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This course trains students to conduct research in psychology and other social sciences and education through an integrated approach (measurement, design, and analysis). This course includes psychological/educational measurement, major research design considerations, and both quantitative and qualitative methods, but with the emphasis on quantitative approaches including sampling, design, formulating and testing hypotheses and research questions, and the research validity issues involved in these and other research processes.
This book aims to provide an approach to learning and teaching research methods in the psychological field. Jackson stresses on the importance to of using the scientific method, which is a combination of empiricism and rationalism, to gain knowledge in psychology. She discusses three categories of research methods used by psychologists: descriptive methods, predictive methods, and the explanatory method, and she devote one chapter for each to further expand on these methods. Jackson also introduces the method to start a research project and the APA’s ethical principles. Other topics include variables, describing data and making inferences to understand results, and APA communication guidelines.
