Not available in 2019/20
PB311      Half Unit
Advanced Quantitative Methods for Psychological and Behavioural Science

This information is for the 2019/20 session.

Teacher responsible

TBC

Availability

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Psychological and Behavioural Science. This course is not available as an outside option nor to General Course students.

Pre-requisites

Students must have completed Intermediate Quantitative Methods for Psychological and Behavioural Science (PB211).

Course content

This course introduces students to various advanced statistical techniques to analyse psychological data. This course is designed to build advanced knowledge on top of topics already learned in years 1 and 2, as well as to introduce additional topics of particular interest to students of psychometric methods. The course will cover:

• Event count and survival models;

• multi-level models; 

• simulation methods for estimating uncertainty or fitting model parameters;

• principal components and factor analysis for discovering underlying structures from complex multidimensional datasets;

• basic latent class models; and

• the concepts, estimation, and interpretation of basic Item Response Theory models, from Rasch models to the two-parameter logistic model.

Practical sessions will equip students with knowledge of how to conduct the taught statistical techniques using the R programming language.

Teaching

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of computer workshops in the MT.

Formative coursework

Students will be expected to produce 5 problem sets in the MT.

Indicative reading

Bartholomew, J. Steele, F., Moustaki, I.; Galbraith, J. I. (2008). Analysis of Multivariate Social Science Data (2nd ed.)

Agresti, A. & Franklin, C. (2009). Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data.

McElreath, R. (2016). Statistical rethinking: A Bayesian course with examples in R and Stan (Vol. 122). CRC Press.

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using Multivariate Statistics. 5th edition. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Assessment

Exam (60%, duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Presentation (40%) in the MT.

Further details for the summative assessment:

The exam is an unseen, open-book examination. 

40% of the overall mark will be a presentation (using written and oral methods) of one advanced quantitative analysis technique in 'teaching style'.

Key facts

Department: Psychological and Behavioural Science

Total students 2018/19: Unavailable

Average class size 2018/19: Unavailable

Capped 2018/19: No

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Team working
  • Problem solving
  • Application of information skills
  • Communication
  • Application of numeracy skills
  • Commercial awareness
  • Specialist skills