The measurement in psychology. Introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics applied to psychological data. Introduction to the use of the software R. Methods for describing how to report the results of a psychological research.
Course Content - Last names L-Z
Fundamental concepts of frequentist and Bayesian statistics for the analysis of psychological data; introduction to the use of the software R; how to write a research report in psychology and how to give an oral presentation.
Agresti, A, & Finlay, B. (2015). Metodi statistici e avanzati per le scienze sociali. Pearson, Milano (capitoli 1,2,3,4,6,7,9,10,12)
Primi C. & Chiesi F. (2005). Introduzione alla psicometria. Laterza, Bari
Research papers will be provided electronically.
Knowledge and understanding
The course is designed to introduce students to basic principles and procedures of data collection evaluation, and communication in psychology.
Applying knowledge and understanding
We will survey statistics and data analysis in psychology and use the software R to assist our statistical analyses (and understanding).
Making judgments
This course is designed to encourage the students’ appreciation of the practical and intellectual significance of psychological research and data analysis in order to develop a critical understanding of basic principles and techniques of quantitative analysis.
Communication skills
Students will participate in simulated project projects, will code and analyze data and will report results in presentation and paper formats.
Learning skills
The skills acquired in this course provide the bases for the developments that will be provided in more advances classes. The methods and procedures discussed in the class will be also useful for the final exam.
Learning Objectives - Last names L-Z
Aims: to develop theoretical / operational skills related to the methods and techniques of scientific research in psychology. In particular, the student will learn the statistical and informatics procedures that are necessary for
- planning, and data collection and analysis in psychological research,
- preparing a report of an empirical study.
Students completing the course successfully, starting with real data and using a statistical software, will be able to
- analyze the data of an empirical research using the basic statistical techniques used in psychology,
- write a report describing the results of a psychological study.
Knowledge and understanding:
Developing knowledge, starting from an elementary level, useful for statistical analysis and interpretation of data in research contexts and in context of psychological intervention.
Applied knowledge and understanding:
The student will be able to
- deal with the analysis of psychological data through the use of the statistical software R;
- deepen her/his knowledge by reading scientific papers making use of quantitative techniques for the statistical analysis of psychological data.
Autonomy of judgment:
Students will be asked to develop a broad understanding of the different methods of research and data analysis techniques in light of the recent debate on the psychological reproducibility crisis.
Communicative Skills:
The course will provide the students with the knowledge necessary to produce a scientific report (written and oral) describing the results of a psychological research. Students will also be encouraged to develop their ability to work in groups.
Learning ability:
The topics here discussed are indispensable for profitably attending to the other courses of the programme and for the preparation of the final exam.
Prerequisites - Last names A-K
Basic high school math
Prerequisites - Last names L-Z
Basic math skills acquired during high school. The prerequisites will be evaluated by means of a self-evaluation test. Base knowledge necessary to understand the topics discussed in class can be acquired by using the extra notes added to the lecture notes.
Teaching Methods - Last names A-K
Knowledge and understanding
Frontal lectures.
Applying knowledge and understanding
Students will participate in laboratory research projects.
Making judgments
Class discussions will provide the opportunities for students to develop a critical understandings of the results of psychological research.
Communication skills
By to participate in laboratory research projects, students will learn how to report the results of psychological research in presentation and paper formats.
Learning skills
Frontal lectures
Teaching Methods - Last names L-Z
Knowledge and understanding:
classroom lectures, group work, individual work.
Applied knowledge and understanding:
exercises in class and exercises to be performed autonomously; individual and group work with the R software; structured e-tivity-based interactions (individual and collaborative), in the form of reports, exercises, problem solving, conducted by students, with relative feedback.
Autonomy of judgment:
Discussion of the scientific results provided by the psychological literature.
Communicative Skills:
Presentation of the results of a psychological research in a written or oral communication.
Learning ability:
Acquire the ability to learn from the environment in which the student is inserted, by analyzing scientific articles, reports, and experiment results; acquire the ability to learn by interacting with peers.
