able to develop a testable research idea.
Evaluate the psychometric properties of a research data collection instrument.
Choose an appropriate method of sampling for a simple research study.
Perform and interpret descriptive statistical analyses.
Perform and interpret correlation and simple linear regression.
Identify elements of research design and analysis within published research articles.
Supplemental Materials / Resources for PSYC 3050
Although not required reading, the following resources may be helpful to you in succeeding in this course. Please take advantage of these free online resources.
Field, A. (2017). Discovering statistics. https://www.discoveringstatistics.com.
Trochim, W. M. K. (2006). Research methods knowledge base. https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/.
APA Style. (2019). The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/.
Style and Grammar Guidelines (2020). The American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/