COUC 745 Advanced Multivariate Statistics and Quantitative Research

An examination of both quantitative and qualitative designs for research to assist the student in preparing a research proposal for discussion and critique in class. Each student will submit a formal written proposal.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Counselors are increasingly required to demonstrate the efficacy of their interventions and treatment strategies.  Within the helping profession, there is increasing pressure to provide treatments that are evidence-based.  It is no longer professionally acceptable for counselors to rely simply on their experience and previous training in a particular theory or approach to counseling to treat specific kinds of clinical problems such as depression, anxiety, and addictions. We are currently in an era of accountability.  This accountability also applies to professional Christian counselors, as the profession will face growing demands to demonstrate efficacy. Moreover, the field of Christian counseling and community care makes knowledge claims about human behavior, developmental processes, spirituality and mental health functioning, and the importance of close relationships. If we believe our knowledge claims have practical, real-life applications, Christian academia has a responsibility to demonstrate that these knowledge claims can have practical applications that can be empirically validated. To this end, doctoral-level practitioners and academics must be able to appropriately consume the current scientific research such that they can identify potential strengths and weakness of research reports and understand how such data can be interpreted and generalized to areas of interests. The purpose of this course is designed to help students acquire an advanced understanding of research design and statistical techniques necessary to not only understand and consume the scientific literature in and around the field of counseling and community care, but to also produce a high-quality doctoral dissertation that meaningfully contributes to the scientific literature. 

Method of Instruction: This semester-long course is delivered using an in-person synchronous intensive format. Students attend 36-40 hours of classroom-based instruction at our campus in Lynchburg. In addition to the one week of class time, students are expected to complete additional work online both pre and post intensive over the duration of this course.

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the candidate will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Advising Acknowledgement Quiz

No details available.

CITI Training is required for anyone who conducts research at Liberty University. This ensures that all of those that conduct their dissertation research and other research projects have IRB approval.

You will complete CITI training, which is an online training course on ethics in research. To complete training, follow the instructions in Canvas.

CITI training allows users to select which subjects to complete, and you only need to complete the social and behavioral researchers’ sections for this course. If you have previously completed CITI training within the last 2 years, you do not need to complete it again if you submit proof of completion. (CLO: B, C, D, E, F).

An analysis portfolio ensures that students develop a level of comfort with conducting and writing up quantitative results. This comfort is expected at the doctoral level.

Instructions

You will complete an analysis portfolio that includes analyses and write-ups for the following:

            Independent samples t-test

            repeated measures t-test

            A one-way between subjects ANOVA.

            Two-way between subjects ANOVA

            ANCOVA

            Evaluation of a correlation matrix between subgroups or theoretical framework (e.g., male and female or shame measures vs mental health measures).

Put all of the write-up and output in a single word document. (CLO: G, H, I, K).

Class participation involves attending the sessions, fully engaging the activities and professional-level interaction.

In a doctoral-level course, in-class class participation is essential to your development as a scholar. Submit a paragraph in Word from describing your class participation throughout the intensive week. (CLO: A, B, C, D, E, F, G).

Reading research literature is essential for both doctoral and masters level scholars. Your ability to effectively glean the key findings from a study is foundational to your development as a scholar.  Taking those findings and developing a conceptual model is an essential skill for a scholar.

Develop a conceptual model based on the literature related to the dataset provided for you by the instructor. Put this model in a Microsoft Word document that contains both a conceptual model diagram and a well-developed rationale. Your rationale must include scholarly sources, hypotheses, and or research questions. Include a reference page in the current APA style. (CLO: A, F, J, K).

Knowledge dissemination is one of the fundamental roles of a scholar. This assignment is intended to provide students with a demonstration of that process.

For this assignment, you have to produce the perfect-submission ready documents, including all of the files required for submission (e.g., separate abstract and title page text, tables and figures, submission text and references, and cover letter). Different journals have different requirements for how these pieces should be formatted and submitted. (CLO: A, F, H, I, J, K).

This Dispositions Reflection quiz will ask you to rate yourself on the nine dispositions required for this program by our accrediting bodies using the following scale:

• Exceeds expectations – I believe I do this exceptionally well.
• Clearly meets expectations – I believe I am able to do this in an appropriate way as expected for graduate students at my current position in the program.
• Adequately meets expectations – I believe I do this but could use improvement and growth in this dispositional area.
• Does not meet expectations – I believe I do not do this well and could use improvement.

You can review the Dispositions material located in the Learn sections of Module 1 and Module 8. We ask that you answer these questions in an open and honest way. There are no “correct” answers for the rating questions quiz, simply answer them honestly and you will receive full credit.

The final question on the quiz is a self-reflection essay question, where you will specifically identify the following:

1. One dispositional area in which you believe you need to improve
2. One step you will take to improve in the above-mentioned area