Introduction to Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology: A practical guide for the undergraduate researcher

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Cover Cover2 Cover3 Contents Preface to the second edition Guided tour Authors’ acknowledgements Publisher’s acknowledgements Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Introducing research 1.1 Psychology, a definition 1.2 Research and scientific method 1.3 Secondary research 1.4 Beginning your research project 1.5 Reviewing the literature 1.6 The structure of a research project Review Suggested further reading Part 2: Planning and designing a research project Chapter 2: The nature of research design 2.1 The purpose of a design 2.2 The world of variables 2.3 Variables and levels of measurement Review Suggested further reading Chapter 3: experimental research designs 3.1 Introduction to experimental research 3.2 Experimental design 3.3 Between-groups designs (independent-groups designs) 3.4 Within-subjects designs (repeated-measures designs) 3.5 Non-equivalent groups (quasi-experimental) design 3.6 Factorial designs 3.7 Mixed designs Review Suggested further reading Chapter 4: Correlational and regression designs 4.1 Correlational designs 4.2 Partial correlation 4.3 Multiple correlation and regression Review Suggested further reading Part 3: Carrying out research: methods and procedures Chapter 5: The essentials of carrying out research: the participants 5.1 The role of procedure 5.2 The stuff of research – whom will you use? 5.3 Samples and populations 5.4 Sampling techniques 5.5 Non-probability sampling 5.6 Samples – how to get them 5.7 How many participants? 5.8 Sample size in estimating population characteristics 5.9 Sample size in hypothesis testing 5.10 Secondary research and survey data Review Suggested further reading Chapter 6: Ethics and research 6.1 Carrying out ethical research 6.2 Participants 6.3 Apparatus 6.4 Procedural issues 6.5 Ethics and online research 6.6 Practical issues Review Suggested further reading Chapter 7: Using questionnaires in research 7.1 Questionnaire design – how to get information 7.2 The importance of ‘who’ is asking the questions 7.3 The format of a question 7.4 Types of scale – closed-ended questions 7.5 Types of scale – open-ended questions 7.6 Special techniques for information gathering: focus groups 7.7 Pilot research 7.8 Using standardised instruments in research 7.9 What you need to know about psychological tests Review Suggested further reading Part 4: Describing your data Chapter 8: Tables, figures and descriptive statistics 8.1 How the world can be represented numerically 8.2 Making sense of numbers 8.3 Tables and categorical variables 8.4 Figures and categorical variables 8.5 The rules for drawing graphs and charts 8.6 Tables and continuous variables 8.7 The stemplot 8.8 Figures and continuous variables 8.9 Continuous variables and the boxplot 8.10 Continuous-scaled data and the bar chart 8.11 Continuous-scaled data and line graphs 8.12 Statistics 8.13 Dispersion 8.14 The normal distribution 8.15 Practical implications 8.16 The standard normal distribution Review Suggested further reading Chapter 9: Introducing SPSS 9.1 Computer analysis and SPSS 9.2 The starting point: what to do with your data 9.3 The basics of working with SPSS: setting up variables and data entry 9.4 Coding: an overview 9.5 How to code ordinal and nominal category data 9.6 How to code – and recode – continuous data 9.7 Entering data and naming variables: an overview 9.8 Data entry: between-group designs 9.9 Data entry: within-subjects designs 9.10 Setting up data in SPSS 9.11 Naming and defining variables 9.12 Describing data in SPSS: an overview 9.13 Using SPSS to describe our data 9.14 Tables and figures for category variables 9.15 Figures and associated category variables 9.16 A word of caution on crosstabulation 9.17 Graphs and crosstabulated data for selected cases 9.18 Selecting cases: a word of caution 9.19 Describing continuous variables 9.20 Screening data Review Suggested further reading Part 5: Drawing inferences and testing hypotheses Chapter 10: Introducing inferential statistics and tests of differences 10.1 Inferential statistics 10.2 Probability explained 10.3 Scope for errors 10.4 One- and two-tailed tests 10.5 Effect size and power 10.6 A priori and post hoc power analyses 10.7 Comparing samples and populations – an overview 10.8 Comparing samples and populations – the standard error of the mean 10.9 Parametric and non-parametric data 10.10 Tests of differences – between-group comparisons 10.11 Tests of differences – within-group comparisons (repeated measures) Review Suggested further reading Chapter 11: Tests of association 11.1 The chi-square (x2) test of association 11.2 Correlation 11.3 Simple regression 11.4 The coefficient of determination (r2 ) 11.5 Internal consistency: Cronbach’s alpha Review Suggested further reading Chapter 12: Advanced analysis 12.1 Two-way ANOVA 12.2 Locating an effect in two-way ANOVA 12.3 Post hoc testing for an interaction effect 12.4 Partial correlation 12.5 Multiple regression Review Suggested further reading Part 6: Carrying out qualitative research Chapter 13: Introducing qualitative research 13.1 An example of a qualitative study 13.2 Qualitative or quantitative? 13.3 Representing the experiences of people 13.4 Knowledge of a particular phenomenon 13.5 Previous research 13.6 Availability of participants 13.7 Time factors 13.8 Your supervisor 13.9 Mixed methods 13.10 Different types of qualitative research 13.11 Planning a qualitative study 13.12 Research questions and the conceptual framework 13.13 Deciding on the method 13.14 Piloting 13.15 Other points to consider at an early stage of qualitative research 13.16 Collecting data 13.17 Dealing with qualitative data 13.18 The quality of the research Review Suggested further reading Part 7: Writing up research Chapter 14: Writing up your research 14.1 The purpose of a report 14.2 Writing guidelines 14.3 The structure of a psychology report 14.4 Title 14.5 Abstract 14.6 Contents 14.7 Introduction 14.8 Method 14.9 Results 14.10 Presenting tables and figures 14.11 Discussion 14.12 References 14.13 Appendices 14.14 Writing up qualitative research 14.15 Presentation and style Review Appendix A: Area under the normal curve Appendix B: Critical values of U and U’ Appendix C: Critical values of t Appendix D: Critical values of T at various levels of probability Appendix E: Table of x2 Appendix F: Quick guides Glossary of key terms References Index