Teaching code

4S009842

Teacher

Elisa Menardo

Coordinator

Elisa Menardo

Credits

6

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

M-PSI/03 - PSYCHOMETRICS

Period

2° periodo lezioni - GEM (aprile/maggio), 2° periodo lezioni - GEM (febbraio/aprile)

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course aims to describe psychological knowledge on judgment and decision-making processes, looking at the analysis of cognitive, affective, and neural processes underlying judgement and decision making. Furthermore, the course aims to provide methods and techniques for the analysis of psychosocial contexts. This knowledge is useful in the field of emergency management, to gain interpretative tools to better understand decision-making procedure. - Knowledge and understanding: Students will gain a general overview of the basic concepts of Psychology as a scientific discipline and of psychological research methods. Furthermore, will gain specific knowledge concerning psychological processes in decision-making, and data collection, data analysis and interpretation techniques. - Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will be able to use the acquired knowledge to better interpret what happens during the decision-making process, mainly under emergency conditions. They will also develop knowledge and skills relevant to the evaluation of emergency contexts from a psychosocial point of view. - Concerning Making Judgements, students will be able to develop the ability to autonomously devel-op comprehensive reflections concerning decision-making process, from a psychological point of view. Students will also be able to clearly communicate research results in psychology of decision-making. This communication skill will contribute to increase their ability in communicate results from observed data. Finally, students will develop their lifelong learning skills on the subjects addressed during the course.

Prerequisites and basic notions

The knowledge acquired during the first year of the course is a prerequisite.

Program

Theoretical insights into decision-making processes from a psychological point of view: Judgment and decision. Heuristics and systematic errors in judgment. Risk and decision. Representation and decision. Memory, attention and decision. Dynamic Decision Processes. Emotion and decision. Negotiation and decision. Group decisions. Insight into research and data analysis methods in psychology: Psychology as an empirical science. Bibliographic research in psychology. Quantitative data collection techniques. From field survey to the analysis phase: construction and preparation of a database. Preliminary analyzes on a dataset and use of some useful functions for managing databases through the use of spreadsheets and open-source statistical packages (Jamovi). The description of the quantitative data. Synthesize the data: Central tendency indices, dispersion indices, position indices. The description of the data - Tables and graphical representations. The analysis of the relationship between two quantitative variables: the correlation coefficient. Scatter diagrams and correlation analysis. Regression analysis Samples and population. Notes on inferential statistics. The theory of significance of the null hypothesis. T-test for independent samples - paired. ANOVA Path Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling: notes for interpretation.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The course includes both frontal lectures and individual/group work sessions. The classes will take place in a computer lab.

Learning assessment procedures

The learning assessment can be conducted through the presentation of an individual project on the course topics or through an oral examination covering the contents suggested in the recommended reading materials for further study.
Additionally, data analysis skills will be assessed practically using a computer.

Evaluation criteria

Both in the case of presenting an individual project and in the case of an oral examination, the following criteria will be considered:
1. Relevance to the subject matter.
2. Understanding and explanation of key concepts, also in comparison to the information provided in the textbooks and the content available on Moodle.
3. Ability to establish connections between the discipline's concepts and the content presented.
4. Bibliographic references.
5. Presentation and argumentation skills.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The evaluation will be determined by the sum of scores on the criteria outlined in the assessment section (maximum 4-5 points for each criterion, up to a maximum of 25/30). The remaining 5 points will come from assessing the practical component of data analysis.

Exam language

Italiano