| Contacting me |
AnnouncementsRemember to look at the Student Psychological Association's bulletin board near Room 119 in Williams Hall for upcoming events. If you need to cite electronic (e.g., web) references, go to the APA web page for this type of information. Extra Credit: If you want to earn extra credit for participating in research, make sure you read the guidelines.
Practice Final Exam QuestionsAnswers to Practice Final Exam QuestionsTest #3 (Chapters 7-9) will be on Thursday, May 1Study Guide to Test #3Practice Test #3Answers to Multiple Choice Items in Practice Test #3Test #2 (Chapters 4-6) will be on Tuesday, April 1Practice Test #2Answers to Multiple Choice Items on Practice Test #2Study Guide for Test 2Answers to Study Guide for Test 2Practice test for Chapters 1-3 (with answers)Upcoming Due Dates:Test #1 (Chapters 1-3)--Thursday, February 21 Ethics Homework--Tuesday, February 19 "Monster Study" Reaction Paper--Friday, February 15 (email)--Optional Kitty Genovese Reaction Paper--Friday, February 22 (email)--Optional PsycINFO homework--Thursday, February 28 Sampling Homework--Tuesday, March 4 Internal Validity Homework--Thursday, March 6 |
Barney Beins
Email: Beins@ithaca.edu
Office: 119-N Williams
Phone: 607-274-3512 or 607-274-3304 (Psych Dept.)
Exceptions:
| January/February | March/April | April/May | |||
| January 21-25 | March 3-7 | April 7-11 | |||
| January 28-February 1 | March 10-14 | April 14-18 | |||
| February 4-8 | March 17-21 | April 21-25 | |||
| February 11-15 | March 24-28 | April 28-May 2 | |||
| February 18-22 | March 31-April 4 | May 5 | |||
| February 25-29 |
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
In this course, you will learn how to carry out research. This means setting up the rationale for a research project, creating a competent methodology, collecting data, analyzing the data, interpreting the results, and then communicating the results.
There are many ways to do good research. Some of them are experimental, like much of the work done on our research teams, but there are other ways of collecting data that are useful or even preferred in some situations. Any methodology has its strong and weak points; you are going to learn about them in this class.
Whether or not you continue in psychology after you graduate, you will probably need to organize and explain data that either you or someone else gathered. Consequently, you are going to need the ability to take a set of raw data and to make some sense of it. You will learn about this skill, including computerized data analysis. (For this component of the course, you may want to refer back to your statistics text or to borrow one.)
Finally, you will be writing reports during the semester. (For some of these, you will need the APA Guide to Report Writing that you purchased for General Psychology Lab.) Part of communicating new findings involves telling how it relates to what we already know. Thus, you will get to do library research, including using PsycInfo, the computerized database for psychological literature.
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
When you finish this methods course, you should have several valuable skills that you have not yet attained. You should remember to include them on your resume when you apply for jobs. These skills include
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
This course requires consistent work throughout the semester. This is a skills course, which means that you will be exposed to topics that you will need to employ in other courses. The focus is on applying research techniques, so the stress will be twofold: learning about the techniques that psychologists use and actually applying them. You will learn about a wide variety of topics. As such, if you fall behind in the work, you will experience difficulty catching up. The material is not difficult per se, but it is extensive; if you have problems, make sure you see me about them.
You will be developing research and problem-solving skills in this class. As such, it is important for you to abide by the ethical guidelines that researchers have adopted. In particular, all the work you do for this class must be your own. I encourage you to collaborate with others in developing your ideas, but the work you complete for the course must be your own. Passing somebody else's work off as your own is in violation with Ithaca College policies and any infractions will be subject to College regulations.
If you require some type of assistance because of a disability, please contact the Office of Academi Support Services (607-274-l005; TDD: 607-274-1767. You should let me know in advance if you need special accommodations.
In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis. Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services and provide appropriate documentation to the college before any academic adjustment will be provided.
