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 is taught through a combination of an introductory lecture, pre-recorded video materials and a series of tutorials. The lecture and online video materials will provide students with a systematic framework for extracting essential information from an empirical study, and then using this information to evaluate its rigour, quality and contribution to the field. In tutorials, students will practice applying this framework to research articles taken from a range of areas of psychology.
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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 | Data Analysis for Psychology in R 2 (PSYL08015) is recommended. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 1,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
89 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
30% short tutorial assignment (400 words)
70% critical review of a paper (1200 words) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive written feedback on assignments submitted throughout the course, as well as formative feedback during tutorial discussions. |
| 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. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
This is a skills based course, as it gives students the tools and knowledge to support their Honours courses, and certain career paths. They will learn how to evaluate the quality and importance of psychological research. In tutorials, they will develop their critical analysis skills, working as a group to assess the validity of a research study. Students will develop their data analysis skills by assessing whether the data supports the arguments presented. Students will continue developing their written communication skills through completing assignments, writing concisely and adapting their writing style to the assessment type.
Core skills gained on this course:
Critical analysis, collaboration, written communication, writing concisely (within limited word counts), debating/discussing respectfully, resilience, data analysis. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Paul Hoffman
Tel: (0131 6)50 4654
Email: p.hoffman@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Fiona Thomson
Tel:
Email: fthomso3@ed.ac.uk |
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