Welcome to
MPSY4184 Advanced Research Analysis 2 Module Outline 2024/25 September 2024 Intake
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. PROGRAMME 5
3. ASSESSMENT 7
4. READING AND RESOURCES 24
5. REFERENCING 25
1. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to MPSY4184 (15 Credits) Advanced Research Analysis 2. This module aims to consolidate your research abilities in both qualitative and quantitative methods, and equip you with the skills necessary to undertake Masters level research. You have one assessment, details of which can be found on Blackboard. You can find information about the teaching, assessment, and resources for this module within this outline.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students should be able to:
1. Retrieve and interpret specific knowledge concerning the selection of appropriate research methods appropriate to given problems in the field and laboratory.
2. Critique theoretical frameworks for understanding a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques.
3. Develop skills in communicating through the language and techniques of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
4. Apply a range of appropriate research methodologies to a number of different research results.
5. Communicate to an audience both the fundamental principles behind research methods, and the processes involved.
Module Team
Module Staff Contact
Dr Eric Cheng (Module Leader) Email: eric-cheng@live.com
Programme Team
Programme Staff Contact
Mr Michael Lee (for MSc Business Psychology)
Senior Programme Manager
The Hong Kong Management Association
Email: michaellee@hkma.org.hk Phone: 2774 8550
Mr Kai Kwong (for MSc Healthcare Management and Leadership)
Programme Manager
The Hong Kong Management Association
Email: kaikwong@hkma.org.hk Phone: 2774 8571
Ms Candy Cheung
Programme Coordinator – Programme Administration
The Hong Kong Management Association Ms Sana Fung
Programme Coordinator – Programme Administration
The Hong Kong Management Association
For MSc Business Psychology: Email: mscby.admin@hkma.org.hk Phone: 2774 8506 (Candy)
Phone: 2774 8556 (Sana)
Ms Candy Cheung
Programme Coordinator – Programme Administration
The Hong Kong Management Association
Ms Suki Tan
Programme Coordinator – Programme Administration
The Hong Kong Management Association
For MSc Healthcare Management and Leadership Email: mschc.admin@hkma.org.hk
Phone: 2774 8506 (Candy)
Phone: 2774 8553 (Suki)
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2. PROGRAMME
Indicative Content
The module provides you with an introduction to the research process:
• Choosing the research method; critical issues in designing research
• Validity & reliability
• Constructing questionnaires
• Interview schedules
• Attitude scales and using standardised questionnaires
• Conducting experiments
• Matching the method to the research question
MPSY4184 Timetable
Block 1
21st September 2024 – Dr Eric Cheng
Time Session
2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Research methods
Ethics
22nd September 2024 – Dr Eric Cheng
Time Session
9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Research in organisational settings
Building a research proposal
Interviews and focus groups
Qualitative methods & qualitative analysis
Qualitative analysis (TA)
Assignment discussion
Block 2
26th October 2024 – Dr Eric Cheng
Time Session
2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Introduction to quantitative methods and
analysis
Using Statistics to test hypotheses
Interpreting quantitative research
27th October 2024 – Dr Eric Cheng
Time Session
9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Questionnaire design
Basic parametric designs
Assessment preparation
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3. ASSESSMENT
Assessment Brief
Module Code and Module Name
MPSY4184 Advanced Research Analysis
Assessment Type and Weighting Analysis, 50%
Deadline On/before 21st November 2024 5:00 p.m. (Hong Kong Time) USING THE TURNITIN ASSESSMENT DROPBOX ON THE
MODULE BLACKBOARD
Word Limit 2,000 words
Module Leader
Dr Eric Cheng
Assessment Description
• You are provided with a set of transcripts to analyse
• Use Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phase approach to Thematic Analysis to analyse the transcripts.
• Make annotations and identify/label codes on the transcript (you can do this electronically or by hand – but please remember to include a copy of your annotated transcript in your final submission) to show the process by which you have identified main codes and then
themes.
Why this assessment?
This assessment has been chosen to help develop your skills and knowledge of research methods.
Required Sections
Present your work as a partial report including the following sections:
Title
• Develop a suitable title for your report based on your key findings.
Analysis
• Outline the approach you took to identifying codes and themes with consideration of quality in
qualitative research
Findings
• Include a summary of the main themes and sub-themes that you have identified (either in a short paragraph, figure or summary table to introduce this section).
• Describe each theme in detail, outlining preliminary interpretations of their meaning with
supporting quotations from the transcript.
• Provide links to literature to support your interpretations and note any reflections.
Summary
• Include a short summary of your key findings.
References
• Ensure that you include any references in APA format at the end (not included in word
count).
