PSY 220: RESEARCH DESIGN AND STATISTICS

Fall 2019

Overview and Course Objectives

This course is designed to familiarize you with the strategies used to apply the scientific method to psychological questions. In this course, you will learn how to evaluate research to determine whether you can have confidence in its conclusions, and you will apply this knowledge to the design, administration, analysis, and reporting of your own research project.

Your mission in this course is to:

1. Obtain a broad knowledge base of research strategies and techniques.

2. Develop critical-thinking and research skills in the context of psychological questions.

3. Improve your ability to effectively communicate your ideas in writing and speaking.

It is my hope that this course will contribute to the mission of Hanover College by encouraging:

1. Critical inquiry, by promoting a scientific and skeptical way of approaching truth claims, especially in psychology but throughout your life.

2. Lifelong learning, by showing you that you can answer empirical questions yourself, either by consulting primary sources or by conducting your own research. and

3. Meaningful service, by seeing how research can help to solve real-world problems.

Text Readings for this course are from the textbook: Morling: Research Methods in Psychology, 3rd ed.. I also recommend (but do not require) the following text, which contains all of the standards for formatting a paper in APA style. If you are a psych major, this book is a good investment for later course papers. You can also check out the book from the library and there are many helpful APA-style websites.

American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Note: Ironically, the first printing of this book had many errors. Make sure you get the second printing.

Office Hours

Office hours are the great underutilized resource of the college experience. Looking back over his many years advising students, Richard Light (a Harvard professor) said that the greatest advice that he ever gave to his students was this: Every semester, get to know one faculty member. Please stop by to chat about the course, your plans for the future, or the mysteries of the universe. Talking with students is one of my favorite parts of this job.

Class Schedule

The following class schedule should be regarded as tentative and subject to change. Readings refer to articles that can be downloaded from the course website (e.g., “Ethics,” “Article”). The quizzes on between-subjects and within-subjects designs and on repeated-measures designs will be on the topics indicated by one (*) or two (**) asterisks. After the statistical inference quiz, most quizzes will have one bonus (extra credit) question devoted to the appropriate statistical procedure for a given design.

Topics we will cover in this class in the order that they will be covered:

Laboratory Schedule

    All stats assignments are due on Friday of the week that the assignment is given.

Examination Schedule

• Midterm Friday 10/15 (Tentative)
• Final Exam Scheduled Time Final Exam Week

Grading

The table below shows the number of points for each assignment, as well as the percentage of total points. Assignments marked with an “x” only contribute to your grade if you turn them in late (-1 point per day, -5 maximum) or they are poor in quality (maximum 5-point deduction).

Grades

Performance on assignments exists on a continuum from poor to outstanding. Satisfactory performance will result in a grade of 75%, good performance will receive a grade of 85%, and truly exceptional performance will receive a grade of 95% or above. Your final grade will be determined solely by the total number of points you have earned by means of examinations, assignments, projects, and extra credit. Cutoff values for letter grade interpretations are given below:

Course Project

In this course, you will conduct a research project to test a hypothesis of your choice. You will work in a group of 2-4 classmates to develop the hypothesis, collect background readings, design the study, collect and analyze data, give an oral presentation, write a paper, and present a poster describing your findings. Several days have been set aside for in-class research group meetings. For each unexcused absence at these meetings (one in which you do not notify me before the missed class), your final grade will be reduced by 2%. See the Project Guidelines handout for more details on the project.

Paper related Due Dates

Assignments

Throughout the semester you will be given several assignments, some to be completed in class and some to be turned in as homework. Those small-point assignments add up, so don’t forget about them! Consult the schedule for deadlines.

Note: It will be common to consult with me during class on an assignment, especially a statistics assignment or the design of your oral presentation. When I tell you that an assignment “looks good,” I am not implying that it is totally free from error nor that it cannot be improved. The quality of the work you submit is ultimately your responsibility – if I assume responsibility, then I am simply grading my own work.

Google Docs

Almost all assignments and papers will be submitted electronically using an online word processor application maintained by Google called Google Docs. Google Docs allows you to write and store all your assignments online but also share them with others. Even better, you and your research group can all work on the same document from different computers at the same time. Changes made by each member will instantly be viewable by the others. To submit an assignment, simply share it with me using my email address: krantzj@hanover.edu. Using Google Documents, you will never lose an assignment and you will never accidentally submit an earlier draft. I can grade your assignments and leave you comments that you can view instantly. Unless otherwise directed, please do not submit hard copies or email me your assignments: put them on Google Documents and share them with me.

Article Response

We will read one article together as a class to give you practice reading articles for understanding. You can download the article from the course website: click on the link labeled “Article.” The article is password-protected, so you will need to enter the password I give you in class. The article response is due on the day the article is due: type up a reaction to the article and share it with me on Google Documents (altermattw@gmail.com). In your response, answer the following questions: 1) What was the procedure in the study or studies? 2) What were the major findings? and 3) What is your opinion of the article – its problems, its contributions, etc.?