Beins, B. C. (2004). Research Methods: A Tool for Life. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
| January 21-25 |
| Reading and Topics:Chapter 1:
Psychology, Science, and Life We will begin to deal with the ways that psychologists ask questions and decide what to believe about human behavior. The answers are not always easy or straightforward, so we have to be careful in the way we approach our decision-making. Discussion: Ways of knowing: how do you know what you know? |
| Activity: What do you know? Your Body Mass Index predicts your relative risk for disease. What is your Body Mass Index.? (When you go to this page, follow these links to get to the information on the Body Mass Index: Shape up --> Body Fat Lab --> Measurement Tools --> Body Mass Index --> BMI Chart) Do you have ESP? Study Material: Characteristics of pseudoscience Should we pay kids who get good grades in school or who get a library card? New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has suggested it. Does it makes good psychological sense? Does research on methadone users who smoke help us answer the question? Can you tell the difference between a scientific approach and one that
is nonscientific? Some questions can be dealt with scientifically, but
some cannot (and are not meant to be): Heaven
is hotter than hell Can you believe the media when it comes to scientific matters? A controversy in the 2000 presidential election.What do you actually know about subliminal perception? What about Stairway to Heaven? Adjectives describing Research Methods Reaction Paper: Researchers over the years have claimed sex differences in a number of areas. One of these domains concerns spatial abilities. According to recent research, women and men rely on different features in the environment to navigate through it. Other recent research has resulted in findings that gay men navigate through the environment similarly to straight women. Does this type of research provide guidance in understanding whether people are "born" gay? Explain your response. |
| January 28-February 1 |
| Reading and Topics: We will continue to talk about asking and answering psychological questions (Chapter 1). |
Discussion: Critical thinking: "The worst social statistic ever" Activity: Testing for ESP Using SPSS Study Material: Characteristics of pseudoscience |
| Homework #1: (20 pts.) In this assignment, we will assess whether the Body Mass Index relate to our perceptions of the health of our lifestyle? In this exercise, we will look at the relationship between a couple of different health-related measures. For this exercise, we will collect data in class; I will add the data you provide to an existing set of data called bmi that you can access on the Nova server. Specifically, we will use the notion of the Body Mass Index developed, in part, by Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General of the United States. To access the data, follow these steps: Q Drive (Nova) --> Faculty--> Beins --> PS308BB --> DATA --> bmi A useful background article that you can get online from the Ithaca College library is Calle, E. E., Thun M. J., Petrelli, J. M., Rodriguez, C., Heath, & C. W. (1999). Body-mass index and mortality in a prospective cohort of U.S. adults. The New England Journal of Medicine, 341, 1097-1105. When you go to the Library website, you should select Biology in the box where it says Research by Subject. Then choose Biological Abstracts. If you do a search for Calle in Author, New England Journal of Medicine in Source, and Body-Mass Index in Title, you will get a link to the article. You can get a summary of some relevant research from a British report. In this research, investigators asked participants to give self-report data on their health and on their lifestyles. You don't need to read the entire report, but you can extract some material useful for this assignment. There is also other research that suggests that overweight people are not at greater risk. What should you believe? The question you will address is whether there is a relationship between the lifestyle ratings that students provided and their BMI measurements. Purpose of the Homework: This assignment will provide you with additional practice using SPSS and writing descriptions and explanations based on data. Objectives for the BMI homework:
What you need to do to complete the BMI homework successfully: In this assignment, you will use SPSS to conduct a simple data analysis, then you will interpret the data and draw a conclusion. In addition, you will need to identify the limitations in the methodology we used to draw our conclusions. No methodology is perfect, so you have to identify what your methodology helps you to understand and how your methodology limits your conclusions. In class, you will generate two hypotheses related to a person's BMI (which correlates with risk of disease)
Describe the results of our study:
Say what you think the data mean:
GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. ********************************** Homework #2: (15 pts.) Purpose of the Homework: This assignment will help you learn to distinguish the characteristics of science and pseudoscience. Over a century ago, a British scientist, Francis Galton, conducted a study to see if prayer had an effect in the natural world (contrasted with the religious, or supernatural, domain). That is, does prayer work to give us what we ask for in this world? You will respond to Galton's study on the efficacy of prayer. Based on the information here and on what we discuss in class, tell whether Galton's research should be considered as having a scientific approach. Remember that a study can be useful even if its methodology has problems; in your homework, make sure you do not confuse methodological weaknesses with problems with the characteristics of science. The Study: Galton defined the Royal Family has being prayed for because, every Sunday, the clergy took a moment to pray for the health and well being of the Royals. He defined the other groups (lawyers, doctors, and clergy) as not being prayed for because large numbers of people were never called on to pray for them. He went to official records that were quite accurate to see how long the people in each group lived, on average. He reasoned that because members of the Church of England prayed for the health and well-being of the royal family every Sunday, if prayer is effective, it would mean that the Royals would live longer than other people. He discovered that, of 94 male members of the royal family, the mean age at death for males was 64.04. He compared it with other men: the clergy, whose mean age at death was 69.49 years; with lawyers, 68.14 years; and with doctors, 68.14 years. His research was published in a popular magazine that regularly published the results of research, Fortnightly Review, in 1872. He concluded that prayer is not effective in the natural world because the Royals lived shorter lives than the members of the other groups. Objectives for the Efficacy of Prayer Homework:
What you need to do to complete the Efficacy of Prayer homework successfully: You will identify and describe the four characteristics of scientific research as provided in the textbook and in class, then you will assess Galton's research to see how well the research meets the criteria for scientific research.
