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Unit of Study PSY73001 - Applied Psychological Investigation (2020)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Provides students with knowledge and skills in applied research methods in psychology. The unit examines core principles in designing rigorous, high quality research, and develops practical skills in data collection and analysis. Students learn how to critically appraise quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method research and in the process, develop an understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses, and how they can each be used to answer applied research questions in psychology. 

Unit content

  • the background and importance of applied research methods in psychology
  • ethical considerations in applied research in psychology
  • designing experimental research
  • non-experimental quantitative research designs
  • background, rationale, and philosophy of qualitative research
  • qualitative data collection using interviews and focus groups
  • analysing qualitative data: conducting thematic analysis
  • strategies for enhancing quality and rigour in qualitative research
  • mixed-methods research: combining qualitative and quantitative approaches
  • appraising, critiquing, and reporting research of various designs.

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2020

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 identify the relevance, importance, and potential value of various approaches to scientific inquiry in psychology
2 demonstrate understanding of core principles of designing and conducting high-quality research
3 acquire and use practical skills for collecting qualitative data through interviews and focus groups
4 demonstrate knowledge and skills in analysing qualitative data using thematic analysis
5 critically appraise the relative strengths and weaknesses of various research methodologies

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. identify the relevance, importance, and potential value of various approaches to scientific inquiry in psychology
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  2. demonstrate understanding of core principles of designing and conducting high-quality research
    • GA3:
    • GA4:
  3. acquire and use practical skills for collecting qualitative data through interviews and focus groups
    • GA3:
    • GA4:
  4. demonstrate knowledge and skills in analysing qualitative data using thematic analysis
    • GA4:
  5. critically appraise the relative strengths and weaknesses of various research methodologies
    • GA1:
    • GA4: