Survey research and design in psychology/Overview

Completion status: this resource is considered to be complete.

[edit] Syllabus

This is a third-year tertiary-level, semester-long unit of study in the field of applied psychological research methods. Content focuses on:

Developing knowledge and skills involved in conducting well-designed, ethical, survey-based research in psychology and the social sciences;
Theory and practice of survey-based research, including how to ask a research question, survey design, sampling, multivariate data analysis (descriptives and graphing, linear correlation, exploratory factor analysis, multiple linear regression, and ANOVA), basic qualitative analysis, and interpreting and communicating results in APA style.

On completion of the unit, participants should be able to:

Design and conduct ethically- and scientifically-sound survey-based research in the social sciences;
Use statistical software (SPSS and Excel) to manage data and to conduct descriptive statistics, graphing, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis, multiple linear regression, and ANOVA models;
Communicate the results of survey-based research in APA style.

Since the unit is targeted at third-year tertiary (university) level, it is assumed that participants have already completed the equivalent of:

A first year university introductory research and statistics unit (preferably in the social sciences)
A second year university research and statistics unit (preferably in the social sciences)

However, it is also possible to dive in because effort is made during the unit to review and elaborate on assumed knowledge.

These Wikiversity materials are being developed as open educational resources to supplement a face-to-face (f2f) unit at the University of Canberra (UC), taught by James Neill (2008-2009). Institution-specific details about the f2f unit are available on the accompanying ucspace and Moodle sites.

Currently, materials available via Wikiversity consist mainly of:

Lecture notes: Links to browsable and downloadable lecture slides (on slideshare) are provided. These presentations are also downloadable as .odp files.
Tutorial notes: Data analysis exercises are currently based around using Excel and SPSS. The long-term intention is to migrate these exercises to using free and open source software, such as Calc and R.
Readings currently consist mostly of textbooks, journal articles, and scanned book chapters. The goal is to eventually make equivalent material freely available via Wikibooks and Wikiversity.

Additional learning resources which can be made available on request include:

This unit is designed to involve approximately 150 hours of study, including:

Task/activity	Hours
12 x 2 hour lectures	24
6 x 2 hour computer-lab tutorials	12
2 x 2 hour exams	4
Readings and tutorials practice	~40
Lab report	~70
Total	~150

Visitors to Wikiversity can access individual topics or join in and attempt the whole unit. Learning support is available from James Neill. To get started:
- Add your details to the list of participants
- Email James Neill and let him know about your interest.