Methodology of Psychological Research

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: The course has as its objective to make the students capable of understanding numerous basic concepts, procedures and problems connected with conducting empirical research in most psychological disciplines and in that way create a conceptual basis for learning contents based on this kind of knowledge during further studies of psychology.

Course description: Presentation of the subject matter follows the chronological phases of empirical psychological research: preparation of the research, development of research design, data collection, data processing and interpretation of results and composing a report on the research. At the beginning, problems of preparation of the research are discussed and a large number of basic methodological concepts is introduced, for instance types and objects of research, methods of sample selection, classification of variables and their relations, types of data, problems of measurement, types of research control and other. Three basic groups of research designs are then presented, namely frequential, factorial and correlational design. Within each of three groups different designs are presented proceeding from the simple to more complex ones. Afterwards, basic forms of data processing, analysis and result interpretation are presented, separately for each of the three groups. Presentation dwells to a lesser extent on statistical formulae and calculations and more on conceptual analysis, formats of data presentation, interpretation of research outcomes and various possible result structures. At the end of the course the standard structure of written research report is described. During the course, a large number of (mostly simplified) illustrative examples of research is presented, including various fields of psychology: psychology of learning, perception, personality as well as developmental, educati

Learning Outcomes: Understanding the basic methodological concepts and procedures.

Literature/Reading:

• Dejan Todorović: Osnovi metodologije psiholoških istraživanja. Beograd, 1998 (str. 1-295).
• Stanislav Fajgelj: Metode istraživanja ponašanja. Beograd: Centar za primenjenu psihologiju, 2004. (str. 1-615).