Instructor: Judith
Kroll, 641 Moore Building
phone: 863-0126
e-mail: jfk7@psu.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment (Schedule posted weekly: 641 Moore)
Class Meetings: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30-3:20 pm, 026 HOSLER
Lab Section Meetings:
1. 08:00 09:55
T 451 MOORE
2. 10:10 12:05
T 451 MOORE
3. 12:20 02:15P
T 451 MOORE
4. 02:30 04:25P
T 451 MOORE
5. 08:00 09:55
F 451 MOORE
6. 08:00 09:55
R 451 MOORE
7. 10:10 12:05
R 451 MOORE
8. 12:20 02:15P
R 451 MOORE
9. 02:30 04:25P
R 451 MOORE
10. 10:10 12:05
F 451 MOORE
Lab Instructors: (Office Locations
and Office Hours to be announced)
Marios Avraamides (mna106@psu.edu)
Marc Grosjean (mcg138@psu.edu)
Nathan Hiller (njh129@psu.edu)
Tracy Rizzuto (ter128@psu.edu)
Ayelet Ruscio (amr205@psu.edu)
Computer Lab Instructor:
Natasha Tokowicz (nxt6@psu.edu)
In this course we will introduce you to the basic research methods used in psychology. The semester will consist of a set of research modules designed around particular topics (children and computers, social behavior, memory, questionnaire research) culminating in an independent research proposal at the end of the term. For each of these modules, we will develop a research question, survey some of the relevant literature, and conduct a set of laboratory exercises. The purpose of each exercise is to acquaint you with the research tools particular to these areas rather than to provide an exhaustive review of the subject matter. Along with a primary emphasis on selected research problems, the course will focus on developing general research skills that can be applied within any area of psychology. These include knowledge of experimental design, statistics, the use of computers in psychology, report writing, and ethical standards of research. In addition, we will consider the human side of becoming a psychologist and researcher: What are scientists like? Why did they become scientists ? What is it like to be a member of an underrepresented group in science? How do psychologists select an area of research to pursue?
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
BOOKS:
(1) Ray, W.J. (1997).
Methods towards a science of behavior and experience. Pacific Grove,
CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. (5th Edition)
(2) American Psychological Association. (1994). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (4th Edition)
These books are available in the University bookstore. Be sure that you purchase the correct edition of each book.
ASSIGNMENTS
There will be regular assignments
(exercises, laboratory reports) for the class and laboratory. The
major assignments are outlined on the attached class schedule and will
be discussed in greater detail in class. There may be some additional assignments
in the laboratory sections that are not listed on the schedule. Please
use this outline to schedule your work for the semester. Deadlines
will be observed and late work will be graded down, one grade for each
day the work is late. Because writing is one of the primary
skills we will be working on during the semester, you will have an opportunity
to revise the first laboratory report for a completely new grade.
The
revision will be accepted within two weeks of receiving the original report
with your instructor's comments. However, the first due date
for the lab report will be taken seriously. It will not be appropriate
to hand in a very rough paper on the due date in anticipation of writing
a revision.
WRITING
We urge you to use a word processing
program to write your laboratory reports. We will expect that all
writing assignments be submitted in typed form. (This does not include
statistical analyses or numerical calculations.)
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is required in class
and at all laboratory meetings unless arrangements have been made with
your laboratory instructor. The laboratory sections are not
interchangeable; you will be expected to attend the section for which
you registered. In cases of illness, alternative arrangements can
be made by speaking with your laboratory instructor.
OFFICE HOURS
Each of the instructors will announce
his or her office hours during the first week of classes. I will
post a sheet of available meeting times on my door (Room 641 Moore) at
the beginning of each week. You can always call or e-mail me to schedule
an individual appointment if none of the listed times is convenient for
you.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Students are reminded of their responsibility
for maintaining academic integrity. Cheating on exams or plagiarism
of assignments or papers from other students or from published sources
may result in a grade of F for the course and may result in other penalties.
