Seminar in Systemic Research and Data Analysis

Recommended Prerequisites

This curricular unit implies basic knowledge in descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as basic notions of research methods in social and human sciences, particularly in the area of Psychology.

Teaching Methods

This course unit intends to guide the students step by step in their research process, focusing the methodological aspects and data analysis. So, it implies the principle of "learning by doing", and is achieved by interactive moments in classes: theoretical-practical (lecture method) and  applied ones, including the training of practical skills and problem solving, and the application by students of different methods using statistical software (e.g. SPSS, PROCESS), critical analysis of applications of different techniques and presentation of results in thesis/article.

Learning Outcomes

This course unit aims to provide in-depth knowledge about different methods and techniques of research in Systemic Clinical and Health Psychology (SP) and advanced practice of data analysis. The course unit intends to promote a critical and integrative posture on research methods, informing about conceptual, procedural, analytical and ethical specificities of research in SP. Particular emphasis will be given to the promotion of knowledge about the stages of a research project and process of planning a project, research designs and sampling methods. This course unit also promotes the development of practical skills of data analysis and of statistical reasoning, as well as the ability to decide and select the most appropriate techniques for different and complex research problems/plans, skills for interpreting the results obtained, and use clear and correct statistical language, including its writing based on commonly accepted publishing standards (e.g., APA).

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Principles of research methods in Systemic Clinical and Health Psychology (SP): a) stages of the research process; b) types of research designs; c) sample planning, sampling methods and selection of measures; d) ethical principles in SP research; e) specificities of research in SP

2. Scientific writing and dissemination of results: a) types and structure of scientific documents; b) APA style and reference management software.

3. Data analysis/statistics and use of statistical software: a) basic notions in descriptive and inferential statistics; b) descriptive statistics and graphic representation; c) inferential statistics. Parametric and non-parametric univariate, bivariate and multivariate methods; d) psychometrics. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis; e) modulation. Mediation and moderation and applications with software (SPSS e PROCESS).

4. Report findings in scientific documents.

Head Lecturer(s)

Marco Daniel de Almeida Pereira

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Mini Tests: 100.0%

Bibliography

American Psychological Association. (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7.ª ed.). Washington, DC: Edição do autor.

Brough, P. (Ed.) (2019). Advanced research methods for applied Psychology: Design, analysis and reporting. New York, NY: Routledge.

Cooper, H. (Ed.). (2012). Handbook of research methods in psychology. Washington, DC: APA.

Coutinho, C. P. (2011). Metodologia de investigação em ciências sociais e humanas: Teoria e prática. Coimbra: Almedina.

Field, A. (2017). Discovering statistics using SPSS (5th ed.). London: Sage Publications.

Hayes, A.F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Tabachnick, B., & Fidell, L. (2014). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.