Appendices
• You must include an electronic/scanned copy of your annotated transcript and any other relevant material (not included in word count).
Advice for Success
Tips for success:
• Support for this assessment will be provided during teaching sessions and directed study with the module team. Please make the most of this support whilst completing your assessment
Students who have done a similar assessment before recommend that you…
• Make sure you plan time to work on your assessment. This includes allocating time for reading, writing, editing, and formatting.
Important information about your assessment
You must submit an individual report that is YOUR OWN WORK. It is essential that you abide by the University Regulations on Academic Honesty, and any form of cheating will be dealt with in accordance with the University Regulations: https://www.worcester.ac.uk/registryservices/681.htm
This module will be using Turnitin via the Blackboard module for assignment submission. Students will have the opportunity to view their own originality report, make amendments and re-submit up until the due date. Academic tutors will also be able to view the originality reports and occasionally they may be used as part of the process of investigation into suspected cases of academic misconduct.
To submit your work, go to the Blackboard site for this module and submit your work via the Turnitin submission portal under the ‘assessments’ section. Do not forget to click ‘Accept submission’ to save. You can also generate a receipt. You should always check that your work has been correctly uploaded following submission.
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT YOUR ELECTRONIC ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION:
• Assignments not submitted via Blackboard will not be accepted and a NS mark will be entered in such cases.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you up-load your assignment in good time before the deadline and to the correct drop-box or gateway.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you up-load the correct file with your assignment. Double copies of assignments will not be accepted and in such cases the first submission will be marked.
• Assignments submitted incorrectly (i.e.: in the wrong place, empty file, work simply pasted into a window on Blackboard) will not be marked and a NS grade will be entered.
• Assignments submitted after the deadline will be subject to the usual penalties for late submission.
• If you experience difficulties with the IT systems, please contact the ILS helpdesk tel@worc.ac.uk and NOT the module team.
• Mitigating circumstances citing reasons such as “Blackboard did not work” will not be
accepted unless ILS issues a formal notification of system failure on the relevant days.
• Please use Arial 12pt font and double space your work. Remember to use APA format for citations and references.
You must adhere to the word limit for the assessment. There will be a +10% margin, beyond which nothing will be marked. The word count refers to everything in the main body of the text. Everything before (ie abstract, acknowledgements, contents, executive summaries etc)
and after the main text (ie references, bibliographies, appendices etc) is NOT included in the
Assessment Brief
Module Code and Module Name
MPSY4184 Advanced Research Analysis
Assessment Type and
Weighting Proposal, 50%
Deadline On/before 9th January 2025 5:00 p.m. (Hong Kong Time) USING THE TURNITIN ASSESSMENT DROPBOX ON THE MODULE BLACKBOARD
Word Limit 2,000 words
Module Leader
Dr Eric Cheng
Assessment Description
For this assignment, you are required to develop a research proposal. This proposal will facilitate your learning of how to develop a specific proposal based on theory and evidence. It can likely also be the first stage of the development of your dissertation project proposal.
Why this assessment?
This assessment has been chosen to help develop your skills and knowledge of research methods.
Required Sections
1. Title of project.
This should be a concise statement of the main topic, identifying the
variables or theoretical concepts under investigation. E.g. “The relationship between
personality and team sport participation” or “The subjective experience of student stress during completion of an independent study”. (N.B these titles are for illustrative purposes only, you should not aim to reproduce these as proposals).
2. Rationale of project – Why are you proposing this project? (approx. 300 words)
Present a short summary paragraph outlining a manageable research project that could be completed in 6-12 months. You should include a justification of why it is useful or important to carry out this project. You can draw on topics or ideas you have covered so far in your degree and/or anticipate what you might do for a dissertation project. This section should be presented in the future tense as it is an outline of what you are going to do.
3. Background to the project – What exactly are you proposing to do? (approx. 1000 words) First, you should carry out a literature search to identify relevant sources of theory and evidence. Do use library support to ensure your search is thorough and well targeted.
Having carried out this search, you then need to present a brief review of theory and
evidence relevant to your initial idea (outlined above). This section might include reference to general textbooks to introduce concepts, but must also include reference to empirical research articles published in peer reviewed journals. You should use these articles to develop an argument for a clearly presented research question/hypothesis. This section should be presented in the past tense as it is a review of previous work.
4. Method Section – How are you going to do it? (approx. 500 words)
The proposed methodology should clearly outline an approach to testing the hypotheses/answering the research question(s) identified in your literature review. It should include detailed and specific information, including all of the sections that would normally appear in an APA format Method Section. Use the relevant sub-headings to present your approach. You may wish to consider:
• Design – Is it qualitative/quantitative, experimental, correlational, what are your variables?
