Year 2 course units

Q-Step units are listed by degree, but can usually be taken as options in other courses too.

Accessing and Understanding Data for Criminologists

This unit introduces the idea of secondary data analysis.

You will learn about the different sources of data which criminologists might access.

We teach the basics including frequencies and crosstabs, independent and dependent variable, levels of measurement and measures of central tendency. As well as one test of significance, chi-square and the concept of probability.

Introduction to Psycholinguistics

You will gain an introduction to psycholinguistics, with special focus on written and spoken language comprehension.

We will discuss the central topics and major findings of psycholinguistics, and the experimental methods used to investigate the psychological processes underlying language understanding.

Quantitative Methods in Language Sciences

You will learn the basic concepts of statistics through hands-on practice.

You will gain the computer skills needed to work with quantitative data and the critical thinking skills for conducting quantitative research in the future.

Variation and Change in English

This unit introduces you to the ways in which language can vary and the types of factors (internal and external) that may condition that variation.

You will learn about the effects of age, time, sex, social class, identity, geographical region, and internal linguistic factors on phonetic, phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic variables.

As well as experiencing the different methods by which sociolinguistic data can be gathered and the statistical tests and methodology for quantitative data analysis.

How to Conduct Politics Research

This course allows you to develop research skills by preparing you to conduct an independent research project in politics, covering a range of different methodologies and types of data.

Essentials in Survey Design and Analysis

You will discuss the practical issues involved in the planning of surveys and topics involved in the analysis of survey data.

Taking into account the design of the survey, management, and handling of survey data from a range of social science datasets, exploratory analysis, comparing differences between means and proportions and chi-square tests for testing associations.

Research Design and Statistical Inference

This unit introduces you to the principles of collecting, summarising and interpreting data.

You will explore the importance of sampling and designing appropriate studies in answering research questions, and some of the debates surrounding making inferences from intelligence tests.

The Survey Method in Social Research

This unit introduces you to the social survey and its use in academic and policy research.

You will be given basic training in the use of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientists) for the handling and analysis of survey data, and the critical skills to interpret and report analyses using survey data.

Market Research

You will gain a working knowledge of the basic techniques used in contemporary marketing research.

This involves being able to understand and identify secondary data sources (customer and area profiling), implement methods for the collection of primary data (surveys, sampling, questionnaire design), and understand qualitative marketing research methodology (focus groups).