Course Summary

Psychological Science 284 Research Methods in Psychology Dr. Whitley

Goals
 
The overall goal of this course is to help you develop an understanding of the scientific methods used in psychology. The skills you learn in this course will help you to understand the research reports that you will read in more advanced psychology courses, to become a better equipped consumer of research, and to prepare yourself to be a producer of research.

To meet these goals, the course has been designed with two aspects to it. The lecture-discussion aspect will define important concepts, describe fundamental research designs, outline factors which threaten the validity of research, and provide practice in reading, analyzing and critiquing research reports. The laboratory aspect of the course will give you hands-on experience with designing and conducting experiments and with writing research reports.

Most students find this to be a difficult and time-consuming course. It is therefore essential that you attend all lectures, keep current on readings, and budget your time so that you can complete all assignments on time.

Textbooks
 
Cozby, P. C. (1996). Methods in behavioral research (6th ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Pavkov, T. W., & Pierce, K. A. (1997). Ready, set, go! A student guide to SPSS for Windows. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

Course Outline

Grading

Grading will be primarily performance-oriented; that is, you will have to do things to get points -- complete a library use assignment, write research reports, design and conduct an experiment, and summarize research reports. Questions on the tests will be directed at determining if you both understand and can apply the concepts presented in the readings and discussed in class.

Homework
 
There is one graded homework assignments. The assignment will test your ability to use library resources in psychology, and will be assigned following the class on library resources. Students are not authorized to collaborate on this assignment.
Article Summaries
 
You will write summaries of three sample readings.
Research Projects
 
Projects 1 and 2 are preset; all the materials needed for the projects will be provided. You will collect your data and write a research report of your findings.

In Project 3, you will design and execute your own experiment. It will be done in several phases, one of which (your prospectus) will be graded.

The course teaching assistant (TA) will review typewritten first drafts of project reports at your option. The TA will point areas that need clarification, but will not rewrite the paper for you. You must allow at least 24 hours for the review.

Tests
 
Tests will consist of multiple choice and short answer items drawn from the readings, lectures, and discussions. Because it requires you to put the skills taught in this course into practice, Research Project 3 will also constitute your final exam. Make-up exams may be permitted in limited circumstances. However, some or all of the make-up exam questions will differ from those on the regular exam.

For each exam, you may may bring one page of notes to refer to in answering questions. You may bring only one sheet of paper which may be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches. You may write or type on both sides of the sheet. The only restriction is that the paper must be your own work -- no copies of other people's work are allowed. This restriction includes xeroxes of sections from the textbook or hand-outs.

Final Grades
 
I use the plus/minus grading system, but I do not assign grades of D+ or D-. "I" grades will be given only by arrangement and only in the case of an exceptional reason.

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Last Modified: 13 July 1997