Research Methods and Data Analysis

Recommended Prerequisites

Does not apply.

Teaching Methods

The following teaching methods are used:

- Theoretical presentations – when paired with the performance of small exercises by the students, the presentation of the topics mentioned in the syllabus becomes closer to the theoretical-practical classes model then the lectures model.

- Practical exercises – the set of 21 exercises presented by Alferes (1997 and associated website) aims to provide to the students an integrated approach of the methodological and statistical dimensions of psychological research.

Learning Outcomes

The main goal of this curricular unit is the development and improvement of the theoretical and practical skills necessary to the practice of scientific research in the psychological sciences, through the systematic study of the fundamental processes and specific planning strategies, analysis, interpretation and presentation of results. At the end of this curricular unit students should:

(1) Define a problem under study

(2) Elaborate a research project, with a clear indication of the goals and the grounding of the hypotheses to be tested

(3) To design and implement a research plan

(4) To collect, organize and carry out the statistical analysis of the research data

(5) To interpret and discuss the results, extracting the adequate conclusions and implications

(6) To correctly present the final research report

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

A- Research methods

A1 – Research strategies: experimental designs, quasi-experimental designs and non-experimental designs. Design and analysis

A2 – Information gathering strategies: questionnaires and interviews; observation; psychological testing and other padronized measures; documents’ study: Measurement and sampling

A3 – Research methodology: bibliographic bases; structure and content of the scientific reports

B – Data analysis

B1 – Construction of data bases (SPSS), descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis

B2 – Relations between variables (correlation and linear regression, non-parametric equivalents)

B3 – Multivariate models with one dependent variable (multiple regression, discriminant analysis and logistic regression) and with two or more dependent variables (MANOVA, MANCOVA ansd canonical analysis)

Bibliography

Alferes, V. R. (1997). Investigação científica em psicologia: Teoria e prática. Coimbra: Almedina.

American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Bickman, L., & Rog, D. J. (Eds.).(1998). Handbook of applied social research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Índice NIIPS]

Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Kirk, R. E. (1995). Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). New York: Brooks/Cole.

Rosnow, R. L., & Rosenthal, R. (1998). Beginning behavioral research: A conceptual primer (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. [4th ed. - 2001] [5th ed. – 2007]

Shadish, W. R., CooK, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.