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Instructor: Dr. David Allbritton |
Class Time: MWF 10:50-11:50 |
Blackboard
| Schedule | Grading | Resources | Groups
Prerequisite: Psy 240 (Statistics); Psy 241 (Methods). You must complete Psy 240 and 241 before taking this course.
Course Objectives After completing this course you should be able to:
The course will combine lecture/discussion class meetings, lab sessions, and out-of-class projects and assignments. Readings from the textbook and any supplemental readings should be done before the class meeting for which they are assigned. Although there is no formal attendance policy, unscheduled quizzes and unannounced in-class assignments will count towards your final grade, and they can not be made up in the event of absence. The lab sessions will be held in SAC 232 on the dates announced in the syllabus or on Blackboard, unless announced otherwise. Any changes to the syllabus will be posted to the Announcements page on the course Blackboard web site. It is your responsibility to check the Announcements on Blackboard before class for changes and updates.
The plan for this course incorporates the principle of “learning by doing.” Experimental research skills are best learned by taking the things you learn from the text and the classroom and applying them to the practice of doing research. Four assignments and two projects will give you a chance to develop and use your skills for designing, conducting, analyzing, and reporting research in psychology. During the first half of the term, assignments will give you practice in each of the skills you will need to conduct your own research. During the second half of the term, two projects – a survey and an experiment – will require you to combine and apply those skills. These projects will require a considerable investment of time during the last 3 to 4 weeks of the term for data collection, analysis, and writing. You should, therefore, plan ahead and be prepared to spend extra time on the projects during weeks 6 through 9 of the term. The last week of class will be devoted to in-class Project Presentations.
In addition to developing your skills for experimental research, another purpose of the projects is to develop your skills for collaborative work. Groups for the projects will be assigned during week 4. Part of your grade will depend on the evaluation of your contribution to the group. You will be responsible for evaluating both the quality and quantity of the other group members’ contributions. Project grades will be based on a combination of 1) individual performance as assessed by the instructor, 2) performance of the group as a whole, and 3) your individual contribution to the group as assessed by other group members. The instructions for the projects will spell out in more detail the specific combination of individual and group work that is required.
Training in the protection of human subjects and ethical principles of
research is an important component of this course. Each student will be required to complete a web-based
training course linked from the DePaul IRB web page and turn in a copy of their
certificate of completion.
Grading (percentages are approximate)
Missed exams and assignments will be counted as a zero unless you present a valid written excuse for your absence immediately upon returning to class. You must have a valid written excuse that I am able to verify. Make-up exams are generally not given – Instead I double the value of the final exam score to make up for the missed midterm.
Assignments are due by 3pm on the dates listed in the syllabus. Late assignments and projects will be accepted only at the instructor’s discretion, and will be penalized 10% for the first day and 20% for each additional day. All assignments (unless you are explicitly told otherwise) must be turned in using the Blackboard digital drop box. You should anticipate occasional network outages, delays, modem problems, etc., and plan ahead to get your assignments in on time. Nothing short of a system-wide outage that lasts the entire day that an assignment is due will constitute an acceptable excuse for late submission of a Blackboard assignment. You should also make sure you keep a copy for yourself in case there is a technical problem. Acceptable file formats are Word documents (.doc), rich text format (.rtf), and .pdf for papers; powerpoint (.ppt) or html (.htm, .html) for presentations; Excel (.xls), SPSS (.sav), or comma-separated values (.csv) for data files.
Unannounced quizzes will occasionally be given at the beginning of class. You must be on time to take the quiz. One missed quiz or in-class assignment will be excused; subsequent missed quizzes or in-class assignments will be counted as zeroes.
Grading Scale. The lower cutoffs for each grade are listed below. I sometimes make slight adjustments to this scale (in your favor), but this is not guaranteed.
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A |
A- |
B+ |
B |
B- |
C+ |
C |
C- |
D+ |
D |
F |
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93.33 |
90 |
86.66 |
83.33 |
80 |
76.66 |
73.33 |
70 |
66.66 |
60 |
<60 |
Academic Dishonesty. Cheating will be dealt with according to university policy, and will result in (at a minimum) a grade of F on the exam or assignment in question. Plagiarism (using the words or ideas of someone else as if they were your own) is also a form of academic dishonesty, and carries the same penalties as other forms of cheating. Plagiarism can occur as a blatant attempt to cheat (buying a term paper over the internet and turning it in as if you wrote it), but it can also occur through careless writing (failing to provide a reference for an idea that you found in a book or article). A good rule of thumb is to always provide a reference for any idea that came from someone else's writing, and if more than a few words in a row are repeated exactly either put it in quotes or rephrase it. It is also possible to plagiarize yourself -- by turning in a paper from a previous class as if it were original work, for example.
Students should consult the Academic Integrity Policy in the DePaul Student Handbook for more information on what constitutes plagiarism and other violations of academic integrity. Contact the instructor if you have questions about how to properly acknowledge source materials and the works of others.
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Topics |
Readings |
Assignments Due |
Week |
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1 |
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Single-factor Experiments
(ppt); |
Ch 11 |
Assignment 1 (April 7) |
2 |
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ANOVA, post-hoc tests |
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Assignment 2 (April 14) |
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Ch. 12 |
Assignment 3
(April 21) |
4 |
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APA Style; |
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5 |
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Surveys, Reliability
and Validity; |
Ch. 10, 5 |
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6 |
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Ch 14 Supplemental Reading on Blackboard or Salon.com
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|
7 |
|
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Experiment data collection (instructor approval of
materials required to schedule data collection) |
Project 1c (Lab Report; May 19) |
8 |
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Single-subject
Experiments |
Ch 13
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Project 2b (data; May 28) |
9 |
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Presentations and Course Wrap-up |
Project 2d
(PowerPoint file in BB
dropbox) – Both due June 2 |
10 |
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FINAL EXAM |
Wed., June 11, 8:45-11 |
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** On the dates denoted by asterisks the class will meet in 232 SAC.