Research Methods in Psychology I
PSYC 227 R
Spring 2010
Dennis M. Goff

Aron, A., & Aron, E. N. (2009). Statistics for Psychology (5th ed.). Upper-Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Whitley, T. W. (2009). Study guide and computer workbook for Statistics for Psychology, Fifth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

A simple calculator, it need only include functions for addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and square roots. Don't waste money on an expensive calculator with a lot of unnecessary functions.

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American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

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Develop your ability to understand the logic of statistical procedures.

Further develop your quantitative and analytic thinking skills.

Further develop your ability to select, conduct, and interpret appropriate statistical procedures.

Develop your ability to understand and explain to others the statistical analyses typically reported in psychological research.

Develop your ability to use SPSS to conduct statistical analyses.

Further develop your ability to use information technology tools (e.g. spreadsheet programs) to manipulate and present data.

Further develop your ability to read and understand professionally presented research results.

Prepare you for more advanced courses in the psychology curriculum including PSYC 228R.

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Read the assigned material in preparation for class. That reading should include following the numeric examples closely and writing down questions about anything that is not clear to you.  Reading statistics requires close study and rereading, not just reading through once as you might with other psychology textbooks. Please bring your textbook and a calculator to class with you.  

Look over homework problems before you start your reading.

Don't miss class. I do not require attendance, but you will find the practice gained during class to be very helpful. Please talk to me as soon as possible if you need to miss class for a game or other scheduled college event so that we can plan for what you can do to duplicate the day's experience.

Test your knowledge and review each lecture using your Student's Study Guide and problems included in Set I at the end of each chapter. You could also use the companion website for this practice. Statistics is a skill so it is necessary to DO statistics, not just read about them.

Ask questions!

DON'T fall behind!

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Four tests                                 (50%)

Comprehensive final exam         (20%)

Homework assignments             (15%)

Annotated Bibliography              (15%)

Tests:

Each of the four tests will include only the material covered after the last test. Notice that the material in this course builds on previous knowledge. As a result there will be many times when you will have to use material covered in earlier sections of the course to complete a problem.

Each test will consist of two parts. The first will be completed prior to the test session and turned in at that time. The second will be completed during the testing session.

The first part of each test will require that you complete several sets of data analyses. You will typically be instructed which tools you should use (e.g. calculator/spreadsheet or SPSS).  Completion of this portion of the tests will include APA style presentation and some explanation of the results of your analyses. You will be permitted to use your books and notes when you complete this part of the tests. Of course this work will be completed without help from any other person and pledged.

The second part of the tests will consist of a few multiple choice, matching, and short answer questions. These questions will test your knowledge of the logic of the procedures that we have been studying. This part of each test should last approximately 30 minutes.

Late tests will be arranged only in the case of illness, family emergency, or participation in a college sanctioned activity and if the student has consulted with me prior to the day of the test. Please remember that falsely reporting an illness or family emergency is an honor offense.

The final exam will be comprehensive. We will discuss the format for this test later in the semester.

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Problem numbers are used to indicate homework assigned from Set II problems at the end of each chapter in the textbook. You should complete your computations for those problems with either Excel or a calculator. Regardless of which method you choose you must show all of your work for those problems. Many homework assignments will also include problems that you will complete using SPSS.

You may work in small groups (no more than three) to complete your homework assignments. Many of the assigned problems have parallels in Set I problems (with solutions in the back of the textbook) or other data sets. I encourage you to complete these alternate problems as practice. Please begin to work on your homework problems early.

Assignments are due at the start of each class on the dates listed on the course schedule. They will be accepted without penalty until 4:00 PM on that day. You may turn them in either by bringing a paper copy of your work to class or my office or by submitting an e-mail to me with a single attachment. If you use the e-mail option please use the cut and past functions to include all of your work in a single Word or Excel file. (I can show you how to do this if you need help.) Please name that file with the number of the homework assignment followed by your last name. For example, on the first homework I would title my file “1Goff.”

All homework will be graded on a 10-point scale.

Assignments turned in late will be penalized one point for each part of a day that they are late.

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This assignment is designed to meet several goals. First, it gives you an opportunity to read original research in an area that interests you. Second, it gives you an opportunity to see how statistics are reported in reports of psychological research. Third, it gives you an opportunity to learn how to understand, present and discuss reports describing original research in Psychology. Fourth, it prepares you for the research proposal that you will be required to write for PSYC 228R. You will notice that I have arranged several assignments throughout the semester that are designed to help keep you on track with this project.

An annotated bibliography is a list of references that are typically presented in either chronological or alphabetic order. Each reference is accompanied by a brief (250 words or less) description of the original work and how it relates to a defined topic. Published bibliographies typically contain dozens of references. Your bibliography must contain at least 10 references with an APA style title page. Of course your references must be drawn from the research literature. That means no references from popular press sources will be allowed. Please consult me if you have any questions about the quality of your sources.

This assignment will be relatively easy and interesting if you keep up with it throughout the semester. If you read one or two journal articles each week the project will be done by the end of the semester. You should choose a topic for this work that interests you because you will want to continue with this work when you take PSYC 228R. 

Your bibliography is due on Friday April 30 by 12:00 PM (noon). It should be submitted to me as an APA style Word document via e-mail.

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These are a few links that you might find useful as work to master the material in this course. 

This site from Flinders University in South Australia offers advice about reading scientific research. You will have to scroll down a little to find advice on reading journal articles. 

You might find this glossary of statistical terms by Valerie Easton and John McCall useful. 

If the M&M's aren't enough, you might want to try this sampling distribution and sample size demonstration. 

IF you would like some practice estimating correlation coefficients from scatter plots try this site. This site has a number of good statistical tools that you might find interesting. 

Do you need to make a quick calculation and don't have access to SPSS at the moment. You might find a web based tool for that calculation on John Pezzullo's page of links to statistical calculation tools on the web. 

You can learn a lot about how to use SPSS on Raynald Levesque's page. Many of the techniques that he presents are more advanced than we will use, but you might find them valuable later in your career. 

Finally, you might discover that another student has already asked your questions about SPSS and this site might hold the answer.