Research Methods in Psychology

Through instruction in research design and the application of the scientific method to psychology, students learn to evaluate the validity of claims about behavior and mental processes as they appear in both popular media and the professional scientific literature, to design and conduct psychological research, and to report on the results of psychological investigations using APA style. Topics covered include measurement and validity, ethics, survey research, correlational research, experiments with one and with multiple independent variables, identification and control of confounds, and quasi-experiments. Students conduct hands-on psychological studies involving appropriate statistical analyses that will be written up as APA style reports.