1. Research Skills

2. Aims of the course: Basic grounding in research skills - designing questionnaires and experiments data analysis using statistics and SPSS writing up studies using standard presentation conventions

8. Outline of this course: Autumn term: Issues in designing questionnaires and experiments. Descriptive statistics - effective summarising of data. The logic behind statistical tests. Statistical tests (correlation and Chi-Square). Using SPSS ("Statistical Package for the Social Sciences") for data analysis and Excel for producing graphs and tables. Using Powerpoint for “slide-shows” like this, for use in oral presentations.

9. Spring term: More statistical theory. More statistical tests. Practice at running experiments and writing them up. Summer term: Ethics. Endnote (software for organising references and producing reference lists). How to decide which statistical test is most appropriate to use. Revision for the exam...

10. Course organisation for autumn term: Two lectures and one practical session every week. (Lectures: Mondays at 1 pm, Fridays at 4 pm in Chichester Lecture Theatre). Practical sessions - details on Sussex Direct.

11. Course requirements: Autumn term: Lab report and Powerpoint presentation) 10% (7%, 3%) Spring and summer terms: 3 lab-reports 30% (10% each) All three terms: Research participation (eight hours) 10% (c) Summer term: Unseen open-book exam 50% Assessment is by a mixture of coursework and exam:

12. This term's course requirements (worth 10% of overall mark for RM1): 1. Design a questionnaire on one of a variety of set topics: e.g. Smoking, Drinking, Exercising, Driving. 2. Administer the questionnaire: work in groups, each person recruiting at least 20 participants. 3. Analyse the data. End of term: 4. Submit a written lab-report on what you did and what you found, with appropriate descriptive statistics and graphs. 5. Produce a brief Powerpoint slideshow (4-5 slides max.) on your study, and present this to your Academic Advisor's tutor group.

13. Recommended textbooks: Field and Hole (2003). Sage publications. Palgrave, 2006 Sage, 2006 BUY THIS ONE, I NEED THE MONEY !!!!!

14. Other good statistics textbooks: Pearson / Prentice Hall 2005Pearson / Prentice Hall 2004

16. Course documentation, handouts, lecture slides: Best methods to access all this are (1) and (2): (1) www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology Then follow the links: A-Z list > Graham Hole > Homepage for Graham Hole (2) Go direct to my homepage: www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/grahamh/teaching06 (3) www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology Then follow the links: teaching > course directory > Research Skills > Study Direct: c8511

17. Who to contact: In the first instance, the course tutors running your practical sessions (see my homepage for a list of tutors and contact details). Graham Hole (grahamh@sussex.ac.uk)