Extra Credit

You can earn up to 15 points of extra credit by either participating in a psychological study or writing a brief report on an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science. To participate in a study, check the bulletin board outside of SC 147 for signup sheets. These sheets will list available times of studies and you can sign up for a time that fits your schedule. Bring a participation sheet (available on the course website) to the study and get the researcher's signature. After the study, complete the participation sheet thoroughly and submit it to me in class. Some studies are available online, in which case you should print out the debriefing page in lieu of a signature and submit it with your participation sheet. You will receive 2 points for an online study, 3 points for a half-hour study and 6 points for an hour-long study. If you opt for the brief report, choose an article from the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, available in the library. At the beginning of each article is an Abstract, which provides a paragraph description of the article. Use the abstract to help you select an article that interests you. Read the article and write a 500-1000 word (2-4 page) report on the article's main points and what you found interesting or personally relevant about the article. In your report, give the following information about the article: author(s), title, volume of journal, page numbers, and year. Your report must be completely in your own words, with no quotes or borrowed text from the article (especially not from the abstract). Keep in mind that I have electronic access to full-text versions of these articles. Instead of submitting a printed copy, please write it in Google Documents and share it with me. A satisfactory report will receive 7 points. All extra credit is due when the final draft of the paper is due.

Late Penalties

Unless otherwise noted, assignments and papers are due within the first 1 minute of class. This policy is designed to discourage students from being late to class to complete an assignment. Assignments turned in between 5 minutes late and midnight of the due date will receive a –5% penalty. An additional –10% penalty will be added for each additional day (counted from the following midnights) late.

Plagiarism

Collaboration on assignments is encouraged. I want you to learn from each other. However, you must never simply copy another student’s work. One of the central goals of this course is for you to develop your own writing skills. On the assignments, you must do your own writing. Plagiarism involves taking credit for someone else’s work. Typically, it occurs when someone copies another person’s writing and submits it as if it were his or her own. Plagiarism is one of the most serious breaches of trust in an academic environment. Evidence of plagiarism will result in a grade of 0 for the assignment, a lowering of your final grade by two letter grades, and a report to the Student Academic Assistance Committee. Make sure you give credit to your sources, placing direct quotes in quotation marks and providing a reference for quotes and ideas that are not your own. When in doubt, ask me.

Rubrics

Grading rubrics for each assignment are available on the course website through the “Rubrics” link. These can be very helpful in telling you exactly what I will be looking for in every assignment.

Quizzes

Periodically, throughout the term I will give you quizzes. The quizzes are five questions in multiple formats. I will drop your lowest quiz grade in the calculation of your grade. There are no make-up quizzes unless you have some kind of family or medical emergency or will be off-campus for a necessary college-sponsored event.

Cheating on quizzes. If I see you looking at another student’s quiz during the quiz, even if it is by accident, you will receive a zero on the quiz and will lose an additional 5% of your final grade. Second offenses will result in public beheading plus a letter in your permanent record.

Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm exam will include all the course content that we have covered up to the midterm. The final exam is cumulative and thus will include material from the first half of the semester.

Special Arrangements

Students with physical or learning disabilities, who may require special arrangements for quizzes or exams, should contact me as early in the semester as possible so that I can make arrangements in advance.

Statement on Self-Care
Your success in this course and throughout your college career depends heavily on your personal health and wellbeing.  Stress is a common part of the college experience, and it often can be compounded by unexpected life changes outside the classroom.  Your other professors and I strongly encourage you to take care of yourself throughout the term, before the demands of midterms and finals reach their peak.  Before circumstances and conditions become overwhelming, please don’t hesitate to speak with me about any difficulty you may be having that may affect your academic performance.  Please know as well that there are a number of support services on campus available to assist you, as needed.  You can make appointments with Health Services by calling x-6102.  Appointments for Counseling Services can be made online at any time through MyHanover.

Health Services
Christy-Ownbey, CPNP-PC, Director of Health Services
866-7082 or ownbey@hanover.edu

Counseling Services
Catherine LeSaux, LCSW, Director of Counseling Services
866-7399 or lesaux@hanover.edu

Sara Crafton, LMHC, Staff Counselor
866-7074 or crafton@hanover.edu
 
Chaplain’s Office
Reverend Catherine Y. E. Knott, Th. M., Ph.D., College Chaplain
866-7087 or knott@hanover.edu

Gladish Center for Teaching and Learning
Katy Lowe Schneider, Director & Associate Dean for Student Success
866-7215 or lowe@hanover.edu

Levett Career Center
Margaret Krantz, Senior Director of Career & Professional Development
866-7126 or krantzm@hanover.edu