Quantitative Research Methods

This sixteen-hour course provides a comprehensive exploration of the scientific method, beginning with a detailed description of its steps, from posing a hypothesis to analyzing and reporting results. Students will learn to judge the quality of sources for literature reviews, ensuring they can discern credible information. The course covers the various types of research questions scientists pose, highlighting the differences and similarities. It also covers the definition of variables, scales of measurement, and the importance of making reliable observations.

A significant portion of the course is dedicated to comparing and contrasting major research designs such as correlational techniques and experimental methods, along with their strengths and weaknesses, which are assessed in terms of construct validity, internal validity, and external validity. Methods for establishing experimental control are reviewed in detail along with the nature of between- and within-participant designs, and factorial designs.

In another major section of the course, students will gain insights into the historical context of ethical concerns in scientific research, illustrated with specific examples. The course emphasizes the purposes served by research ethics codes and uses the Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association as a foundation for exploring ethical issues related to scientific research. Protections offered by ethics codes for human participants and animals in research are thoroughly examined. The course also addresses the implications of the overrepresentation of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) participants in psychological research. Students will identify the consequences of different types of research fraud and learn how replication and preregistration can mitigate issues like p-hacking and HARKing (Hypothesizing After the Results are Known).

Learning objectives

• Describe the steps of the scientific method.
• Explain how to judge the quality of a source for a literature review.
• Compare and contrast the kinds of research questions scientists ask.
• Specify how variables are defined.
• Explain what it means for an observation to be reliable.
• Compare and contrast the major research designs.
• Compare and contrast forms of validity as they apply to the major research designs.
• Illustrate the history of ethical concerns about scientific research using specific examples.
• Describe purposes served by codes of research ethics.
• Explain the five general Ethical Principles of the APA Ethics Code.
• Describe the issues addressed by the APA Ethical Standards that apply to researchers.
• Explain how IRBs and IACUCs operate.
• Outline the major ethical considerations in planning a research study using nonhuman animals.
• Explain the importance of the three Rs in animal research.
• Explain the protections ethics codes offer for human participants in research.
• Describe the implications of WEIRD participants being overrepresented in psychological research.
• Identify the consequences of the different types of fraud in research.
• Explain how replication and preregistration address the problems of p-hacking and HARKing.
• Apply your knowledge of ethical violations and propose solutions for real-life research.