Psych 212R: Research Methodsumbrella

TEXTS:
1. Psychology Department Research Handbook (provided by the dept.)
2. Readings as announced in class.

ASSIGNMENTS:
1) Presentation and discussion of research articles in class
2) Independent library research on topics as developed by groups
3) SPSS assignments
4) Written Article critique
5) Ethics proposal (ungraded, but required for use of subject pool)
6) Proposal for final paper
7) Draft of intro and methods sections for final paper
8) Draft of results and discussion sections for final paper
9) Final paper on research project


GRADING:
Teamwork & discussion 30 pts
SPSS & Text exercises 25 pts
Written article critique 25 pts
Paper proposal/Analysis Plan 20 pts
Draft intro & methods 15 pts
Draft of results & discussion paper 15 pts
Final paper 70 pts

Note that there are a number of pieces that compose your final grade. You receive 1.25 credits for this class: the extra credit reflects the fact that this course requires more time, both in-class and out of class, than 1 credit courses--you need to plan accordingly. The points in the course reflect all aspects of the research process, including the fact that successful research culminates in a clear, well-written research paper. Thus, much of your grade will be determined by the final grade on your paper; the paper itself should reflect how much you have learned through the semester about the many different aspects of research. The remainder of the points for the course are distributed across a variety of tasks: as in research itself, conscientiousness and pacing in this course will pay off. In contrast, neglecting assignments as we go along will whittle away at your point total in ways that will show up at the end of the semester (2 points here, 3 points there--it adds up!). Mistakes that are attended to carefully along the way, don’t have particularly dire consequences, however. Drafts of the 4 major sections of your paper are required. If you do not hand in these drafts, you will not receive any points, and I can guarantee that your final paper will also suffer from lack of feedback (writing a good research paper is not a particularly intuitive process--you need input!). One point will be subtracted for each day the drafts are late, but more importantly, handing in drafts late will decrease the amount of time, and consequently the amount of feedback, that I will be able to provide.

ATTENDANCE in class is vital! Much of your work will be done in class, and much of what we cover is not discussed in the textbook. Moreover, our research is done in groups. Missing class means that your group has to work without you, in ways that will be difficult to make up. If you do not think that you will be able to attend, ON TIME, the vast majority of classes this semester, you should arrange to take this course at some other time, or to take some other course.

GOALS: We have several goals we hope to accomplish during this course, all of which will require your active participation. These goals include: becoming more sophisticated consumers of psychological research (and research in general); learning the conventions of personality research and psychological writing according to APA format; becoming familiar with key methodological and theoretical research concepts; developing an area of substantive knowledge within personality; developing experience and expertise in problem definition, critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity, and teamwork.

CLASS SCHEDULE
N.B.: Scheduling for this course is of necessity tentative, because the unexpected frequently occurs during the research process. As we go along, discussion topics will be tailored to the specific projects that we develop in class. Please keep abreast of announcements during class--they have the same status as the syllabus.

DATE TOPIC

Tue 9/5 INTRODUCTION & LOGISTICS

ASSIGNMENT: Find article for presentation and discussion next class (see handout).

Thur 9/7 Class presentations on articles & Discussion of operationalization, Ethics & preparation of ethics proposals, and other concepts. MEET IN SCI 268 until 3

 

Tue 9/12 Continuation of class presentations; stats intro in 450 at 3. MEET IN SCI 268 until 3.

 

Thur 9/14 Reliability & Validity introduction; Kinds of measures used in personality research; Discussion of different constructs and scales for inclusion in 101 testing; Form groups to brainstorm, in preparation for literature searches & hypothesis generation. We'll meet in SCI 450 for the rest of the term, unless otherwise noted below or in class.

 

T 9/19 Reliability & validity, cont. SPSS work; Measurement issues

TH 9/21 Class discussion of lit. searches, brainstorming & hypothesis generation; finalizing groups and project outlines.

T 9/26 Begin compiling measures to be used & working on ethics proposals. Debbie Swenson's presentation on using the Research Pool.

TH 9/28 SPSS & Statistics; Strengths & weaknesses of correlational & experimental research

Continue compiling measures.

T 10/3 Discussion of convergent methods in personality; finalize study plans; Work on ethics proposals.

TH 10/5 Last minute details/rehearsal/etc; Final prep. for scheduling & running 101 pool participants.

ETHICS PROPOSAL DUE

T 10/10 FALL BREAK--NO CLASS

TH 10/12 Continue data collection; in class computer work.

T 10/17 Disc. of data entry; file set-ups for individual projects

ARTICLE CRITIQUE DUE

TH 10/19 DATA DATA DATA

T 10/24 Analytic strategies for our data; continue data entry

TH 10/26 DATA ENTRY

T 10/31 Continue working on analysis plan; continue data entry

TH 11/2 Group work in consultation w/JKN

T 11/7 Group work in consultation w/JKN

TH 11/9 Group work in consultation w/JKN

PAPER PROPOSAL/ANALYSIS PLAN DUE

T 11/14 Group work in consultation w/JKN

 

TH 11/16 Group work in consultation w/JKN;work on intro & methods draft

T 11/21 Ditto;

INTRO & METHODS DRAFTs DUE!

TH 11/23 THANKSGIVING VACATION - NO CLASS

T 11/28 GROUP PROJECT WORK/Individual meetings

TH 11/30 GROUP PROJECT WORK/Individual meetings

T 12/5 GROUP PROJECT WORK/Individual meetings

TH 12/7 LAST CLASS: Class presentations

RESULTS & DISCUSSION DRAFTs DUE!

**FINAL PAPERS DUE AT 4:30 p.m. on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19th.**

THIS IS A COLLEGE DEADLINE, AND IS NOT IN THE LEAST BIT FLEXIBLE

Papers should either be handed to me personally, or handed in to Pat Paul in SCI 466.

DO NOT LEAVE PAPERS or ASSIGNMENTS IN MY MAILBOX.

Plagiarism is a violation of the College honor code, (as well as a serious ethical violation generally) and will be dealt with via the College Judiciary. No credit will be given for plagiarized work, and credit for the course will be in jeopardy if plagiarism is confirmed. Plagiarism is the use of another author’s words and/or ideas, without clear attribution to that author. If you have any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism (and many students do!), please talk to me.

YOU MUST KEEP A COPY OF YOUR PAPER.

Links/Resources:

coming soon!


Created: July 10, 2001
Last Modified: July 26, 2001
Created by: Leslie Chang and Natalie Ng
Maintained by: Julie K. Norem