Research Design
and Analysis 1: Psychology
2013 Course Outline, Fall 2005
last revised:09/06/2005
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Professor: Dr.
Peter
McLeod Lectures:*
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Instructor: Dr.
Karmen Bleile Labs:* |
*class and/or lab locations may be changed by registrar’s office
Two Required Text Books:
1. Bordens, K.S. Research
Design and Methods: A Process Approach (6th ed.)
2. Stanovich, K.E. How to think straight about psychology.
(7th Edition)
Additional required or recommended readings may be placed on course reserve throughout the term.
Required Reference:
3. Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association [5th (2001) Edition].
Outline
This course will introduce you to the logic of the scientific method and simple
experimental designs used by psychologists and other social scientists. Our
most important goals in this course are to learn to critically evaluate
information, scientific results, and interpretations based on those results, as
well as to gain the basic skills needed to design and analyze data from
psychological research. A key component of this will be to become familiar with
the ethical principles under which research with humans must be
conducted. All these skills are essential for later psychology courses. Perhaps
more importantly, they will help you throughout your life, in separating fact
from fiction amongst the "scientific" information we're bombarded
with every day.
There will be labs and assignments that you will be required to complete and write-up. You will also be required to develop and present in class, a research proposal (see later lab handouts/postings). The schedule for classes will correspond with the lab assignments as much as possible, while still covering all the necessary course material. This will mean that we jump around the text book some. [This planned mixture of topics serves to introduce you to concepts you need to conduct the labs and do the assignments in Psychology 2010L. Later in this course (or in Psychology 2023) we will come back to many of these topics and discuss them in more detail.] See the course schedule and watch for revisions to it as we proceed through this material. (I recommend bookmarking that page.)
Use of information
technology in this course
Lecture notes (my .ppt
files) will normally be posted on ACME prior to class and can be downloaded for
you to use, as provided, however these are not to be taken as a substitute for
attending class. These slides serve as
an outline only for what is covered in class and in many cases do not include
all slides used (e.g., for demonstrations). I recommend that you annotate
the downloaded notes in class as this reduces the amount of writing you have to
do and easily allows you to fill in the information missing from the slides.
The internet will also be used in some of the lab assignments and national data
files may also be made available to you to download for lab assignments. A
better idea of the internet links and resources we will take advantage of can
be found from the course links
page.
Evaluation
Lab Assignments: The lab
component of this course will include conducting and writing up an independent
research proposal and additional laboratory assignments. There will also be
shorter assignments and optional tutorials. Dr. Bleile will provide you with
details on the due dates for these assignments and the evaluation procedures.
Some scheduled class time may also be devoted to helping you with your
independent projects. If you stick to the schedule, this will distribute your
lab work quite evenly throughout the semester. Both Dr. Bleile and I will be
available to help with your projects during our regularly scheduled office hours. Do not expect us to
help you during office hours with parts of your project (e.g., data analysis)
that were covered in previous classes if you did not attend or were not
prepared for those scheduled 'help' sessions without a valid excuse. If you chose to
procrastinate, please don't expect us to cram with you! Lab
schedule
Midterms: Midterm exams will be a mixture of multiple choice, short answer, and problem solving questions. As part of these you might be asked to design a study and/or critique a study described to you. You may also be asked to read brief summaries of studies or a published scientific paper (taken in whole or in part from a recent psychology or general science journal), followed by questions to assess your understanding of the research design used in the paper, its strengths and weaknesses. As much as possible, tests given in this course and Psyc2023, will emphasize applying your knowledge, however there is a fair amount of terminology that must be learned first so tests of your ability to apply nowledge learned will tend to be given later in the term and in 2023..
Final Exam: The final will be very similar in format to the midterm exams and will cover material from the entire course, with emphasis on material covered after the second midterm. Do not make your travel plans until you know the date and time of all your exams (and midterms), in recent years the psyc 2013 exam has been scheduled very late.
Assignments for Extra Points: This year we will allow students to get up to 2 extra points for either: 1) participating in an experiment within the psychology department at Acadia and completing a brief write up about the study; or 2) doing an extra assignment based on selected papers from the published experimental psychology literature. More detailson these options will be provided in class and/or lab.
Note: Make-up tests will not
be given for any reason. If you will
be away for the midterm you can arrange to write it ahead of the
scheduled date. Students who miss the test for a legitimate reason will
have their final worth more.
All lab assignments and
the proposal must be completed before your grade is assigned.
Tentative grading system and schedule
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Item |
Date(s) |
Value |
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Section A1 |
Section B1 |
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Midterm |
October 6th |
October 7th
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15% |
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Midterm |
November 10th
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November 9th
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15% |
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Lab Section |
See lab handouts: includes all assignments and the
independent research proposal |
30% |
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Extra assignment |
Last day of class |
2% |
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Final Exam |
tba |
40% |
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