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Unit of Study PSYC3002 - Applied Psychological Investigation (2022)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

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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

Location Domestic International
Coffs Harbour
Session2
Session2
Gold Coast
Session2
Session2
Online
Session2
N/A

Learning outcomes

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:

identify the relevance, importance, and potential value of various approaches to scientific inquiry in psychology

demonstrate understanding of core principles of designing and conducting high-quality research

acquire and use practical skills for collecting qualitative data through interviews and focus groups

demonstrate knowledge and skills in analysing qualitative data using thematic analysis

critically appraise the relative strengths and weaknesses of various research methodologies

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • Brough, P, 2018, Advanced research methods for applied psychology, Routledge, London.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.