Foundations of Psychological Research

This unit introduces core concepts, methods, and ethical principles of psychological research used in agricultural leadership, research, and communications. Students will build foundational skills in research design, measurement, sampling, validity, qualitative methods, and APA-style communication to prepare for project development and data analysis in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the purpose and key components of empirical research by comparing experimental, survey, and qualitative designs and assessing threats to internal and external validity.
• Evaluate ethical issues and apply professional standards to resolve participant protection, consent, and harm-minimization scenarios in research planning.
• Apply principles of sampling, measurement, and survey design to create and justify a valid data-collection plan, including decisions about randomisation, sample size, and reliability.
• Demonstrate effective research communication by composing appropriate research titles, following APA formatting for citations/structure, and deciding when to use literature reviews versus alternative presentation formats.