PSY 652: Research Methods in Psychology I

Welcome

Kimberly L. Henry: kim.henry@colostate.edu

Data Science for Social Good

Common Ground

• Introduction: Divide the group into smaller groups of 3-4 people.

• Activity: Each small group has 5 minutes to find three things that everyone in their group has in common. It could be anything from a shared hobby to liking the same type of food, or even a shared experience like “We’ve all been to the same city.”

• Sharing: After the time is up, each group shares their commonalities with the larger group.

• Debrief: This activity highlights similarities and creates an instant bond among participants.

Let’s start with your passion

Sketch your data story¹ (part 1)

On the top left quadrant of your paper, write down the problem that motivates your current research (or the research you seek to pursue at CSU).

If you prefer a prompt, try filling in these blanks:

We need to find out ______ in order to _________.

1. This activity comes from the wonderful book Hands-on Data Visualization by Dr. Jack Dougherty and Ilya Ilyankou.

Sketch your data story (part 2)

In the top right quadrant of your paper, rewrite the problem into a question.

Sketch your data story (part 3)

In the bottom left quadrant of your paper, draw pictures and arrows to show how you’ll find data to answer your question.

• Are you conducting a study in a lab, or administering a survey, or carrying out a community-based clinical trial?

• Sketch a picture of your data collection process, to show how you plan to bring together different pieces of information.

Sketch your data story (part 4)

In the bottom right quadrant of your paper, sketch at least one type of visualization you plan to create after you obtain your data.

• Do you envision some type of chart, like a bar, line, or scatter chart?

• Or do you imagine some type of map?

• If your visualizations will be interactive, try to show the concept using buttons.

• You can add imaginary data at this stage because it’s just a preliminary sketch. Have fun!

Share your story

What is Data Science?

Data science is the process of using data to understand human behavior, societal trends, and social systems, ultimately aiming to make better decisions that improve individual and collective well-being.

The data analysis pipeline with R

Throughout this course, we’ll use the data science process recommended by Dr. Hadley Wickham and colleagues in the book R for Data Science. The process is depicted in the figure below.

What will we learn to do this semester?

1. Learn to Use R, RStudio, and Quarto for Data Analysis and Presentation

2. Construct Data Visualizations

3. Wrangle and Prepare Data

4. Analyze Data

5. Interpret and Describe Findings

6. Illustrate Uncertainty in Statistical Estimates

7. Produce and Present New Insights

8. Apply Data Science to Real-World Problems

18 Modules

Grade components

• Module Quizzes (25%)
• Apply and Practice Exercises (20%)
• Exams (30%)
• Personal Data Science Project (15%)
• Student Engagement (10%)