HPS104 Foundation of Psychological Science - Short Notes (Summary of the Units)

Description

Week 1 - Evidence in Psychology: Understanding how psychological practices are grounded in research evidence, including empirical, anecdotal, and theoretical evidence. Week 2 - The Scientific Method: Steps of the scientific method, including observation, hypothesis formulation, experimentation, and conclusion drawing. Week 3 - The Validity of Research: Types of validity (internal, external, construct, criterion), threats to validity (, confounding variables, biases), and strategies to improve validity. Week 4 - Experimental Research: Different types of experimental designs (between-subjects, within-subjects), the importance of control groups and randomization, and measuring outcomes with dependent and independent variables. Week 5 - Observational Research: Types of observational studies (naturalistic, structured, participant), advantages and disadvantages, and techniques for recording and interpreting observational data. Week 6 - Factorial Research: Understanding factorial designs with multiple independent variables, identifying and interpreting main effects and interactions, and the benefits and challenges of complex factorial designs. Week 7 - Qualitative Research: Differences between qualitative and quantitative research, data collection methods (interviews, focus groups, case studies), and data analysis techniques (coding, thematic analysis). Week 8 - Ethical Research: Ethical principles in research (beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice), importance of informed consent, and adherence to ethical guidelines and codes of conduct. Week 9 - Survey Research: Designing effective surveys and questionnaires, sampling methods (random, stratified, cluster), and basics of analyzing and interpreting survey data. Week 10 - Introduction to Statistics: Descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency and variability), inferential statistics (hypothesis testing, p-values, confidence intervals), and interpreting statistical results in psychological research.