Survey Research and Design in Psychology (7126.4)

Please note these are the 2026 details for this unit
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Survey Research and Design in Psychology
Available teaching periods Delivery mode Location
View teaching periods On-campus
Online real-time
 Bruce, Canberra
EFTSL Credit points Faculty
0.125 3 Faculty Of Health
Discipline Study level HECS Bands
Discipline Of Psychology Level 3 - Undergraduate Advanced Unit Band 1 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan 2021)
Band 1 2021 (Commenced Before 1 Jan 2021)
This unit develops knowledge and skills for conducting ethical, well-designed, survey-based research in psychology. Theory and practice of survey-based research is covered, including how to ask a research question, survey design, sampling, data entry, correlational multivariate statistical analysis, and interpreting and communicating results.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Design, conduct and critique survey-based research in psychology;
2. Conduct and interpret correlational multivariate statistical data analysis, including reliability, factor analysis, and multiple linear regression; and
3. Communicate the results of survey-based psychological research in writing.


Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
1. UC graduates are professional - take pride in their professional and personal integrity


Prerequisites

Must have passed or be enrolled in 7118 Experimental Psychology.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.
Availability for enrolment in 2026 is subject to change and may not be confirmed until closer to the teaching start date.
Year Location Teaching period Teaching start date Delivery mode Unit convener
2025 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 03 February 2025 On-campus Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
2025 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 03 February 2025 Online real-time Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
2026 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 16 February 2026 Online real-time Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
2026 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 16 February 2026 On-campus Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
The information provided should be used as a guide only. Timetables may not be finalised until week 2 of the teaching period and are subject to change. Search for the unit timetable.

Required texts

There are no required textbooks for this unit. However, in this unit, I will post chapters for you to read from various statistics textbooks. These will be available to read via your Reading List on UCLearn, and are recommended for you to read.

For help understanding the statistics program we will use, you may find the free jamovi manual useful:

If you would like further reading about topics covered in this unit, you may find the following textbooks helpful, however you are not expected to buy these:

  • Haslam, A., & McGarty, C. (2018). Research methods and statistics in psychology (3rd ed.). London: SAGE. 
  • Burton, L., Goodwin, C. J., Goodwin, K. A., & Jose, P. (2018). Psychology research methods. Queensland: Wiley.
  • Field, A., Miles, J., & Field, Z. (2012). Discovering statistics using R. Sage publications.

You may wish to get an APA style guide to assist you with the preparation of your lab report. The recommended text is:

  • American Psychological Association (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Alternative texts that explain how to write a psychology lab report in APA style may also be useful. For example:

  • Burton, L. J. (2017). An interactive approach to writing essays and research reports in psychology (4th ed.). Milton, Qld, Australia: John Wiley & Sons.

The recommended textbooks are available in the UC library. 

Submission of assessment items

Extensions & Late submissions

Students are expected to work on the assessment items throughout semester. Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances. Early communication of problems is strongly advised. Students should assess within the first few weeks of semester whether they have a reasonable likelihood of being able to complete the unit and should consider withdrawing by the census date if they are not keeping up.

Please note that extensions will not be granted for:

  1. Workload (e.g., study load and/or paid or voluntary workload) - such problems should be anticipated and withdrawal from the unit is recommended if workload is a problem.
  2. Technical problems (e.g., lost/corrupted/damaged storage media, software/internet access problems, and viruses) - it is strongly recommended that you keep multiple and regular backups of your notes, lab report drafts, data, syntax, and output files.
  3. Undocumented issues.

Submit extension requests via email to the unit convener from your UC student email address and include:

  1. Your first and last name
  2. Which assessment item(s) an extension is requested for
  3. Length of extension requested
  4. A completed University of Canberra Assignment Extension form. 

use of genAI

This unit allows the use of genAI (e.g., Microsoft Copilot) for the lab report (and only the lab report). AI may not be used for any of the other assessment pieces. 
 
Note that AI is not a panacea for all your assessment problems. It is not always correct, and quite often ‘hallucinates’. Here is an example of why you should not blindly trust AI ( https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2023/australian-academics-caught-in-generative-ai-scandal.html). 
 
The use of genAI in the lab-report is allowed for the following purposes, and under the following conditions:
 
You may use AI for these purposes:
  • Ideas generation (e.g. for the introduction)
  • Help with rephrasing (but do not copy/paste whole sentence/paragraphs directly from AI)
  • Improve writing, using spelling checks and grammar.
  • Summarise research (but do not copy paste text into any part of the lab-report, as it is not your own work. Instead think about it, add to it, remove unnecessary bits, etc. Make it your own). Also, it may not be correct. Always read the original articles, and check that what is said is indeed correct.
 
Provided that you follow this condition:
  • Use of AI is properly acknowledged (see here how to do that)
 
You may NOT use AI for the following purposes:
  • Generation of references/citations
  • Data analysis
Note that these restrictions are in place because AI still struggles to do these correctly, but also because you would not meet the learning outcomes of the unit, if you were to use AI for these purposes.
 
Which (gen)AI to use?
The recommended genAI for the lab-report is Microsoft Copilot, when signed in as a UC student. This is because it is a closed system, meaning that your prompts will not be used by Microsoft to train their AI outside of UC. Note that I, as the unit convenor, nor, I believe, anyone in the university, will have access to what you put into Microsoft Copilot. I cannot stop you from using, e.g., ChatGPT, but note that the owners of ChatGPT may use your work (your IP) to train their systems, and give it to anyone who uses their products. 
 
Background information and training
AI is possibly still relatively new to you, at least in academic settings.  Here is important background information and training for you.
TEQSA has some general information for students on the use of genAI:  https://www.teqsa.gov.au/students/artificial-intelligence-advice-students
Our very own Dr Ananthan Ambikairajah has a brief “course” on how optimally use AI. You may want to watch these videos, to get the best out of AI for the lab-report:  https://ananthanambikairajah.com/teaching/
UC has also some information on the use of AI:  https://canberra.libguides.com/genai
 

Students must apply academic integrity in their learning and research activities at UC. This includes submitting authentic and original work for assessments and properly acknowledging any sources used.

Academic integrity involves the ethical, honest and responsible use, creation and sharing of information. It is critical to the quality of higher education. Our academic integrity values are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

UC students have to complete the Academic Integrity Module annually to learn about academic integrity and to understand the consequences of academic integrity breaches (or academic misconduct).

UC uses various strategies and systems, including detection software, to identify potential breaches of academic integrity. Suspected breaches may be investigated, and action can be taken when misconduct is found to have occurred.

Information is provided in the Academic Integrity Policy, Academic Integrity Procedure, and University of Canberra (Student Conduct) Rules 2023. For further advice, visit Study Skills.

Participation requirements

Engagement with lectures and tutorials is strongly recommended. Lectures will help students develop their knowledge of the material which will be required to complete the assessment tasks. Tutorials develop hands-on data analysis skills, which are also closely related to the assessment tasks.

Required IT skills

A moderate level of expertise in using word-processing and spreadsheet software is required.

Previous introductory experience using data analysis software is expected, though you are not expected to be familiar with jamovi before entering the unit.

In-unit costs

Buying a textbook is not required, as readings for each topic will be made available for you to access via your UCLearn Reading List or the UC library. 

Work placement, internships or practicums

None

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