You can complete this assignment in one of three ways.
GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. |
Reaction Paper: Do you believe in any of the various forms of ESP (e.g., clairvoyance, mental telepathy, telekinesis, etc.) or other controversial phenomena, like astrology? What does the research suggest? The early research was pretty naive and methodologically suspect; it was easily debunked. More recent research by psychologist Darryl Bem of Cornell University raised the hopes of ESP adherents, although subsequent research called Bem's research into question. Quite recently, some psychologists have used brain scanning to see what the brain does in situations calling for ESP. Psychologist Dave Myers has summarized the thoughts of most psychologists believe about ESP. Do you think that believers in ESP are likely to change their minds and to reject their beliefs in ESP? Who do you think has the strongest evidence in support of their beliefs, those who think ESP is real or those who don't? What do you think it would take to change people's minds? Why do you think that researchers haven't done what you have suggested? What is your overall reaction to this information? |
| Reading: Chapter 2: Ethics in
Research In the past, researchers have engaged in egregious conduct, sometimes harming the people they are studying. In response, guidelines have been developed to protect the people and animals we study and to insure the integrity of the research process. The American Psychological Association was in the forefront of developing ethical guidelines; state and federal laws often rely on proposals first made by APA. The ethical principles espoused by the APA appear in your text in Chapter 2 on pages 34-36 (Tables 2.1 and 2.2) There are federal and state laws regarding ethics in research; in addition, the American Psychological Association has developed ethical guidelines. We also have the Nuremburg Code, which is an international standard for ethics in research. Discussion: Can participation in survey research be harmful? (Reference: Lang, E. L. (2003). The repercussions of research participation. Exploring reactive insight effects. The Behavioral Measurement Newsletter, 8(1), 2-8. Should mentally ill prisoners participate in research? Information on the research review guidelines from the federal government. |
Homework (10 pts): Deciding on the ethics of a research project. You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
Objectives for the Ethics Homework:
Date Due: I will announce the due date for this assignment in class. |
Discussion: Francis Galton studied the efficacy of prayer in 1872. Does anybody study the efficacy of prayer now? Should prisoners participate in research? Are prisoners mentally competent to provide informed consent? Reaction Paper: Some interesting research on stuttering. What do you think about this research? Is it ethical? Why would anybody do it, given potential ethical problems. Stuttering: The followup (This will open up in Internet Explorer.) |
| February 11-15 |
|
Reading: Chapter 3--Planning Research: Generating a Question Researchers ask questions that come from a diversity of sources. Sometimes an investigator will observe some behavior and wonder why it happens. Sometimes an investigator has a specific problem to solve and wants to figure out the best solution. sometimes, researchers have theories they want to test. Regardless of the origin of the question, it is important for researchers to know what others have done before them so they don't simply do studies that others have already carried out. In this chapter, you will see how ideas develop. |
| Homework: (18 pts) You are going to find and read about two research articles on depression. You may rely on the abstracts if they give you as much information as you need. After you find the articles, you need to say what they were about and to discuss why the investigators used different methodologies. Please complete the homework and email it to me as an attachment. The two articles must come from two different areas of psychology (eg., social, clinical, developmental, neuroscience, or others). GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
Purpose of the Homework: This assignment is designed to show you how different approaches lead to different kinds of questions and perspectives. Various researchers may be interested in the same general topic, but because of the way they have been trained, their approaches differ. This relates, in a way, to the idea that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you begin to see everything as a nail. That is, once you develop an approach to research, you tend to stick with it, so you see every question within that single perspective. This assignment will also give you some practice dealing with PsycInfo to find research relevant to your interests. Objectives for this homework on differing approaches to research:
What you need to do to complete the homework successfully (13 pts): Find research articles on PsycINFO and explain clearly why the researchers did the study, how they conducted the project, and what they concluded. When you write your answers, make sure they are in plain, coherent English. Avoid the use of jargon or technical language if you don't need to use it.
