157
Statistics & Research Methods
research method (e.g., descriptive research methods) and what types of question researchers
can answer with it (e.g., prevalence rates of different psychological disorders). Students
then learn about the statistical tools that researchers use to analyze data and draw conclu-
sions from a particular research method. Next, students complete a hands-on research
project that immediately allows them to use both the method and its accompanying
statistical tools. Finally, students discuss the strengths and limitations of adopting a
particular research method, and the need to adopt other methods and statistics in order to
answer other types of research questions, which starts the process over again. The goal of
this new format is simple: to provide students with better context in which they can appre-
ciate why different research methods and statistical tools are necessary for psychology and
necessary for us to be better researchers.
Taking this more elaborate approach in a normal semester course would drastically
limit the number of methodological and statistical techniques that instructors could
introduce. But with a year-long, two-semester sequence, we are in a position to teach the
same content that we normally teach in our regular semester-long courses. In Psychological
Research Methods and Data Analysis I (Psyc 212), students learn the history and use of
science in psychology, along with two of the four major research methods used in psychol-
ogy: descriptive and correlational approaches. We also cover the statistical tools associated
with these methods (descriptive statistics, correlation and regression, and the basics of
inferential statistics). In Psychological Research Methods and Data Analysis II (Psyc 213),
students learn the other major research approaches used in our field—experimental and
quasi-experimental designs—and the statistical tools associated with these approaches
(t tests and ANOVAs). After completing this two-semester sequence, students can appreci-
ate how researchers are motivated by different research goals, how answering a particular
research question requires the use of a particular research method, and how using a par-
ticular research method requires the use of a particular statistical tool (see Figure 13.1).
As instructors, few of us would say that we were inherently excited to learn about the
differences between one-sample, independent-sample, and dependent-sample t tests, let
alone how to calculate the formulas by hand. However, when reframed first and foremost
Research
method
Descriptive methods
Correlational methods
Experimental
methods
Quasi-experimental
methods
Main statistical tools
to analyze method
Descriptive statistics
Correlation, regression
t tests, ANOVA
Description
Prediction
Explanation
Research
goal
Figure 13.1. Organizational framework for providing context in an integrated research methods
and statistics course.