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PSY-40101 - Module Specification
School of Psychology
Faculty of Natural Sciences

For academic year: 2023/24 Last Updated: 13 February 2024

PSY-40101 - Applications and Research Methods in Child Psychology
Coordinator: Lucy James Room: DH0.33 Tel: +44 1782 7 34263
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 7
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office: 01782 733736

Programme/Approved Electives for 2023/24

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2023/24

How children think, from infancy to adolescence, can be different to how adults think; when conducting research with babies, children and young people our research methods must reflect this. You will be introduced to a broad selection of age-appropriate data collection methods and analyses (qualitative and quantitative). This module is very practically orientated, the focus is more about when and how to use data collection methods and you will have opportunities to ¿play¿ with collecting and analysing data. Babies, children and young people are a vulnerable group, so this module will also ask you to consider ethical and practical challenges when working with this population. For example, how can we monitor infant perception, and observe their behaviour? How can we study young children through play activities? How can we gamify reaction time experiments for adolescents? Finally, its important our research has impact so you will also be exposed to variety of ways this can happen.

Aims
This module aims to equip students with knowledge of advanced research methods plus ethical and practical considerations when conducting research with children and young people. It also provides insights into how to leverage psychological theories in authentic settings when working with children and young people (e.g., in schools).

Intended Learning Outcomes

evaluate ethical and practical concerns when conducting research with children and young people: 1
design research using data collection methods appropriate for use with children and young people: 1
identify appropriate analyses for complex data when working with children and young people: 1
design pathways to impact for research with children and young people: 1

Study hours

Teaching sessions - 22 hours
Asynchronous learning - 10 hours
Reading for, preparing and writing extended pre-registration - 118 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Research Proposal weighted 100%
Extended pre-registration
Students will be asked to design a study with a target population of children and/or young people which addresses a novel research question (a list of questions will be provided). They will be required to produce a pre-registration of the study using an adapted Open Science Framework Pre-Registration template, including hypotheses/research questions, data collection methods, and analysis. This must include with justifications for their chosen methods and analysis, and potential alternative methods and analysis they discounted and why they were not employed. Additionally, students will also produce an overview of the ethical and practical considerations in the study and how they will overcome them, and how they will generate impact from their research. (Total max 4,000 words ¿ approximately 3,000 words pre-registration, 1,000 words overview)

Please note that for the 2022/23 Academic Year programmes may be adapted to operate in accordance with a flexible, digital approach. This means that there may be some changes made to how modules are delivered and assessed. The latest information will be provided to you by your School in module handbooks. We endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes and details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/student-terms-and-conditions/

Last Updated: 13 February 2024