• Participants – who will your recruit (and why), where from, what will your sample size be, what exactly will be required of participants?
• Materials/Apparatus – named questionnaires, interview questions, can you get access to questionnaires, how will you develop an interview?
• Procedure – how will you collect data – online/paper questionnaires, skills for interviewing/focus groups, consider order effects.
• Ethics – You should also include a discussion of ethical issues raised by your proposed project, how you might overcome these and limitations of your chosen approach.
This section should be presented in the future tense as it is an outline of what you are going to do.
5. Proposed Analysis (approx. 200 words)
The proposed analysis should be clearly outlined, referring clearly to your hypotheses or research question(s). This section should be presented in the future tense as it is an outline of what you are going to do.
• Quantitative data – what are your variables and what statistical tests will you run to test your hypotheses? E.g. t tests, correlations.
• Qualitative data – what analytical approaches will you use to answer your research question(s)? e.g. IPA, thematic analysis? Why is this suitable?
Important information about your assessment
You must submit an individual report that is YOUR OWN WORK. It is essential that you abide by the University Regulations on Academic Honesty, and any form of cheating will be dealt with in accordance with the University Regulations: https://www.worcester.ac.uk/registryservices/681.htm
This module will be using Turnitin via the Blackboard module for assignment submission. Students will have the opportunity to view their own originality report, make amendments and re-submit up until the due date. Academic tutors will also be able to view the originality reports and occasionally they may be used as part of the process of investigation into suspected cases of academic misconduct.
To submit your work, go to the Blackboard site for this module and submit your work via the Turnitin submission portal under the ‘assessments’ section. Do not forget to click ‘Accept submission’ to save. You can also generate a receipt. You should always check that your work has been correctly uploaded following submission.
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT YOUR ELECTRONIC ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION:
• Assignments not submitted via Blackboard will not be accepted and a NS mark will be entered in such cases.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you up-load your assignment in good time before the deadline and to the correct drop-box or gateway.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you up-load the correct file with your assignment. Double copies of assignments will not be accepted and in such cases the first submission will be marked.
• Assignments submitted incorrectly (i.e.: in the wrong place, empty file, work simply pasted into a window on Blackboard) will not be marked and a NS grade will be entered.
• Assignments submitted after the deadline will be subject to the usual penalties for late submission.
• If you experience difficulties with the IT systems, please contact the ILS helpdesk tel@worc.ac.uk and NOT the module team.
• Mitigating circumstances citing reasons such as “Blackboard did not work” will not be
accepted unless ILS issues a formal notification of system failure on the relevant days.
• Please use Arial 12pt font and double space your work. Remember to use APA format for citations and references.
You must adhere to the word limit for the assessment. There will be a +10% margin, beyond which nothing will be marked. The word count refers to everything in the main body of the text. Everything before (ie abstract, acknowledgements, contents, executive summaries etc) and after the main text (ie references, bibliographies, appendices etc) is
NOT included in the word count limit. Tables in the main body of the assignment are
GENERIC GRADE DESCRIPTOR – LEVEL 7
CRITERIA GRADE A GRADE B GRADE C GRADE D GRADE F GRADE G
Relevance (relationship to the assessment criteria)
Does the work answer the question set to show attainment of the learning outcomes? Exceptional response to all the assessment criteria for the task Very strong response to the assessment criteria for the task Good thorough response to assessment criteria for the task Sufficient response to assessment criteria for the task Weak response to main assessment criteria for the task Very poor response to main assessment criteria for the task
Advanced Knowledge and understanding Exceptional systematic mastery of advanced knowledge, principles and concepts in area of study, together with very strong independent critical and evaluative understanding of current issues and insight at the forefront of the discipline Highly developed systematic advanced knowledge and critical understanding of area of study, including independent critical awareness of current issues and insights at the forefront of the discipline Good systematic advanced knowledge and understanding of area of study including awareness of current issues and insights at the forefront of the discipline Adequate sound advanced knowledge and understanding of the area of study, some of which is informed by developments at the forefront of the discipline Limited advanced knowledge and understanding of area of study Very limited advanced knowledge and understanding of area of study
Analysis (Critical analysis)
Does the work provide evidence of conceptual understanding, applied analytical interpretation and evaluation? Goes well beyond what is taught in insightful, advanced study/research, to develop original critical analysis and evaluation that shows exceptional initiative and an authoritative independent grasp of issues Evidence of systematic breadth and depth of critically appraised and insightful advanced study/ research to develop independent original critical analysis and evaluation Evidence of systematic breadth and depth of independent engagement with advanced study and research to develop relevant critical analysis to inform good response to task Evidence of independent engagement with advanced research and study to inform satisfactory response to task, but limited in range and depth of critical analysis Insufficient evidence of independent engagement with advanced research and study and/or of relevant current academic references Significantly inadequate evidence of independent engagement with advanced research and study
