Course - Knowledge in Practice 2: Project Work in Data Management and Interdisciplinary Communication - PSY3202
Knowledge in Practice 2: Project Work in Data Management and Interdisciplinary Communication
New from the academic year 2025/2026
About
About the course
Course content
The course will prepare students for a job where they need to work with complex data and issues, while also communicating effectively with stakeholders in an often interdisciplinary context. We work with relevant tasks and tools from the fields of health, social, and environmental psychology.
In an increasingly data-driven world, the ability to find the essence in large amounts of messy data and communicate it to various stakeholders is crucial. In the course, we focus on techniques to pivot, reduce, and focus datasets to make them analysable with analytical techniques learned from courses like PSY3100 or PSY3101, or with effective descriptive analyses. Additionally, we provide students with brief introductions to types of data commonly used in the fields they will work in, such as environmental impact assessments, life cycle assessments (LCA), geographic information systems (GIS), or similar.
Data communication is also central to addressing issues. We focus on descriptive techniques and graphical presentation tools to effectively explain complex topics in a way that is understandable to people without the same expertise as ourselves. The work is carried out in project groups, where the groups work on submissions for a portfolio assignment that is assessed at the end of the semester. Project work is common in the modern workplace, and students will thus gain important experience in project management and leadership.
In the course, students will practice applying theoretical knowledge about data in a practical context. The topics encompass data material and quantitative methods typically used in societal challenges within the fields of health, social, and environmental psychology.
Learning outcome
Knowledge
The student has knowledge of:
- Effective ways to structure datasets, such as tidy data
- Data communication tools through graphical tools, such as ggplot2, GIS tools
- Project management and leadership
- Decision-making tools used in environmental psychology, such as GIS, life cycle assessments, or climate budgeting
Skills
- The student can make sense of messy and confusing datasets by pivoting, filtering out relevant information, and reducing data points to their essential components
- The students can handle suboptimal data storage formats and set up more appropriate and future-proof data management structures
- The students can understand and communicate the content of decision-making tools
- The student can convey complex relationships and points in an understandable way to stakeholders without the same background as themselves
- The student can program data analysis projects in R
- The student can lead and participate in project work
General competence
- The students can use their professional knowledge to shed light on complex, interdisciplinary questions in various contexts
- The students can synthesise advanced knowledge from various statistical sources to illuminate a specific issue
- The students can work together in projects towards concrete, often interdisciplinary, issues from relevant employers
Learning methods and activities
The course will use traditional lectures, as well as flipped classroom techniques. Students work in groups on project assignments throughout the semester. The assignments constitute the portfolio assessment.
Compulsory assignments
- 80 % mandatory attendance
- Completion of oral presentation
Further on evaluation
- - Work Plan
- Students must create a project plan describing the work they intend to carry out during the semester, including a timeline and division of responsibilities.
- • Length: 600–1800 words (for the work plan). No limit for the PDF.
- • Deadline: Shortly after the course begins.
- Peer Feedback #1
- Each group must provide written feedback on the work plans of two other groups.
- • Length: 300–600 words
- • Deadline: One week after the deadline for submitting the work plan.
- Analysis Plan
- The analysis plan explains how the group intends to carry out the analysis, which techniques they will use, and how they plan to present their findings.
- • Length: 400–1000 words
- • Deadline: Three weeks after the work plan deadline.
- Peer Feedback #2
- Each group must provide written feedback on the analysis plans of two other groups.
- • Length: 300–600 words
- • Deadline: One week after the deadline for submitting the analysis plan.
- Op-Ed Article
- Students must write a text in the form of a newspaper opinion piece. The topic will be related to the final report. The article should explain the topic and take a stance in the debate/provide clear political or practical suggestions.
- • Length: 600–1200 words
- • Deadline: Four weeks before the final report deadline.
Specific conditions
Admission to a programme of study is required:
Psychology (MPSY)
Recommended previous knowledge
PSY3100 - Research Methodology - Quantitative, PSY3101 - Research Methodology - Qualitative
Required previous knowledge
Admission to a programme of study is required: Psychology (MPSY) specialisation in Community, Health, and Environmental Psychology
Subject areas
- Psychology