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Week 2 · Module overview

Week 2 — Research Methods & Ethics

Introduction to Psychology Free sample edition

Welcome to your Week 2 Start Here page.

Why this matters

Every "studies show" claim raises the same questions. A nurse weighing a new hospital routine and a manager reading a report on remote work both need to know what design produced the finding and what it can claim.

In plain language

Psychology makes claims about people, so it needs a fair way to check them. This week you learn the main ways psychologists collect evidence and how much each way is allowed to claim. A correlation (two measures that tend to rise or fall together) can show that two things are linked, but not that one causes the other. An experiment (a study where the researcher changes one thing on purpose and watches what happens) can show a cause. You will also learn the rules that protect the people who take part in a study.

  • Already covered: Week 1, The Science of Psychology, defined psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes and showed why common sense and hindsight are not enough.
  • This week: how psychologists gather evidence, what each research design can claim, and the ethics rules that protect participants.
  • How they connect: Week 1 said a science tests its ideas against evidence; this week shows exactly how that testing works.
  • Where we're going next: Week 3, Biological Bases of Behavior, looks inside the brain and the nervous system, and you will read every brain finding there with this week's questions in hand.

Focus

How does psychology gather evidence, and how much is each kind of study allowed to claim?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • [ ] write an operational definition and name a study's design
  • [ ] read r for direction and strength and name a third variable
  • [ ] label the IV, DV, and control group, and tell sampling from assignment
  • [ ] name the protections every research participant is owed

To-do

Plan your week

  1. Read Chapter 2 (about 40 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
  2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
  3. Do the Analysis Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
  4. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: say what design produced the sleep and quiz-score data and what it can claim.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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