For the integrative questions
Date Due: I will announce the due date for this assignment in class. |
|
Activity:
Reaction Paper: If you were one of the witnesses to the murder of Kitty Genovese, what would you have done? Why did people act the way they did? |
| February 18-22 |
|
Reading and Topics: Chapter 4--Practical Issues in Planning your Research Research involves making a lot of practical decisions in creating a sound study. You have to make decisions about your participants and subjects, how you will sample, making measurements that are meaningful, and deciding on an overall approach. |
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Reaction paper: Do men really want more sexual partners than women do? How would you find out? What do you think about the research? Does it ask a reasonable question? Do you think the results are valid? What do you think about the writer's comments? Are they valid? Explain your thoughts. |
| Homework: (12 pts) There are many ways to approach sampling in research. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages; none is perfect. In this assignment, you will identify how you would create different types of samples. Then you will describe their advantages and disadvantages. Purpose: This exercise will give you exposure to the different sampling techniques that you might employ in research you conduct. There are always tradeoffs when you make decisions In these examples, you will see that you have to make compromises when you decide on your methodology. Objectives of the sampling homework:
Directions: Address the three questions on sampling in relation to the proposed research project. Provide a concise but accurate answer. You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
Hypothetical Research Project: Suppose you wanted to determine whether you could change attitudes toward binge drinking among students by presenting them with videos of horrible accidents, death, and dismemberment associated with behaviors that people engage in while drunk. So you arrange to bring 50 undergraduate students to your laboratory; 25 of them see the videos and 25 read brochures about the dangers of binge drinking. For each type of sampling, give a realistic means of using that approach. Realistic means that you, as a student at Ithaca College, could actually do it. 1. Create a different sampling strategy for getting student participation that involve: • Simple Random Sampling (1 pt) 2. If you used simple random sampling to select the students on campus who participated in your study, to which of the populations mentioned below would you feel comfortable generalizing your results? In each case, there are reasons to believe that generalizing would be appropriate, but there are countering reasons to be suspicious of generalizing. Present both sides of the argument and draw a conclusion for each of the four groups listed below. • Other Undergraduate Students on Your Campus (1 pt) 3. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of simple random sampling versus convenience sampling? (3 pts) GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. |
| February 25-29 |
| Reading and Topics: Chapter 4 (continued) |
| March 3-7 |
| Reading and Topics: Chapter 5--Conducting an Experiment: General Principles Experimental approaches in research dominate psychology. We use experiments because they let us investigate and understand the causes of behavior. in order to have confidence in our assessment of causation, we have to consider a lot of detail in setting up our research so that we can draw unambiguous conclusions. |
| Homework: (9 pts)
Deciding about internal validity
Purpose: In this assignment, you will learn to spot design flaws in research projects. These studies are variations on actual research. Changes were made to build in flaws for you to identify. Most of the time, the problems with research are hard to spot. No study is perfect. The best you can do is to maximize the likelihood that your results and conclusions will be valid by eliminating, as much as possible, the sources of the flaws. You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
For the following research scenarios, determine the threats to internal validity. No research design is ever perfect. For the examples below, there are some issues that the investigators would have to deal with in order to have confidence in drawing conclusions about the research. Then describe how you might realistically overcome these threats to internal validity. Humor (3 pts) Researchers wanted to know whether people find jokes funnier when somebody of their own sex told the jokes. They created a tape with a female joke teller presenting 15 jokes, followed by a male narrator telling 15 different jokes. Some of the jokes featured female victims, some featured male victims; the male and the female joke tellers told the same number of jokes with each kind of victim. Subjects listened to the jokes and rated them on the funniness. The results indicated that, in general, both women and men enjoyed jokes with female victims when the joke teller was a female and did not like them when the joke teller was a male. Politics (3 pts) A group of researchers wanted to know whether ignoring political issues and attacking a candidate personally helps or hurts a political candidate's chances of winning an election. They brought a group of students into a laboratory. Some students listened to an incumbent candidate laying out a specific plan to deal with political issues and problems should he be elected. The other participants were exposed to a challenger who spent her time talking about the personal problems of the incumbent and why the challenger would bring greater morality to political office. The participants rated the candidate regarding the likelihood that they would vote for the person whose message they had just been exposed to. Freud (3 pts) A researcher wanted to test Freud's notion that we have a kind of "psychic censor" that keeps potentially anxiety-arousing ideas from reaching consciousness. So he displayed for very brief durations (e.g., 1/1000 sec) a word at a time that was potentially disturbing (e.g., "orgasm") or neutral (e.g., "book") or positive (e.g., "gift") and asked the participants to say the word aloud when they recognized it. If they could not identify a word, he would present it for a slightly longer period of time. He used ten words of each type for each participant. The researcher hypothesized that if people had a psychic censor, they wold take longer to respond to the disturbing words. He compared men and women on their responses to the two types of words and found that female participants took longer to respond to the disturbing words compared to the others; male participants showed no difference across different types of words. (Note: I made up the details of this study, but research similar to this has actually been done.) GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. |
