Taking a Course in Research Methods Improves Reasoning about Real-Life Events

Abstract

We examined the extent to which students who take a course in research methods improve their reasoning about real-life events. Because social science majors improve their methodological and statistical reasoning during 4 years of college (Lehman & Nisbett, 1990), a logical source of this improvement in psychology would be the Research Methods course. We tested students in Research Methods and in Developmental Psychology on methodological and statistical reasoning at the beginning and the end of the term. As expected, reasoning scores of Research Methods students improved more than did scores of Developmental Psychology students. These results have implications for teaching because they support our intuitive notions that what we are teaching has real-life value.