How to Do Research

PART I: Before You Collect DataLAB

1: Finding a Topic, Finding Sources and Critical Reading of Literature Choose topic for literature review Finding appropriate sources Additional material:finding scholarly, archived data available onlineLAB

2: How to Write a Literature Review Elements of a review APA style Additional material:How to write agoodaLAB

3: After the Literature Review:Theory > Hypothesis > Design > Analysis > Results > Interpretation Flow of logic in research process Additional material:cultural considerations in researchLAB

4: Ethical Considerations Writing a Plagiarism Carrying out researchPART II: Collecting Data - Research Designs and ToolsLAB

5: Qualitative Designs a Coffee?Tea?Both? Brief description of several qualitative designs Focus Groups and introduce the concept of coding Additional material:Content analysis and Grounded TheoryLAB

6: Case Studies and Single-subject Designs Differences, uses Can be used analyze people, animals, nonliving individual units Additional material:issues relevant to epidemiology, such as prevalence, incidence, mortality, morbidity, sensitivity and specificityLAB

7: Survey Methodology (can be used for qualitative or quantitative design) Choosing the right tool Reporting psychometrics Additional material:generate survey items and test their reliabilityLAB

8: Descriptive and Inferential Statistics Overview of quantitative data analysis a descriptives as first stepLAB

9: Correlation What does an association measure Analysis and interpretation of correlation Additional material:controlling covariates, partial correlationsLAB

10: Regression Outcome and predictor variables Analyze and interpret regression Additional material:hierarchical regressionLAB

11: Two-Groups Use and interpretation of 2-group design (means or counts) t-tests Additional material:chi sq.LAB

12: Multiple-Groups ANOVA (brief mention of ANCOVA) Post hoc testing Additional material: coding categorical variables for regression, logistic regression, odds ratiosLAB

13: Factorial Multiple IVs Interactions Additional material:testing interactions in regression modelsPART III: After Collecting DataLAB

14: Discussing and Sharing Your Findings Elements of discussion section Posters and oral presentations (conferences for undergraduates) Additional material:The publication/submission processLAB

15: Creating Tables/Figures in SPSS How-to instructions Placement in manuscript, references in text Additional material:appendices, more complicated figures, supplemental material onlineLAB

16: What I Have Learned Reflect on new skills Lessons learned from doing research project Application of new skills/knowledge to other careers (i.e. non-researcher)