Statistics Applied to Psychology I

Code:

LP106

Acronym:

EAP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Statistics

Instance: 2004/2005 - A

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Psychology Degree

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LPSI	181	Plano oficial a partir de 2001/02	1	6	13	-

Objectives

1.To acquire specific vocabulary and to use statistical language, which is fundamental to read scientific literature and to write research reports.
2.To know rigorous scientific research procedures and to be aware of statistics role in the different phases of scientific research process
3.To understand and apply basic concepts of descriptive statistics and simple methods of inferential statistics- being able to select the most appropriate statistical procedure and to interpret results.
4.To be able to use a statistical computer program

Program

I. Course introduction and basic concepts of statistics
1.The process of scientific investigation – The role of Mathematical Statistics; 2.Variables’ classification systems 3.Population and samples.

II.Descriptive statistics
1. Organizing raw data; 2. Graphical data representations; 3. Measures of central tendency; 4. Measures of Variability; 5.Measuring the shape of a distribution: asymmetry and kurtosis coefficients.

III. Basic concepts of probability
1. The concept of probability 2. The concept of probability distributions: empirical and theoretical probability distributions 3 Examples of theoretical probability distributions: The Normal distribution

IV. Relationship between variables
1. The concept of bivariate data 2. The concept of relationship between variables and its graphical representation – the scatter plot 3. The concept of linear correlation. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) 4. Correlation and causality 5. The coefficient of determination (r2) 6. The concept of linear regression 7.The regression line concept according to the principle of least squares 8. The regression equations and regression coefficients 9. Standardized regression coefficients 10. The properties of the Bivariate Normal Distribution 11.The concept of error of prediction and the standard error of estimate 12. Prediction intervals 13. Special correlation coefficients: Pearson phi, Sperman rank and Kendall tau correlation coefficients

V. Inferential statistics
1.Basic and introductory concepts of estimation theory
1.1.The concept of estimator. 1.2. Estimator properties 1.3. The concept of sampling distribution 1.4. Methods for parameters’ estimation 1.5. Sampling distribution characteristics, definition and determination of confidence intervals: mean, proportion, standard deviation and correlation coefficient
2.Theory of null statistics hypothesis test (NHST)
2.1.The concept of hypothesis test and statistical significance 2.2. The concept of null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis 2.3. The concept of directional (one-tail) and bi-directional (two-tail) tests 2.4. The concept of decision errors: the Type I and Type II errors 2.5. Sampling distribution characteristics of the difference of means2.6. Sampling distribution characteristics of the difference of variances 2.7. Analysing correlation coefficients differences 3. The concept of non-parametric (distribution free) tests: The chi-square goodness-of-fit and independence tests

Main Bibliography

Howell, D. C. (1992). Statistical methods for psychology. Boston: PWS-Kent Pub.Co.
Ferguson, G.A, & Takane, Y (1989) Statistical analysis in psychology and education. New York; Tokyo: MacGraw-Hill.
Diamantopoulos, A. & Schlegelmich, B.B. (1997) Taking the fear out of Data Analysis. London: The Dryden Press.
Moore, D. S. (1997). Statistics: concepts and controversies. New York: Freeman.
Black, T.R. (1999) Doing quantitative research in the social sciences: an integrated approach to research design, measurement and statistics. London: Sage Publications.
SPSS for Windows: Base System User's Guide. Release 10 (1999).

Teaching methods and learning activities

Theoretical and pratical classes.

Software

SPSS_Statistical Package for Social Sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Eligibility for exams

In order to be approved students must attend at least 75% of total number of practical classes and obtain a final result > or = 10.