Topics Covered
Thinking about research
- The process of research
- Reliability and objectivity in research
- Ethics
Collecting data
- Sampling
- Questionnaires
- Interviews
- Focus groups
Data exploration
- Descriptive statistics
- Frequency distribution
- Graphs and diagrams
- Testing for normality
- Testing for homogeneity of variance
Inferential statistics
- Comparing two conditions/means
- Comparing several conditions/means - one way ANOVA
- Comparing several conditions/means - 2x2 between ANOVA
- Comparing several conditions/means - 2x2 within ANOVA
- Comparing several conditions/means - 2x2 mixed ANOVA
- Comparing several conditions/means – overall questions
- Categorical data analysis - chi-square
- Correlation - Pearson & Spearman
- Regression - 'simple' regression
Analysing narrative
- Transcription, coding and analysis
Fundamental concepts in research
- Independent and dependent variables
- Levels of measurement
- Populations and samples
- The logic of testing: Type I/Type II
- Descriptive and inferential statistics
- Probability
- One- and two-tailed tests
- Significance levels
- Effect sizes
- Statistical power
- Parametric and non-parametric tests
- Hypothesis testing
- Types of design
- Confounding variables
- Z-scores
- Fundamental concepts overall practice questions
Basic Maths/Numeracy
- Fractions
- Decimals
- Percentages
- Averages
- Basic operations and order of operations
- Mathematical notation
- Equation manipulation
- Rounding numbers
SPSS basics: How to guides
- Set up an SPSS file
- Enter and manipulate data
- Create coding variables
- Select cases
- Compute new variables
- Use the output window
- Save and retrieve files
Research scenario
Glossary of terms