Statistics & Research Methods
Unit code: HAYG411
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | 12 weeks |
| Contact hours | 36 hours |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | Admission to N0815 Graduate Diploma of Psychology. |
| Corequisites | Nil |
Related course(s)
A unit of study in N0815 Graduate Diploma of Psychology.
Aims and objectives
This unit of study is designed to enable students to develop the capacity to carry out independent statistical investigation, together with an awareness of the assumptions and limitations involved with the generalisation of the results of such investigations.
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit of study students are expected to understand basic statistical techniques, their applications to society and human behaviour, and to appreciate some of the limitations of statistical models, They are also expected to understand the basics of SPSS (the Standard package for the Social Sciences).
Students should also have developed their skills in:
* Applying Statistical techniques to solve practical problems and investigate social and psychological issues
* Critical evaluation of how data are presented
* Understanding the nature of experimental research
*Use of SPSS for simple statistical analyses
Assessment
Written reports (individual) 40-50%
Online tests (individual) 10-20%
Examination (individual) 35-45%
REP (up to 6% extra-credit)
NB: Marks for this unit will not be recorded at greater than 100%.
Online tests (individual) 10-20%
Examination (individual) 35-45%
REP (up to 6% extra-credit)
NB: Marks for this unit will not be recorded at greater than 100%.
Generic skills outcomes
Attributes of Swinburne Higher Education Graduates
Swinburne Univeristy works to produce higher education graduates who are:capable in their chosen profession. Learners bring to Swinburne a diverse wealth of experience and graduate with individual understandings, abilities and attitudes.
Swinburne Univeristy works to produce higher education graduates who are:capable in their chosen profession. Learners bring to Swinburne a diverse wealth of experience and graduate with individual understandings, abilities and attitudes.
Within this context, this unit of study aims to provide students with the following attributes.
Graduates:
* Are capable in their chosen professional, vocational or study areas
* Are capable in their chosen professional, vocational or study areas
* Are entrepreneurial in contributing to innovation and development within their business, workplace or community
* Operate effectively and ethically in wotk and community situations
* Are adaptable and manage change
* Are aware of the local and international environment in which they will be contributing.
Content
§ Ordering & grouping data: frequency tables; picturing data: histograms and stemplots; summarising data: median, IQR & boxplots; the mean & standard deviation; levels of measurement.
§ Describing and displaying relationships; Pearson's r; introduction to regression; relationships in tabulated data; correlation and causality.
§ Producing data; experiments; population and samples; density curves and normal distribution; the standard normal.
§ Making decisions about means, the z and t tests; testing relationships; Pearson's r and the chi-squared test of independence, using SPSS.
§ Introduction to estimation, confidence intervals for the mean.
References
Jones,P., & Lipson, K. HMA103/HAYG411 Statistics and Research Methods notes. Swinburne University, Hawthorn, 2008.
