General Information

For this assignment, the class will participate in a simple research project which you will write up as a research report with the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion and References.

In order to successfully complete this assignment, you will need to

• conduct a literature review of approximately ten peer-reviewed relevant journal articles;
• integrate and critically evaluate the evidence in the articles, leading logically to the research hypotheses
• obtain descriptive statistics and conduct inferential tests using SPSS
• correctly report the results of the analyses and critically interpret the results, leading to your own claims about your results
• point out the significance of your research for psychological theory, practice, and/or policy
• cite references in text and compile a References list according to APA guidelines

I encourage you to work in small groups at the following stages: finding references and developing skills at critiquing the evidence in the early weeks, conducting the statistical analyses and discussing the results of your analyses in the weeks before the report is due. However, each student must write their own reports and I would expect everyone’s report to be substantially different, except for the Method and Results sections which will necessarily be similar.

There is an expectation that you will conform to the latest APA (American Psychological Association) referencing style. Please see links to guides and resources on the course home page.

You will be marked on how well you have addressed the following criteria: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References, neatness and

correction of presentation, and writing style (structure, flow and logical presentation of the arguments).

Your Draft Introduction and complete Research Report NEED to be submitted on the relevant templates, which are available on the course homepage.

As learning to write an APA style research report is a difficult task, you will complete submit a draft of your Introduction, receive a grade and feedback on the draft, complete the SPSS analyses to write the Method and Results sections in class, and then interpret the results, write and submit the complete report.

Requests for extensions must be submitted at least three days prior to the assignment due date. All applications for extension must be made via the Extension request link on the course home page and include supporting documentation (e.g., medical certificate, letter from counsellor) along with a copy of your incomplete assessment. Students will be notified whether or not the extension has been granted (and the new submission date where appropriate). An assignment handed in after the due date for which an extension has not been granted will lose 5% per working day. Assignments will not normally be accepted once marked assignments have been returned to the class (and if accepted will receive a maximum mark of 50%).

Note that if your submitted assignment file is corrupted you will be required to resubmit your assignment. The date on which a readable file is submitted will be deemed to be the date of submission. If this is after the due date a late penalty of 5% per working day will be applied to the assignment. It is your responsibility to ensure that the assignment file you submit is not corrupted.

Topic specific information

We’re going to be looking at how undergraduate Psychology students feel about studying statistics – a topic I know will be close to your hearts! Specifically, we’re interested in different types of students differ in how they feel about statistics. For example, how traditional (under 22) and non-traditional (22 and over – considered independent of their parents for the purposes of Youth Allowance) students might differ in how they feel about statistics, OR Males and Females differ in how they feel about statistics, OR how students with low previous math experiences versus high previous math experience feel about statistics. To this end I asked you to complete the Survey in Learning Activity 1.1 – First steps. The questionnaire contained the following questions & scales:

• Text comment about course expectations
• Statistics Anxiety Scale
• Attitude to Learning Statistics Scale
• Demographic information
  • Age
    • In years
  • Gender
    • Male
    • Female
    • Other
  • Highest level of Maths studied prior to this course
    • Less than Year 12 Secondary School
    • Year 12 Secondary School
    • Higher Education (eg University)