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Level 4 Diploma in Psychology

Principles of research design: aims, variables, operationalised and directional hypotheses, standardised procedures, pilot studies

PSY406 · Research Methods and Investigating Psychology — Week 1 of 16

CoursePSY406
Week1 of 16
SemesterII
TutorOnline in the course chat

This week’s topics

Principles of research design: aims, variables, operationalised and directional hypotheses, standardised procedures, pilot studies

  1. Principles of research design: aims, variables, operationalised and directional hypotheses, standardised procedures, pilot studies
  2. BPS ethics

What you will be able to do

  • 1.1 Explain the principles of research design.

Activity

Seminar, guided reading and a short written task: explain the principles of research design.

Study materials

The teaching notes, exercises and videos of this week are in the student portal. Your portal is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance, so you can open them before the semester starts.
Week 2
Course chat

Admitted students ask questions on this week’s page in the student portal: an AI assistant trained on the course answers first, and during the course’s timetabled classes Connect to your tutor brings your tutor into the chat, who may start a call if needed.

Open this week in the portal
Course plan
  • Week 1: Principles of research design: aims, variables, operational…
  • Week 2: Experimental designs, controls, validity and sampling
  • Week 3: Research methods: lab, field, natural and quasi experiments
  • Week 4: Conducting simple statistical tests: the sign test, calcula…
  • Week 5: Types of data and analysis: quantitative and qualitative, p…
  • Week 6: Descriptive statistics: central tendency, dispersion, graph…
  • Week 7: Inferential testing and hypotheses: significance, one- and …
  • Midterm: Midterm evaluation
  • Week 9: Reviewing psychological papers to inform a research design
  • Week 10: Applying and justifying a method for a research scenario: p…
  • Week 11: Reporting conventions; reviewing and reflecting on own lear…
  • Week 12: Applying Research Methods and Investigating Psychology in p…
  • Week 13: Assignment workshop: research, planning and referencing
  • Week 14: Assignment workshop: drafting, feedback and improvement
  • Week 15: Review and coursework completion
  • Final: Final assessment and submission
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