Overview

This unit of study enables students to develop the capacity to undertake independent statistical investigations, including the assumptions and limitations of their application. The unit will provide practical skills to allow students to meaningfully interpret the results of various hypothesis tests, as well as to understand probability distributions and sampling methods commonly applied when collecting data.

Requisites

Prerequisites
STA70006 Foundations of Statistics

Rule

Admission into GD-PSYS Graduate Diploma of Psychology

OR

Admission into GC-PSYS Graduate Certificate of Psychology

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Date Teaching Period 3
Location
Online
Start and end dates
03-November-2025
08-February-2026
Last self-enrolment date
16-November-2025
Census date
28-November-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
02-January-2026
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Specify and evaluate objectives of an investigation in statistical terms
  • Identify the level of measurement of a variable, appropriate sampling methods, and research design of a study
  • Produce and interpret appropriate descriptions and visualisations of data distributions
  • Estimate population parameters (proportions, means) using appropriate statistics and confidence intervals
  • Select and conduct appropriate hypothesis tests for different population parameters (proportions, single sample means, difference of means for matched and independent samples) for theoretical and applied problems in psychology and health
  • Describe the relationships between variables (correlations, crosstabs, relative risk and odds ratios) and test the significance of these relationships
  • Interpret and contextualise the outcomes of data analysis to write concise reports on theoretical and applied problems in psychology and health

Teaching methods

Swinburne Online

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online
Learning activities		3.00 12 weeks 36
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning		9.50 12 weeks 114
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
AssignmentIndividual 40% 1,3,4,5,6,7 
ExaminationIndividual 40% 1,2,6,7 
Online QuizIndividual 20% 2,3,4,5,6,7 

Content

  • Critical thinking in statistics; confounding and sources of bias
  • Ordering & grouping data: interpretation frequency tables and histograms; summarising data: median, IQR & boxplots; the mean & standard deviation; levels of measurement
  • Describing and displaying relationships; Pearson's; introduction to regression; relationships in tabulated data; correlation and causality
  • Producing data; experiments; population and samples; density curves and normal distribution
  • Introduction to estimation, confidence intervals for proportions, means and correlations
  • Making decisions about means, the Binomial test, t tests; testing relationships; Pearson's r and the Chi-square test of independence.
  • Relative Risk & Odds Ratios

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.