Further information - Last names A-K
Frontal Lectures n. 40
Laboratory research projects: 23
Further information - Last names L-Z
63 hours of meeting time
- 40 hours of classroom lectures,
- 23 hours of student discussions, use of the software R, and group work in the classroom.
Type of Assessment - Last names A-K
Knowledge and understanding
Multiple choice and open items and output to discuss
Applying knowledge and understanding
Laboratory activities in which students will present the analysis of real or simulated psychological data.
Making judgments
Interpretation of the papers discussed in the course. Presentation of problems ( using open-ended questions) in which the student are required to interpret the output of a data analysis program, in light of the research question motivating the data collection.
Communication skills
Presentation of problems requiring students to report the results of psychological research in presentation and paper formats.
Learning skills
Written exam
Type of Assessment - Last names L-Z
Students who attend lectures regularly.
Knowledge and understanding will be assessed through a midterm test consisting of multiple choice questions and exercises both on basic concepts and statistical applications, and by an end-of-course test structured in the same way.
The ability to apply knowledge and understanding will be assessed through oral presentations in which students will discuss in the classroom the statistical analysis of real or simulated psychological data. Students will be evaluated by considering:
- the ability to argue and justify their conclusions;
- the knowledge of the statistical software R;
- their critical reading of the psychological literature.
The autonomy of judgment will be assessed by considering:
- the ability to reflect, discuss, deepen and re-elaborate the issues covered;
- the critical capacity, consistency, and the methodological rigor;
- the ability to understand different points of view;
- the ability to think in a creative and unconventional way.
Communication skills will be assessed by examining the presentation of the results of a psychological research (group work). Students will be evaluated by considering:
- the ability to communicate effectively;
- the ability to critically discuss the results of a psychological study in the light of the research question and with reference to the relevant literature.
Learning skills will be verified by means of multiple-choice tests, by considering the oral presentations of the results of a psychological research, and by taking into account the individual's contributions to the discussions in the classroom.
Students who do not attend lectures regularly.
Knowledge and understanding will be assessed through a written test consisting of multiple choice questions and exercises both on basic concepts and on statistical applications.
The ability to apply knowledge will be assessed through multiple choice questions that will assess the knowledge of the R-language syntax and
open questions that, referring to the text of an article of the recent psychological literature, will require students to demonstrate their awareness of the research question, of how this question relates to the psychological literature, why the data examined are relevant to answer the research question, and what is the role of the statistical analysis in formulating a response to the research question.
Judgment autonomy will be assessed in a written examination with open questions considering:
- the ability to reflect, discuss, and re-elaborate the issues covered;
- critical capacity, consistency, and methodological rigor;
- the ability to understand different points of view;
- the ability to think in a creative and unconventional way.
Communication skills will be evaluated in a written exam with open questions in which students will be asked to interpret the results of statistical analyses of psychological data. Students will be evaluated for their ability to communicate effectively and for their ability to critically discuss the research results in the light of the research question and with reference to the psychological literature.
Learning ability will be verified in a written exam with open questions in which students will have to interpret and discuss the results of a recent psychological research.
Course program - Last names A-K
Research in psychology
Research designs
Descriptive Statistics
Introduction to Probability Theory
Probability Distribution
Sampling Distributions
Inferencial Statistics
One sample t-test , two sample t-test
Correlation and Linear Regression
One-way ANOVA
Introduction to multivariate relations
Factorial ANOVA
Course program - Last names L-Z
Measurements, reliability and validity
Elements of probability theory
Discrete probability
How does the probability change if we have further information?
Bayes theorem
Bernoulli distribution and binomial distribution
Continuous random variables
Distributions of continuous random variables
Central Limit Theorem and Law of Large Numbers
Joint probability function
Covariance and correlation
Introduction to statistics
Types of variables in statistics and research
Numerical summary values (statistics) for describing the distribution of a quantitative variable.
Bayesian statistics
Bayesian updating with a priori discrete distributions
Introduction to Bayesian inference
Frequentist inference
Statistical hypothesis testing
Hypothesis testing for means and proportions
Confidence intervals
Comparison of frequentist and Bayesian inference