Behavioral research methods 1: designing research

This course teaches how to design behavioral research. The course provides an introduction to the complete cycle of empirical psychological research. The cycle starts with a research question. For instance, how do users experience a built environment? Or what is the effect of the accuracy of a recommender system on trust in that system? The course teaches you to design psychological research to collect data to answer such questions. The course emphasizes a “learning by doing” approach to allow you to apply knowledge to real research problems. The first assignment involves designing and implementing a qualitative interview study, including interview training under the supervision of a professional coach. The second assignment consists of tackling a real-world problem using quantitative research.

• The student can recall scientific approaches to knowledge

• The student can memorize the basic components of theories: assumptions, definitions, variables, hypothetical constructs, propositions, and hypotheses

• The student can discuss quantitative and qualitative research approaches and understand their applicability to different research questions.

• The student can memorize basic behavioral research strategies: experiment, case study, survey, interview, and the use of existing data sources, and understand the strengths and limitations of each design.

• The student can discuss the ethical issues involved in research and practice ethical research standards

• The student can construct a research question that conforms to scientific standards

• The student can conduct a professional qualitative interview

• The student can memorize the reliability and validity of measurements

• The student can select a research strategy for a given (self-formulated) research question and explain their choice.

Skills
The student can work (under supervision) with other students in a team for an extended period of time.
The student can find and evaluate various sources of information relevant to the assignments and adequately refer to them.
If necessary, the student can reflect on their role and contribution to a project team, attuning one or both.

You must meet the following requirements

• Registered for a degree programme other than
• HBO-TOP Applied Physics, Pre-Master
• Industrial Engineering
• Completed none of the course modules listed below
• Homologation course BRM (0HPH050)
• Methodology for IE research (1ZV00)
• BRM 1 premaster (0HP00)
• Methodology for IE research (1ZV60)
• Statistiek (2DD70)
• Statistics for IE (2DD80)
• Research and statistics (7U9X0)
• Data Statistics (JBM010)
• Data Science research methods (JBM020)