This course offers an overview of how the social sciences--political science especially--decide which questions to ask and how to design the research projects that will help them develop answers to those questions. As we explore these methods of inquiry and analysis, students undertake their own multi-methods research project to better understand something that interests or puzzles them while experiencing first hand the challenges inherent in sound research.

Psychology as a behavioral science; its theoretical and applied aspects. Includes research methods, behavioral neuroscience, sensation and perception, cognition, learning, development, personality, psychopathology, and social psychology. To experience actively the nature of psychological research students have an opportunity to participate in a variety of studies as part of a laboratory experience.

Design, statistical analysis, and decision making in psychological research. Probability, hypothesis-testing, and confidence intervals. Conceptualization, computation, interpretation, and typical applications for exploratory data analysis (including measures of central tendency, variability), t-tests, correlations, bivariate regression, one-way analysis of variance, and chi square. Introduction to computer methods of computation.

Research design, including experimental and correlation design; internal versus external validity; measurement; writing a research report; graphic and statistical methods for summarizing data; sampling; and special problems such as experimenter effects, reactivity of measurement, and others. The use of hypothesis testing and data analysis in research. Prereq: PSYC 401 and PSYC 402.