| Activity: Understanding how researchers use research variables to help them answer questions: Fear of Success
Sometimes you have to ask complex questions when researching human behavior. Trying to interpret the results is difficult, as in the case of a recent study involving cell phones and accidents. How can you study this question experimentally? Statistics: Is there a correlation between the time it takes to complete a test and a student's score on the test? |
Reaction Paper: Some states have laws against driving while talking on cell phones. Some people don't like the laws. Other people seem to ignore the laws. A number of different studies have reached the same result, including research showing deficits similar to that while driving drunk and slower driving. How credible are the different points of view given here? Do you believe the research that is cited here (which appeared in scientific journals and was done by credible researchers) is relevant to real life? Should there be laws against cell phone use and driving? Are the research results likely to change your behaviors about driving and talking? Please explain your responses. |
| March 10-14 --SPRING BREAK |
| March 17-21 |
|
Reading and Topics: Chapter 6--The Design of Simple and Complex Experiments Behavior is complex. As a result, the studies we plan need to be complex if we hope to understand behavior. In this chapter, you will learn about the different experimental designs that psychologists use in their investigations. The simplest experiment involves two groups, but we seldom use such a simple design. More often, we investigate multiple groups and/or multiple independent and dependent variables. |
| Activity: Identifying IVs and DVs Homework: Identifying variables in research projects. Due Date: Tuesday, March 25 You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
Purpose of the Homework: This exercise gives you practice in understanding what research projects are all about by reading brief abstracts so you don't have to read the entire article if it isn't germane to your project. Objectives for this homework assignment:
Directions: For the following research projects, (a) identify the independent and dependent variables. For designs that do not have true IVs, (b) identify the variables and tell if they are not manipulated variables but are, instead, measured variables. Finally, (c) tell how the dependent variable is actually measured. In order to get maximum credit, you need to describe how the variable is measured. (Maximum = 12 pts) 1. (4 pts) Twenty-nine female and 30 males students listed to listened either to a song with violent lyrics or to a song without violent content. The participants then completed the State Hostility Scale (SHS), which indicates the degree of hostility of a person. Higher scores on the scale reflect higher levels of hostility. The researchers discovered that participants who listened to violent lyrics showed a higher level of hostility than participants who listened to nonviolent lyrics. Anderson, C. A., Carnage, N. L., & Eubanks, J. (2003). Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 960-971. 2. (4 pts) Researchers presented gender-stereotypic television or non-gender-stereotypic commercials to elicit the female stereotype among both men and women. In everyday life, gender-stereotypic activities include cooking for women and working on automobiles for men. Women who viewed the stereotypic commercials gave ratings indicating less interest in educational vocational options in which they were susceptible to stereotype threat (i.e., quantitative domains) and more interest in fields in which they were immune to stereotype threat (i.e., verbal domains).
3. (4 pts) A psychologist wondered how people would respond to people with tattoos, so he studied how long people helped a tattooed stranger who was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt or in a shirt, tie, and dress slacks. In each dress condition, half of the time the tattoo was not visible, and half of the time the tattoo was visible. The confederate asked for help in reading a map, claiming that he had forgotten his glasses. The results showed that people spent the same amount of time with the person when the tattoo was not visible, regardless of attire. When the tattoo was visible, however, people spent more time with the person in sweatshirt and jeans than with the person with shirt, tie, and dress slacks. Strohmetz, D. B., & Moore, M. P. (2003, March). Impact of a tattoo on a helping request. Poster presented at the annual convention of the Eastern Psychological Association, Baltimore, MD. GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. |
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Activity:
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| Reading and Topics: Chapter 6--The Design of Simple and Complex Experiments | ||||||||||||||||
Homework: (10 pts) In this homework assignment, you will work on understanding interactions and what they mean. Interactions occur in factorial experiments (i.e., those with more than one IV) when behaviors change differently in the presence of more than one IV in ways that would not be predictable from using only one IV. Due Date: Tuesday, April 1 You can complete this assignment in one of three ways.
Purpose of the Homework: This homework gives you practice in interpreting and understanding the results of more complex research designs. Objectives of this homework assignment:
Questions: 1. Identify the design (e.g., 3x4 factorial) and total number of conditions.
(2 pts) The Research: The so-called "Mozart Effect" suggests that spatial-temporal abilities improve after listening to music componsed by Mozart. During the study described here, participants agreed to attend two separate testing sessions in the lab. In the first session, participants listened either to music composed by Mozart or to a story that had been recorded on tape. Then they took a test that included 17 questions. The participants then left the lab, returning after two weeks. If they had listened to Mozart during the first session, they listened to the story this time; if they had listened to the story during the first session, they listened to Mozart this time. The researchers recorded whether the participants preferred the story or Mozart. The participants then completed a second test of 17 items. Table 1. Mean number of problems correctly answered on the 34-item tests. (Note: These results are abbreviated and may not reflect all the variables in the actual study.)
GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK |
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| Activity: Identifying research designs Data analysis--Enjoyment of research participation. This analysis is based on the file saved as cogdis.sav on the Nova (Q:) drive. Factorial Design Activity: Who is to blame? Does Blaming the Victim actually occur? |
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Reading and Topics: Chapter 7--Expanding on Experimental Designs: Repeated Measures and Quasi-experiments Sometimes it makes sense to get information from the same person in multiple conditions or across time. Such an approach can reduce noticeably the amount of time it takes to collect data from a limited number of people. This approach involves repeated measures designs. In other situations, we can't manipulate our independent variable directly, so we assign participants to conditions according to some characteristic of the participant (e.g., gender, age, political affiliation, etc.). In these instances, we do not have a true experimental study because there is no random assignment to conditions. This approach is called quasi-experimental because it looks like an experimental design, but it really isn't. Quasi-experiments are really correlational in nature, so determining causal relations among variables is questionable. |
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Homework: NONE |
Sources of threats to internal validity Does antisocial behavior in the media lead to antisocial behavior among people? Activity: Identifying threats to internal validity. Repeated measures designs: The Stroop Effect Blaming the Victim: Explanation of a Factorial Design |
| Reading and Topics: Chapter 8--Principles of Survey Research One of the most ubiquitous forms of research is the survey. Although it is common and we tend to take them for granted, survey research is very difficult to carry out well. Identifying your population, then your sample, can be hard. Developing well worded questions is always problematic. In addition, respondents bring their own idiosyncrasies to the situation. Surveys can be very useful, but they must be done well if they are to provide good information. The wording of the questions is important and poses the greatest challenge in creating a survey. How you word your questions shapes the answers you get. If you want to get the most useful information, you need to pay attention to how your construct your questions. Researchers have identified important issues in creating survey questions. Another critical aspect of conducting survey research involves the question of how you will administer the survey. There are advantages and disadvantages to any approach you take. |
Homework: Assessing Survey Questions Due Date: Tuesday, April 15 You can complete this assignment in one of two ways.
Directions: Evaluate the survey questions below and indicate if there are any problems with each item that would keep a serious researcher from having confidence in the utility of the items in answering research questions. Indicate whether you think the problem is likely to be minor or to be serious and explain why you think as you do. (12 pts) The Survey Questions: 1. (3 pts) From a survey by the Friends of the Earth: Many corporate leaders claim environmental regulations hamper their ability to make profits. Even huge multi-national corporations with millions of dollars in income say clean water and air is “too expensive.” Do you think current anti-pollution laws are: Too tough 2. (3 pts) From a Master’s Thesis on reading: SA–Strongly Agree It is important that the reading material of high-risk students be mostly a student controlled activity with the teacher serving as a facilitator, like those often used in the Reading Recovery program. 3. (3 pts) From a Planned Parenthood survey: Do you support federal funding for abortions for low-income women? 4. (3 pts) From a Breast Cancer Fund survey (with the item following others related to mammograms): Unfortunately, mammography fails to detect up to detect up to 40% of existing tumors of women under the age of 50. There are alternative diagnostic options, but most are prohibitively expensive. Do you think scientists should step up the search for new, more effective,
affordable detection methods? GO TO THE PRINTABLE VERSION PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS HOMEWORK. |
Activity: Assessing the goals of education. REACTION PAPER: How
can we determine how many Iraqis have died during the war? Due Date: Friday, April 11 |
| Reading and Topics: Survey Research (continued) |
| Homework: See above |
| April 21-25 |
Reading and Topics: Chapter 9--Correlational Research Sometimes research questions are too complex to be handled easily by experimental research. At other times, it may not be feasible or ethical to do experimental research to address a question. In these instances, correlational research can be very useful. Correlations don't let us assess causation, but they let us see patterns of behavior and predict them, even if we don't know the causes of the behavior. |
| Homework: TBA Date Due: TBA Purpose of the homework: |
Activity 1: The Modified Jenkins Activity Survey provides a guide to the degree to which people exhibit Type A and Type B personality characteristics. Take the survey; we will be working with the data from the class. Please note that when you complete the test, your results will be completely confidential. Nobody (not even me) will know how you responded. In this exercise, you will use SPSS to calculate a correlation coefficient to see if there is a relationship between the so-called Type A behavior tendencies and performance in school. In addition, perform a linear regression analysis to see if GPA is predictable from Type A score and from Gender. The file with these data is on the Nova Drive (Q:). The file is named type_a.sav. Note: To get the total Type A score, you will have to compute a new variable that will be the sum of the items on the Modified Jenkins Activity Survey. The question: Is school performance related to a person's tendency toward the so-called Type A behaviors? Also, given the two predictor variables of Type A score and Gender, identify the regression equation you would use to make a prediction of the criterion variable, GPA. Finally, explain why you think you obtained the results you got in your analysis. Activity 2: How would you explain these data? Factor Analysis: How we transform a complex data set involving many variables into a more easily understood set of data. |
