Research Methods and Techniques II: Quantitative Methods

6 ECTS credits
180 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1007335BNW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

For this course you have to meet certain enrolment requirements. For an overview of the enrolment requirements check https://www.vub.be/en/studying-vub/practical-info-for-students/study-guidance/study-path/individual-study-path#paragraph--id--71647 Students must have taken ‘Research Methods and Techniques I: psychometrics’ AND 'Statistics II: probability Theory and inductive Statistics' before they can enroll in ‘Research Methods and Techniques II: quantitative Methods’. Students who are enrolled in a shortened study program can take this course unit. Registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences

Department

Experimental and Applied Psychology

Educational team

Tim Vantilborgh (course titular)
Theresa Leyens
Sarah Cameron
Valentina Sagmeister

Activities and contact hours

30 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
36 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The goal of this course is to learn how to critically evaluate psychological research. This course stimulates critical reflection about research. You will learn how to systematically evaluate the validity of claims in research.

The following topics will covered in the course:

- The research process

- Internal, external, conclusion, and construct validity

- Ethics in research and open science practices

- Characteristics of good measurement

- Survey research

- Sampling

- Correlational research

- Experimental research

- Quasi-experimental research

- Replicability and generalizability of research

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Slides and extra study material, Canvas
Handbook (Required) : Research methods in psychology, Morling, B, 5de, W.W. Norton & Company, 9781324033318, 2023
Handbook (Required) : Concise Guide to APA Style, American Psychological Association, 7de, American Psychological Association, 9781433832734, 2019

Additional info

All Students:

Materials:

Morling, B. (2022). Research methods in psychology: Evaluating a world of information (5th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393643602
American Psychological Association. (2019). Concise Guide to APA style. (7th ed.) American Psychological Association. ISBN13: 978-1-4338-3273-4

Slides on Canvas

Extra materials will be made available on Canvas

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

- The student can identify research questions

- The student can categorize studies into research making claims about frequenties, relationships, and causal relationships

- The student can systematically evaluate research on internal, external, conclusion, and construct validity

- The student can evaluate the reliability and construct validity of measures

- The student can distinguish experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational research, and knows the advantages and disadvantages of each

- The student understands why experimental research is able to establish causality

- The student can interpret results from experimental designs

- The student can evaluate whether results of a study can be generalized

- The student can evaluate whether a study follows ethical guidelines

- The study can communicate on research in line with the APA-guidelines

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
LEC Paper determines 30% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Written exam multiple choice with a relative weight of 70 which comprises 70% of the final mark.

Within the LEC Paper category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Paper with a relative weight of 30 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Evaluation:

Written exam with multiple-choice questions (70%)
Paper (30%)

Learning materials: two groups of students can be distinguished, based on prior knowledge:
- GROUP 1: Normal trajectory (= applies to most students)
Parts that should be known: PART 1 and PART 2 + lectures + practical exercises

- GROUP 2: Partial exemption for non-experimental research methods based on prior education (eg. master in Adult Educational Sciences, Criminology, Economy, (Business) Engineer). Students need to apply for a partial exemption via the faculty administration.
Parts that should be known: PART 2 + lectures + practical exercises

Part 1 = Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Part 2 = Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

The written multiple choice exam will be graded by positive scoring with standard setting. This means that no points will be deducted for wrong answers. We take into account that points may be obtained by guessing by increasing the threshold (= standard) to pass. For example, the threshold to pass a multiple choice exam with 40 items with 4 answer options is correctly answering 25 items. When you answer 25 out of 40 items correctly in this example, you will obtain a grade of 10/20. The standard and grading table will be communicated via Canvas and in the exam instructions. Your strategy when completing this exam should be to do your best, but when you do not know the answer to a question to guess as no points will be deducted for wrong answers.

If during or after the exam it becomes clear that there was confusion about certain questions, the course instructor can choose to remove these questions from the exam. This then applies to all students but can never cause disadvantages for a single student.

Not completing the written exam or assignment will lead to an absent on the entire course.

Students have to get 10/20 on every one of the course parts to succeed for the course. If you get a failing grade for one of the parts, you will receive the lowest partial grade as the final grade. The partial grade for which you succeeded in the first sitting can be transferred to the second sitting and you will not have to take up this course part again.

2nd exam period: If students failed the course in the first exam period, they need to redo those parts of the course on which they failed (written exam, assignment, or both). The assignment is always done individually in the second exam period. If students failed the course in the first exam period, but passed one of the course components (written exam or assignment), they can transfer the grade from the first exam period on that course component to the second exam period. Students who do not wish to transfer the grade on this passed course component need to contact the course instructor before the exam in the second exam period.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context