This introduction sets the scene for research in psychology. Exercises Exercise 1.1 Some people say instantly ‘Oh it’s a picture of a man – so what?’. Many others (including me when I…

This chapter is an introduction to the language and concepts of measurement in social science. Exercises Exercise 2.1 Creating variables to measure psychological constructs In this exercise try to give at least…

This chapter introduces the general concept of an experiment and goes on to outline basic uses of this design in psychological research. Exercises Exercise 3.1 The nature of experiments This is a…

This chapter investigates issues of experimental validity and links this with the different threats to validity relevant to experiments, in particular, and to all research methods in general. Exercises Exercise 4.1 Tabatha…

This chapter discusses quasi-experiments, their limitations compared to true experiments, and the challenges to validity in various experimental designs. Exercises Exercise 5.1 Some outlines of research studies are given below and your…

This chapter covers most methods that are generally classed as observation. Exercises Exercise 6.1 Select True or False for each item to test your understanding of observational methods. Further Information Festinger’s end-of-the-world…

This chapter introduces general principles concerning the asking of questions. Exercises Exercise 7.1 Preparing an interview schedule Prepare a set of questions for an interview investigating the issue of assisted suicide. Imagine…

This chapter looks at a variety of procedures for gathering data using some form of questionnaire, psychological scale or psychometric test.The content for this chapter has not been posted yet and is…

This chapter looks at studies that are comparisons, either of the same people as they mature over longish periods or of several sub-group samples. Exercises Exercise 9.1 Have a go at this…

This chapter presents a summary of qualitative researchers objections to the mainstream research model and summarises a variety of methods now commonly used in mainstream psychological research. Exercises Exercise 10.1 Chapter 10…

This chapter deals with the responsibilities borne by professional psychologists, whether their work is applied or research oriented. Exercises Exercise 11.1 Ethical issues in research designs What are the main ethical issues…

This chapter is a practical introduction to the methods employed by qualitative researchers for collecting, analysing and reporting their data. Exercises Exercise 12.1 Select true or false for each item to test…

This chapter introduces you to the kinds of procedures that are used to describe and to summarise quantities of data. Exercises Exercise 13.1 Identifying categorical and measured variables Decide in each case…

This chapter deals with the representation of data sets in charts or graphs. Exercises Here is the datafile to be used for a box-plot as referred to in the exercises for this…

This chapter looks at how the authors deal with frequencies in sets of data and, in particular, with the properties and use of the normal distribution. Exercises Exercise 15.1 z scores A…

This chapter is about the principles of significance testing.  Exercises Exercise 16.1 One- or two-tailed tests In each case below decide whether the research prediction permits a one-tailed test or whether a…

This chapter introduces statistical tests for assessing the significance of differences between two samples and also introduces calculations of effect size and power. Exercises Here are the data sets, in SPSS and…

This chapter discusses the use of the chi-square test to analyze categorical data, and the analysis of multi-way tables using log-linear analysis. Exercises Exercise 18.1 A 2 x 2 chi-square analysis Individual…

This chapter explores positive and negative correlations. Exercises Exercise 19.1 Scatter plots Have a look at the scatter plots below and select a description in terms of strength (weak, moderate, strong) and…

This chapter introduces the readers to the process of predicting values of a ‘criterion’ variable from values of a ‘predictor’ variable. Exercises Exercise 20.1 Multiple regression practice The data set for the…

This chapter introduces the basic concepts of factor analysis and details how to carry out an exploratory factor analysis procedure in SPSS. Exercises Exercise 21.1 In this chapter we carried out an…

In this chapter we look at designs where there is one independent variable but with more than two levels. Exercises Here is the data file oneway ANOVA caffeine.sav used in the main…

This chapter deals with between groups multi-factorial ANOVA, where more than one independent variable is manipulated or observed.  Exercises Exercise 23.1 Calculating two way unrelated ANOVA on a new data set The…

This chapter deals with analyses using ANOVA when at least one of the factors is related – that is, a repeated measures or matched pairs factor (independent variable) has been used. Exercises…

This chapter takes the readers through the criteria for choosing an appropriate test of significance for the data they have obtained and the effect they are investigating. Exercises Exercise 25.1 Identifying simple…

If you are devising and running your own practical work in psychology, good luck! It is highly satisfying to complete a project that was your own initial idea and that you have…