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| Introduction | |
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| 'Why do I have to do this?' | |
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| the structure of this book and an overview of the chapters | |
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| how to use this book | |
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| Research in Psychology: Objectives and Ideals | |
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| What is psychological research and why do it? | |
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| how does psychological research progress? | |
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| principles of good research | |
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| some notes of caution | |
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| Research Methods | |
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| Psychological measurement | |
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| the experimental method | |
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| the quasi-experimental method | |
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| the survey method | |
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| the case study method | |
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| overview | |
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| Experimental Design | |
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| Choosing an independent variable | |
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| choosing a dependent variable | |
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| choosing an experimental sample | |
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| threats to internal validity | |
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| threats to external validity | |
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| Survey Design | |
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| The differences between surveys and experiments | |
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| setting the question | |
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| finding a sample | |
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| types of survey | |
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| overview: designing a survey | |
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| Descriptive Statistics | |
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| Different forms of research data | |
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| describing a typical score: measures of central tendency | |
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| the relationship between measures of central tendency and a response distribution | |
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| describing the spread of scores: measures of dispersion | |
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| observed distributions | |
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| Some Principles of Statistical Inference | |
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| Statistical inference | |
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| inferences about individual scores | |
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| inferences about means | |
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| overview | |
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| Examining Differences between Means: The t-test | |
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| Student's t-distribution | |
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| comparing the results for a single sample to a specific value | |
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| within-subjects t-tests | |
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| between-subjects t-tests | |
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| the controversy about what to do with t-values | |
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| handling the results of t-te | |
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| Examining Relationships between Variables: Correlation | |
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| Some basic principles of correlation | |
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| the measurement of correlation | |
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| interpreting and making inferences about correlations | |
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| some notes of caution | |
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| conclusion | |
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| Research Ethics | |
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| Science and society | |
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| participation in research | |
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| research with animals | |
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| final comment | |
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| Conclusion: Managing Uncertainty in Psychological Research | |
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| 'Where has all this got us?' | |
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| managing uncertainty in psychological research | |
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| final comment | |
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| Appendices: Step-by-step guides to computing t-tests and correlations | |
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| statistical tables | |