2026-2027 Academic Catalog

Mar 20, 2026

2026-2027 Academic Catalog

PSYC 108 - Quantitative Methods in Psychology

This course allows you to play with ideas and explore issues you care about, creating critical knowledge that can be used to change society for the better through learning the basics of quantitative research in Psychology (and many other fields that use similar methods). You will learn to read and understand psychological research in journal articles and as reported in more popular sources, and to critically evaluate the claims that are made about research in areas such as climate change, public health, and other social issues. You will also learn to conduct your own experiment through all steps of the research process, from thinking about the research question and developing hypotheses to designing a study, collecting data online, and analyzing/writing up the results. Many of these skills are transferable to other fields and professions, so even if you are not planning on becoming a researcher you will be able to use what you learn in this course in the future.

In addition, you will be introduced to statistics. This course will provide an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics, and their application to psychological and social science research. The course will cover types of variables, summary statistics, variability, probability, samples, hypothesis testing, and effect size. You will apply your statistical learning to the experiment you conduct as part of the course. You will also learn to use SPSS statistical software to analyze your data and how to report your results.

Discussion attendance required.

Prerequisites for this course require a grade of C- or better

Prerequisites: PSYC 101

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every semester