Course Syllabus
Learning area
Research methods in experimental psychological sciences
Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
- Defining intervention in psychology
- Designing interventions and identifying their implications (e.g., ethics, risks, golden standards, sampling)
- Assess the quality of interventions (quantitative and qualitative methods)
- Analyzing costs and benefits of interventions
Applying knowledge and understanding
- Development of an intervention project
- Critical evaluation of interventions (theoretical and methodological implications)
Making judgment
- Critical and judgment skills will be stimulated through the development of a group project.
- Students will develop the ability to design an intervention project, selecting appropriate tools to carry out the project and evaluate its effectiveness according to recent literature.
Communication Skills
- Through group work, students will learn to present research ideas and collaborate effectively in English within teams.
- Students will also practice communicating research findings clearly to both expert and non-expert audiences, using appropriate disciplinary language, when writing the project and during the final presentation of the group work.
Learning Skills
- Students will learn how to search and critically review scientific literature to support the development of new research and intervention ideas.
- Students will develop the ability to stay updated on new tools and methods to support their intervention projects
Contents
The laboratory aims to provide the theoretical, methodological and practical bases to design and evaluate a psychological intervention in different fields of psychological application. Students will be provided with a general framework of the elements that constitute typical interventions in different psychological areas.
Students will have the opportunity to practice their knowledge and to design intervention on a domain of their interest.
Detailed program
- Defining intervention in psychology
- Gold standards of interventions
- Assessing interventions’ efficacy: Quantitative and qualitative methods
- Nudge and Decisional Psychology
- Sampling: sampling strategies, sample size and effect size determination
- Power analysis
- Risk Analysis
- From pilot to large scale: defining costs and benefits of the interventions
- Elements and pitfalls of costs/benefits analysis
Prerequisites
Good knowledge of the research methods employed in psychological research enables a more aware learning.
Teaching methods
Teaching will mostly consist of interactive classwork, including individual and group assignments, but will also include a few lecture-based lessons.
The laboratory will be in presence. Attendance is mandatory for at least 70% of the classes. Failure to meet this minimum attendance requirement may result in not passing the course.
Assessment methods
The course will be assessed on a pass/fail basis only. There is no final exam; evaluation will be based on active participation and any assignments or activities carried out during the course.
Learning will be assessed through project work. Students will complete the project work in small groups (3-5 people per group), each one developing a psychological intervention project on a specific topic of their choice.
The projects will be discussed in the final lesson of the laboratory.
Textbooks and Reading Materials
The bibliography (references, lecture slides, and additional material) will be provided at the beginning of the course and made available on the course website.