| Discussion: A high Body Mass Index is associated with risk for disease. It may also be associated with lower cognitive functioning. |
| April 28-May 2 |
Reading and Topics: Chapter 9--Correlational Research Sometimes research questions are too complex to be handled easily by experimental research. At other times, it may not be feasible or ethical to do experimental research to address a question. In these instances, correlational research can be very useful. Correlations don't let us assess causation, but they let us see patterns of behavior and predict them, even if we don't know the causes of the behavior. |
| Homework: TBA
Date Due: TBA Purpose of the homework: |
Activity 1: The Modified Jenkins Activity Survey provides a guide to the degree to which people exhibit Type A and Type B personality characteristics. Take the survey; we will be working with the data from the class. Please note that when you complete the test, your results will be completely confidential. Nobody (not even me) will know how you responded. In this exercise, you will use SPSS to calculate a correlation coefficient to see if there is a relationship between the so-called Type A behavior tendencies and performance in school. In addition, perform a linear regression analysis to see if GPA is predictable from Type A score and from Gender. The file with these data is on the Nova Drive (G:). The file is named type_a.sav. Note: To get the total Type A score, you will have to compute a new variable that will be the sum of the items on the Modified Jenkins Activity Survey. The question: Is school performance related to a person's tendency toward the so-called Type A behaviors? Also, given the two predictor variables of Type A score and Gender, identify the regression equation you would use to make a prediction of the criterion variable, GPA. Finally, explain why you think you obtained the results you got in your analysis. Activity 2: How would you explain these data? Factor Analysis: How we transform a complex data set involving many variables into a more easily understood set of data. Activity 3: Predicting attendance |
Reaction Paper: A high Body Mass Index is associated with risk for disease. It may also be associated with lower cognitive functioning. In addition, pregnant women who gain a lot of weight end up having children who are more likely to be obese at age 3. If you wanted to make a public policy statement about obesity, you might use some recent research as the basis for your recommendation. Based on these articles (and any others you might want to include in addition to these two), what would you say? What recommendations would you make and why? Cite the research in your statements. Due Date: Friday, May 2 |
| May 5 --Classes meet only on Monday this week. No meeting for our class. |
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
There will be different components to my evaluation of your performance. First, we will have quizzes every three chapters; they will not be surprise tests--I will give you at least one class notice. They will be short answer and multiple choice in format. (40% of your grade)
Note: There will be no makeup tests. On the final exam, you will be able to substitute your score on final exam questions relating to one test. If you have missed a test, you will have to substitute the score on those final exam questions for that test. If you have taken all of the tests, you have the option of replacing any single test score you want to. It is optional; you do not need to make such a substitution.
The final exam will be an applied test. You will integrate the information you learned during the semester by using the concepts that you learned. Any extra credit you have earned will be added to your final exam. (25% of your grade)
You will also have writing assignments and some statistics homework. Some of it will involve taking data sets and writing verbal interpretations of them. Some of this work will be computerized. (35% of your grade)
Note: Late homework is subject to a penalty of 10% deduction per day. (This means that if you hand in your paper one day late, your grade will be your earned score x .90; two days later means your grade will be your earned score x .80, etc.) If an assignment is due on Tuesday but you do not have it to hand in, you need to give it to me by Tuesday morning of the next week. If the assignment is due on Thursday, you have until the following Tuesday morning. After those times, you will receive a grade of zero for that homework assignment unless you have made other arrangements with me.
In addition, if you turn in handwritten homework assignments, there will be a 20% penalty in your maximum grade.
PLEASE KEEP YOUR SCORED HOMEWORK THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER. IF THERE ARE ANY DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN MY RECORDED SCORES AND YOUR SCORE, IT WILL BE EASIER TO RECONCILE.
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
You can get extra credit for this class in four different ways.
1. You can participate in an approved experiment within the Psychology Department. After participating, you need to write a summary of what you did in the study, what methodology they used, and what statistical analysis they will perform after collecting the data. You also need to indicate what, if anything, you got out of this research participation. (Please note: You do not have to say that you learned a lot, or even a little, from participating in a study. I seriously want to know what you got out of the experience.) If you do not hand in your responses to the points below, you will get one point for participation in the study and will not earn the maximum of three points.
These are the elements you must include in your summary of the study.
