Book excerpt: Understanding and applying research methods and statistics in psychology is one of the corner stones of study at undergraduate level. To enable all undergraduate psychology students to carry out their own investigations the textbook covers basic and advanced qualitative and quantitative methods and follows a sequential structure starting from first principles to more advanced techniques. Accompanied by a companion website, the textbook: - Grounds all techniques to psychological theory relating each topic under discussion to well established pieces of research - Can be used by the student at beginning and more advanced undergraduate level - therefore a `one-stop′ shop - Includes a creative and practical selection of heuristic devices that cement knowledge of the techniques and skills covered in the textbook