Course Information
Table of contents
Course Overview
The replication crisis, as well as concerns of reproducibility and valid research continue to bring heightened attention to reserach methods and practices in Psychology. Scholars both within the discipline and across academia continue to debate the need for replication and reproducibility, and to what degree, while little research has been done to reveal trends of research practices to better contextualize this conversation.
This 12-week course will take a deeper dive into the present issues and proposed solutions to ensure reproducibility in psychology research, and explore alternative approaches to traditional research methods. Each week you will read scholarly articles to frame our discussion on the replication crisis and what the field currently proposes. You will also engage in writing a final paper to review and evaluate emerging tools and practices (e.g., open science), as well as how the field of psychology can advance through critical & analytical lenses.
Course Logistics
Faculty Sponsor
Professor Leif Nelson
Haas School of Business
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Psychology
Facilitator
Yuyang Zhong
Psychology & Data Science - Human Behavior & Psychology
Course Meetings
Wednesdays 7-8:30 PM Pacific Time
- Synchronous via Zoom
- Each class meeting consists of short lectures, discussion of topics from readings, and the occasional live code demonstrations and hands-on exercise.
Office Hours
Mondays 4-5 PM Pacific Time
- Sign Up via bCal Appointment Here
- Zoom meeting information will be listed on the bCal invite. If you are unable to make the regular time, please reach out for an alternative time.
Course Co-requisite
This course will assume basic knowledge of statistics and research methods, as well as (very) basic coding. Thus, it is recommended that you have either taken or are taking the following foundational classes: Data/Stat/CompSci C8 - Foundation of Data Science, OR, Psych 101 - Research & Data Analysis in Psychology
Berkeley Honor Code
This course is a collaborative space for all of us to engage in discussions and exchange ideas & opinions. As students of UC Berkeley, we agree to abide by the Honor Code:
“As a member of the UC Berkeley community, I act with honesty, integrity, and respect for others.”
Course Goals
The primary goals of this course is to broaden your understanding of research practices in psychology. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Understand fundamental issues and fallacies of current research practices;
- Develop a critical perspective of research methods;
- Explore and develop skills to evaluate new research frameworks and methods.
Course Components
This is a 1-unit, Pass/No Pass course. A final grade of 70% or above is required to pass the course. The components are as follows:
- Weekly Meeting Check-Ins (20%)
- You are asked to attend at least 10 out of 12 class meetings to receive full credit. For each meeting, there will either by a check-in form you submit or an in-class activity for you to engage in.
- Weekly Assignments: Readings & Reflections (40%)
- Readings are assigned to supplement your understanding of each week’s class material. They also serve as additional materials/references for your reflection assignments. Some week’s weekly assignments are designed to walk through readings and highlight important concepts.
- At the end of every part of the course, you will complete a reflection assignment. This could either be in a form of a short written reflection to a prompt, or posting and responding to discussion posts.
- You may miss 1 weekly assignment, or have your lowest scored assignment dropped if you completed all of them.
- Final Paper/Vignette (40%)
- The vignette will be a synthesis of what you’ve learned from this course, where you will devise your proposal on how psychology research should adapt and change for the betterment of scientific discovery.