Understanding of techniques of enquiry Exceptional ability in accomplished and innovative application of comprehensive critical and practical understanding of techniques of enquiry to provide original solutions to complex problems in the field of study Well developed competent critical and practical self- directed application of techniques of enquiry to provide original solutions to complex problems in the field of study Comprehensive critical and practical understanding of techniques of enquiry and independent application to research/advanced scholarship in field of study Comprehensive critical and practical understanding of techniques of enquiry and application to research/advanced scholarship in field of study Evidence of critical and practical understanding of techniques of enquiry for area of study has significant gaps or flaws resulting in limited ability to critique advanced scholarship in field Evidence of critical and practical understanding of techniques of enquiry for area of study is significantly lacking
Quality of argument (Argument/ Communication)-
Is the work presented logically, with themes and links made between sources of theory and evidence? Exceptional skills in constructing academic arguments and communicating complex ideas/ viewpoints/ information/ evidence to advance knowledge and understanding Very well developed communication/ presentation of complex ideas/ viewpoints/ information/ evidence to sustain scholarly arguments that advance understanding Effective logical and coherent communication/ presentation of complex ideas/ viewpoints/ information/ evidence to sustain informed arguments Competent logical and coherent communication/ presentation of complex ideas/ viewpoints/ information/ evidence to sustain argument with some weaknesses, eg in structure, coherence or currency, but generally sound if standard judgement Argument/ explanation is weak/poorly constructed, unsubstantiated, or significantly lacking in coherence or validity Little evidence of an independently constructed argument with appropriate supporting analysis or evidence
Evaluation & Conclusion (Skills development)
How well is the information evaluated & is there a conclusion? Exceptional demonstration at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills
The work shows that different and complex views have been discussed, leading to a justified, independent conclusion/s based on an evaluation of the evidence.
Relationships between knowledge derived from different
contexts are Capable and effective application at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills
The work shows that different and complex views in the information have mostly been evaluated to reach a coherent conclusion/s. Consistent and effective application at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills
The work shows some recognition of the complexity of academic debate and conflicting views in the information have, in general, been discussed and some conclusion/s drawn. Effective demonstration at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills
The work shows limited recognition of the complexity of academic debate. Conflicting views in the information are presented in a simplified unevaluated way. Any conclusion/s are limited. Insufficient evidence of demonstration at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills Very limited evidence of demonstration at a professional level of competency in relevant evaluation skills
demonstrated as appropriate (e.g. information from different modules)
Format and style (Skills development)
Is the format and style in line with subject conventions? E.g., APA for Psychology Exceptional demonstration of format and style
An appropriate format and style including language, layout and referencing has been consistently applied. Capable and effective demonstration of format and style
An appropriate format and style including language, layout and referencing has been mostly applied. Consistent and effective demonstration of format and style
An appropriate format and style including language, layout and referencing has been partially applied. Effective demonstration of format and style
An appropriate format and style including language, layout and referencing is apparent in places Insufficient demonstration of format and style
The work has an inappropriate format and style Very limited demonstration of format and style
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4. READING AND RESOURCES
Recommended Textbook:
Introduction to qualitative methods in psychology by Dennis Howitt – 2016 (VIEW ONLINE through Blackboard)
Research methods and statistics in psychology by Hugh Coolican – 2018 (VIEW ONLINE through Blackboard)
Further Reading: Please refer to the list of further reading on Blackboard.
The resource list for this module can be accessed at:
http://resourcelists.worc.ac.uk/search.html?q=MPSY4184
Further resources are available via the Library resource pages (https://library.worc.ac.uk/subject- guides/sp)
All of the learning resources for this module can be found on Blackboard. This will include large group workshop materials/slides, seminar information, directed study and other relevant resources to accompany your sessions. Guidance for what reading and directed study to complete and when to complete them will be provided on Blackboard. You will also be given further activities and reading to complete within your sessions.
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5. REFERENCING
The latest guidance and policy relating to referencing at the University of Worcester is available at http://library.worc.ac.uk/guides/study-skills/referencing.
Students studying this module are advised to use the APA style of referencing.
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6. LIBRARY AND IT SERVICES
You might also find the University Hive Library page useful. Here you will find out information about how to search for and evaluate academic literature and APA referencing guides: https://library.worc.ac.uk/sp-subject-guide/psychologyFor information and support on accessing the Library facilities see:
Library Services http://library.worc.ac.uk
For guidance on using Blackboard and Turnitin, you will find these useful: https://uwtel.co.uk/
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