An important part of scientific research is providing appropriate references
to other work; failure to do so constitutes plagiarism. Much scientific
writing involves summarizing the work of others, so it is important to
recognize that unacknowledged quotation constitutes plagiarism even in
such cases. Acknowledging the work of others requires that (a) quotations
be clearly identified as such, and (b) specific references to authors (and
for direct quotes, page numbers) be provided. All written work is
expected to be in the student's own words. In the case of group projects,
it remains the student's responsibility to ensure that the written product
is his or her own work. Dishonesty in reporting results or unethical behavior
in conducting research exercises will also be considered violations of
academic integrity.
GRADING
Your grade in the course will based
on: (1) Written laboratory reports; (2) Class quizzes and a final exam;
(3) Class and laboratory exercises and assignments; and (4) Attendance
and participation. Because there is an emphasis on learning new research
skills in this course, improvement in all of these areas will be taken
into consideration, particularly for laboratory report writing.
Quizzes will be multiple-choice, with a combination of objective and problem-solving formats. Students are responsible for all material covered in assigned readings, lectures, and lab exercises. The lowest of the first three quiz grades will be dropped. Therefore, the total number of points for quizzes and the final exam will be 300.* Final grades will be based on the number of points accumulated, according to the following weightings:
Assignment Maximum points
Quiz 1
100
Quiz 2
100
Quiz 3
100
Final Exam
100
Total: 300*
Lab Report 1
125
Lab Report 2
125
Lab Report 3
125
Final Project Proposal
150
Total: 525
Lab Exercises:
Library Exercise:
20
Computer Exercise:
20
Experimental Design Exercise: 50
Paper Abstracts:
45
Fraud Exercise:
20
Final Proposal Introduction: 20
Final Presentations:
50
Lab Attendance and Participation: 100
Total: 325
Class Attendance: 100
TOTAL 1250 points
Grades will be assigned according to
the following distribution:
Grade Points needed:
A
1187-1250
A-
1125-1186
B+
1087-1124
B
1037-1086
B-
1000-1036
C+
937-999
C
875-936
D
750-874
Extra Credit
Students may also earn up to 100 points
of extra credit in a variety of ways:
1. Research participation. You may participate in research projects in the Department of Psychology. Only research projects specifically approved for this course may be used to earn extra credit, and a student may earn a maximum of 3 extra credit participations for 20 points each. There is no guarantee that there will be sufficient opportunities to allow students to earn the maximum number of extra credit points. The maximum extra credit that may be earned by participating in research is 60 points. Please note that all sign ups for extra credit experiments are now done on the web through the psychology department subject pool. You will be instructed on how to access the subject pool and about subject pool procedures during the first week of class. Please note that you must show up for experiments for which you have signed up or cancel with advance notice. Strict records will be kept and students who have failed to show up for experiments will not be allowed to make up these extra credits.
2. Talk summaries. You may write papers for extra credit, again with a maximum of 3 extra credit assignments. These papers must be summaries of talks given on campus that are relevant to the material of the course. I will announce all talks that are approved for this purpose at the class meetings. As with research opportunities, there is no guarantee that there will be a sufficient number of opportunities to earn the maximum number of extra credit points. Each extra credit participation will again be worth 20 points up to a maximum of 60 points.
3. Science in a social context:
a. Representation of
women in psychology journals. Are women really underrepresented
in the field of psychology? Have the statistics changed over the
past 20 years? Go to the library and select a psychology journal.
For each of the years, 1977, 1987, and 1997, select one issue of the journal
(i.e., from a single month) and record the following information:
Total number of articles
Number of first authors who are women
Number of second or later authors who are women
Total number of authors (i.e., add up all of the authors on
all of the articles)
Number of editors (see inside page of journal)
(count all types of editors together, i.e., editor,
associate editors, consulting editors)
Number of editors who are women
Record individuals whose names do not
reveal their gender in a separate category as
other (e.g., Pat Smith or Chris Miller
could be either a man or a woman). Compute the percentage of the total
articles that were first authored by women. Then compute the percentage
of women who were second, third, fourth authors, etc. relative to the total
number of second and later authors in that issue. Finally do the same for
the percentage of the editors who were women (number of women editors/total
number of editors). Do this separately for each of the three designated
years. Write a brief summary of your findings, including some statistical
test to see whether things have changed over time for any of these measures.