(a) You need to describe the research question for the study in which you participated
(b) You must outline of the methodology; that is, what you did during the study
(c) You need to identify what statistical analysis they will be perform during data analysis
You also need to describe your reaction to the study:
(d) Why did you think about the way the study was conducted? Did you learn anything? What was it like to participate?
When you are ready to submit your information, go to the FORM FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPATION.
2. You can read and summarizing an approved journal article from a psychological journal. There are a few elements you must present. (a) You need to explain why the researchers did their work, (b) how they did it, (b) what statistical analysis they performed, and (d) what they concluded. You also need to indicate (e) how easy or difficult it was to understand the article and explain yourself.
3. You can bring a summary of a report in the popular media (e.g., magazine or newspaper article) that relates to the kind of research we deal with in class. Your written report should include what the research was about, what methodology they seem to have used, what the researchers concluded, and what additional information you would like to have seen in their report.
4. If you write an exceptionally astute answer to a quiz question, I may award an extra point. This is a rare event, but each semester a few students write answers that are so remarkable and go so far beyond a minimal answer that I feel it deserves extra credit. In those cases, I will award such credit. The extra point(s) will be added to the test, not to the final exam like the first three extra credit options.
Each activity (#1-3) will be worth a maximum of two percent on your final exam grade, with a maximum of ten points allowed. This means that you can participate in five studies for extra credit. Before doing any extra credit work, you must check with me in advance so that I can assess its suitability. The credit you earn for each one will depend on the quality of your write-up. Please note that you are not guaranteed two points per attempt; part of your score depends on the quality of your answers. If you do not write up a description of your participation, you will receive one point for participating.
You may earn these points in addition to the extra points from reaction papers.
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
*This calendar is subject to change by the College. The Registrar's Office website has the official dates. This calendar is correct as of the beginning of the semester. Dates that may be relevant for this course appear in bold.
January
Monday January 21 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – No Classes
Tuesday January 22 Classes Begin 8:00 a.m.
Tuesday January 29 Last Day ADD/DROP Block I Courses
Tuesday January 29 Last Day ADD/DROP Semester Courses
Thursday January 31 Last Day S/D/F Option in Block I Courses
February
Monday February 11 Last Day S/D/F Option in Semester Courses
Monday February 25 Last Day to Withdraw with "W" in Block
I Courses
Monday February 25 Last Day to Revoke S/D/F Option in Block I Courses
March
Sat-Sun Mar. 8-16 Spring Break
Monday March 17 Classes Resume 8:00 a.m.; Block I Ends
Tuesday March 18 Mid-Term Grades Due (online) 10 am; Block II Begins
Tuesday March 18 Block I Final Grades Due (online) 10 am
Friday March 21 Good Friday
Sunday March 23 Easter
Monday March 24 Last Day ADD/DROP Block II Courses
Thursday March 27 Last Day S/D/F Option in Block II Courses
April
Tuesday April 1 Last Day to Revoke S/D/F Option in Semester Courses
Tuesday April 1 Last Day to Withdraw with "W" Semester Courses
Tuesday April 1 Summer 2008 Application for Graduation (online) Due
Mon-Fri April 7-11 Online Registration for Fall 2008
Monday April 14 Last Day to Revoke S/D/F Option in Block II Courses
Monday April 14 Last Day to Withdraw with "W" Block II Courses
Monday April 14 Last Day to Withdraw with "W" Graduate Courses
Sunday April 20 Passover
May
Monday May 5 Last Day of Classes; Classes End 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday May 6 Final Examinations Begin 7:30 a.m.
Monday May 12 Final Examinations End 10:00 p.m.
Thursday May 15 All Final Grades Due (online)10 pm
Sunday May 18 Commencement
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Final Examination Schedule - Spring 2008 |
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Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Monday |
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May 6 |
May 7 |
May 8 |
May 9 |
May 12 |
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7:30 am - 10 am |
2:35 TR |
1:10 TR |
10:50 TR |
Special |
4 TR |
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10:30 am - 1 pm |
Special |
8 MWF |
8 TR |
4 MW |
Special |
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1:30 pm - 4 pm |
3 MWF |
Special |
12 MWF |
9:25 TR |
10 MWF |
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4:30 pm - 7 pm |
1 MWF |
2 MWF |
Special |
9 MWF |
11 MWF |
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7:30 pm - 10 pm |
5:25 TR |
5:25 MW |
6:50 TR |
6:50 MW |
8:15 MW & 8:15 TR |
(Go to the top of the syllabus)
American
Psychological Association
Association
for Psychological Science
This page is maintained by Barney Beins, Ithaca College Department of Psychology
Last modified: January 4, 2008
Copyright: Barney Beins, Department of Psychology, Ithaca College
