Prospectus

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Statistical Mediation and Moderation

Course
2017-2018

Entry requirements

  • Open to Master’s and Research Master’s students from Psychology.

  • Course Multivariate Data Analysis at introductory level.

Description

Many psychologists study relationships between constructs. In mediation and moderation analysis, we examine how these relationships occur, and when they occur. For example, the relationship between stress and depression might be moderated by the degree of social support. Topics addressed in this course are mediation and moderation analysis with a continuous and a binary variable, mediation in longitudinal research, moderator effects between multiple variables, and treatment-subgroup interactions. Both confirmatory as well as exploratory approaches are captured. The emphasis lies on conceptual knowledge and practical skills.

Course objectives

The general goal of this course is to develop insight in the possibilities and limitations of mediation and moderation analysis. After this course the students will be able to:
1) explain the concepts, and to choose the appropriate analysis for different research questions;
2) perform mediation and moderation analysis in SPSS with categorical and/or continuous variables, and
3) interpret the results of such mediation and moderator analyses.

Timetable

For the timetables of your lectures, work groups and exams, please select your study programme in:
Psychology timetables

Lectures Work group sessions

Registration

Course

Students need to enroll for lectures and work group sessions.
Master’s course registration

Mode of instruction

Eight 2-hours (web-)lectures and eight 2-hours work groups (of which three in pc rooms).

Assessment method

  • Two take-home assignments;

  • Final written exam including interpretation of practical examples.

Mandatory literature for the exam: Book by Hayes (2013) and three articles: Hayes (2015), Montoya & Hayes (2016), and Loh (2014).

The final grade will be a weighted average of the examination grade (0.6) and the take-home assignments (0.2 each).

Reading list

  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press;

  • Articles on Blackboard.

Contact information

Dr. E. Dusseldorp
elise.dusseldorp@fsw.leidenuniv.nl