This exercise is worth 40 extra credit points.
b. Minority experience in science and life in other sciences. Write a one-page summary of either of the following book chapters. The summary is worth 40 extra credit points.
Manning, K. R. (1983).
Black
Apollo of science. New York: Oxford University
Press. Chapter 2: The
beginnings of a professional career, 1907-16.
(pp. 37-66)
Traweek, S. (1988). Beamtimes and lifetimes: The world of high energy physicists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Prologue: An anthropologist studies physicists. (pp.1-17). Chapter 1: Touring the site: Powerful places in the laboratory. (pp. 18-45)
c. Scientific Fraud and Misconduct. Use LIAS to locate recent news coverage concerning misconduct in science. Write a one page summary describing the reported case. This exercise is worth 20 extra credit points.
4. Surfing the Internet. Use your computer skills to find information on the World Wide Web about graduate programs in an area of psychology that interests you. Write a brief summary, in your own words, describing the features of one program that seems most appealing. Be sure to include a description of one or two faculty members at this institution with whom you might like to study and one or two references to their recent publications. This exercise is worth 20 extra credit points.
Schedule of Topics and Assignments
________________________________________________________________________
Class Meeting
Lab Meetings
Monday and Wednesday
Tuesday, Thursday or Friday
________________________________________________________________________
January 11,13
Jan 12/14/15
Introduction: Why do research?
No Lab Meetings this Week
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 1: What is science?
________________________________________________________________________
January 18,20
January 19/21/22
Science and Scientific Thinking
Introduction to Computer Lab
and library
Reading: Ray : Chapt. 2:
Introduction to the methods of science.
Chapt. 3: Developing the hypothesis.
________________________________________________________________________
January 25,27
January 26/28/29
Writing Psychology Papers
Lab 1: Data Collection and
Analysis; Graphing and Statistics
Review
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 15:
Sharing the results.
Appendices A,B,C on writing and publishing papers.
________________________________________________________________________
February 1.3
February 2/4/5
Experimental Design
Lab 1: Data Interpretation
and Writing
________________________________________________________________________
February
8 Quiz 1
February 9/11/12
Interpreting Lab 1 Data; Lab Exercise
on Experimental Design
February 10: Experimental Design (cont.)
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 8:
Applying the logic of experimentation: Between-
subjects designs.
________________________________________________________________________
February 15,17
February 16/18/19
Experimental Design (cont.)
Lab 2: Data Analysis and
Interpretation
Reading: Ray: Chapt.
9: Extending the logic of experimentation:
Within-subjects and matched-subjects approaches.
Reading: Ray: Chapt.
5: Inferential statistics: Making statistical
decisions.
Chapt. 6: Testing the hypothesis: A conceptual introduction.
________________________________________________________________________
March 1: Statistics (cont.)
March 2/4/5
Paper Abstracts
Reading: Ray: Chapt.
13: Questionnaires, survey research, and sampling.
________________________________________________________________________
March 22,24
March 23/25/26
Correlational Research
Lab 3: Questionnaire Data Analysis
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 11: Quasi-experimental,
correlational, and naturalistic
observation designs
________________________________________________________________________
March 29,31
March 30/April 1/2
Case Studies
Design of Final Proposals
April 7: Bias in Research
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 10:
The ecology of the experiment: the scientist
and research participant
in relation to their environments
________________________________________________________________________
April 12:
Quiz 3
April 13/15/16
Laboratory Exercise on Fraud
in Science
April 14
Bias in Research
(Stanford Prison Experiment)
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 14:
Ethics
________________________________________________________________________
April 26: Fraud in Research
April 27/29/30
April 28: Conclusions, Directions,
Final Proposal Presentations
and Final Exam Review
Reading: Ray: Chapt. 16:
Beyond Method
All Extra Credit
ReportsDue by 5 pm
on Friday, April
30 in my mailbox
(Note: Faculty mailboxes
are in Room 458 Moore)
Final Exam:
Thursday, May 6:
4:40-6:30 pm