Undergraduate Research Experience through the Analysis of Data Sets in Psychology Courses

Abstract

A method for involving large numbers of introductory psychology students as active researchers is described and evaluated. Students are assigned a project requiring them to develop research questions and to answer those questions by means of a computerized analysis of previously collected data. Results of a study of the project's effects on attitudes toward research in psychology indicate that students reported valuing research more, understanding statistical procedures better, and feeling less anxious about statistics and computers. These and other findings are taken to suggest that this assignment may be an effective way to introduce introductory students to research activities and values in psychology.