Undergraduate Course: Critical Analysis (PSYL10102)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The general aims of the course are:
- To facilitate critical reading and analysis of psychological research reports
- To show how design principles and statistics are applied in psychological research and how research is actually done
- To encourage careful, deep consideration the value of published research studies |
| Course description |
The course's aims will be achieved principally via tutorials, plus one lecture at the beginning of each semester.
The semester 1 lecture will provide students with a basic framework for how to approach a research paper. The semester 2 lecture will focus on how to evaluate the value of the research a paper reports, building on the skills developed in semester 1.
The tutorials in each semester will apply the ideas presented in the lecture. Each tutorial session will be devoted to discussing a single research paper, which will be distributed to all students in advance of the session. The tutor will provide discussion points, which will draw on the aims and learning outcomes of the course in a manner which is appropriate for the paper under discussion and the stage of the course (i.e. questions will be more generic towards the start of the course and more specific and focused as students gain in analytic skills). The papers will be drawn from the 3rd year lecture courses taking place concurrently with the tutorial sessions and were suggested by academic staff teaching those courses.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Psychology 2A (PSYL08011) AND
Psychology 2B (PSYL08012)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Research Methods and Statistics (PPLS08001) is recommended. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
98 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
50% - short-answer assignments from 5 tutorials (1 st tutorial as a practice that does not
count towards final mark)
50% - final assignment (1500-word critical review) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Review published research articles comprehensively and critically.
- Understand the rationale, logic and purpose of a research study.
- Assess the suitability of the study design and statistical treatment of the results.
- Identify potential shortcomings in studies and propose solutions to these.
- Evaluate the overall value and contribution of a piece of research.
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Reading List
| An appropriate research paper will be distributed before each tutorial; these will be linked to the content of the lecture courses being taken by the students. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Paul Hoffman
Tel: (0131 6)50 4654
Email: p.hoffman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Alex MacAndrew
Tel: (0131 6)51 3733
Email: alexandra.macandrew@ed.ac.uk |
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