Undergraduate - UnitAZA4440 - Psychology research project

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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24 points, SCA Band 1, 0.500 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	South Africa Full year 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Maria Damianova

Synopsis

The aim of the unit is to enhance students' research competencies and to promote an in-depth understanding of a particular area of interest. By incorporating three distinct but interdependent modules: Research Design and Analysis (RDA); Research Ethics and Research Project, this unit will promote an integrated approach to advancing students' research competencies.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

Apply the fundamental principles, methods and techniques necessary to carry out sound research design and analysis.
Appreciate the ethical codes and principles of conducting research in the South African context and globally.
Critique, interpret, systematise and integrate theoretical analyses and empirical findings and present them in a cohesive written review.
Conceptualise a topic against the backdrop of relevant theoretical formulations and extant research findings.

Assessment

Ethics presentation on the learner's research topic: 10%
Rda test: 10%
Research proposal: 10%
Research report: 70%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Maria Damianova

Workload requirements

24 hours per week will be assigned to activities related to the research project and these will vary across the course of the unit in accordance with the progress of the research. Formal contact hours will incorporate 2 to 3 seminars on Research Ethics; 12 hours instruction in RDA and regular meetings with the research supervisor(s). A significant part of the students' time will be spent in the conceptualisation of the research topic, design and implementation of the research, data collection and analyses. The remainder of the time would be spent in library searches, reading and preparation of the research paper and presentation material.

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Psychology

Prerequisites

Students must have completed successfully a Bachelor degree with Psychology Major, and have achieved an average grade of minimum of 70% in core psychology units at the third year level.

Co-requisites

AZA4430, AZA4420, AZA4445, AZA4480