My Availability:

As you can see from the above information, there are a variety of ways to reach me. I check my voice mail and email regularly. Also, I very much welcome you to stop by my office during my office hours, whether it’s for a discussion of course issues or just for saying hello. If you wish to see me in person, yet it is not during an office hour or you don’t have an appointment, feel free to stop by anyhow. If I’m not in class or otherwise busy, I’d be happy to meet with you.

Required Texts:

William Ray’s (2002) Methods Toward a Science of Behavior and Experience (7th ed.)

Gary Heiman’s (2002) Basic Statistics (4th ed.)

Robert Terrin's (2004) Pocket Guide to APA Style

You will also need a calculator with a square root function.

Aims of the Course:

The purpose of this course is to examine the links between fundamental questions about human nature and the scientific principles and procedures used to answer those questions. That is, you will learn how professional research psychologists practice their craft. If you intend to become a professional psychologist, this course will be of particular value because to become one requires advanced training at the graduate level. And if you didn’t know it already, know now that graduate training in psychology requires a rigorous grounding in research methodology and statistics. These subject matters are the heart of the two-semester sequence in which you are now enrolled. But…not planning on becoming a professional psychologist? Not interested in research and statistics? It is true that only a small percentage of psychology majors end up employed as professional psychologists. And among professionals, most are not research psychologists (although they, too, should have a thorough grounding in scientific methodology). Therefore, if you have no intention of becoming a research psychologist, or a psychologist of any sort for that matter, you may ask, "Why is this course required? Of what value is it to me—I’m only interested in helping people and I don’t like math?" These are legitimate questions, and fortunately, the answer to them is straightforward. Simply, don’t think for a minute that research methods and statistics lack relevance for you no matter what your career aspirations. You currently are and will continue to be a decision maker. Many decisions you make are mundane and trivial, but many are tough and carry tremendous consequences. Flipping a coin to decide on whether you vacation at the Cape or in the mountains is one thing, but nontrivial choices require an ability to think logically, an ability to look beyond the emotional, and an ability to evaluate and integrate sometimes conflicting information. Consider the following:
 

•  A friend tells you that the son of an acquaintance committed suicide after listening to heavy metal rock music. Your daughter loves heavy metal music. Should you confiscate her CDs? Prohibit her from buying more? Do you forbid her to attend concerts?

•  A member of a Presidential Commission announces that pornography causes rape. You discover that your son has been visiting adults-only sites on the WEB and has a Penthouse magazine hidden under his bed? Is he a potential rapist?

• A magazine article reports that working mothers do irreparable harm to their childrens’ social development. You’re a woman, both happy in your career and thinking of starting a family. Should you quit your job?

•  You’re serving on a jury, hearing a murder case in which a single eyewitness testifies confidently against the defendant. Is the witness’s confidence sufficient reason for returning a guilty verdict?

Before hastily deciding to ban records, burn magazines, give up a promising career, or convict a possibly innocent person, I would hope you’d first gather more information, evaluate it, and then make a decision as to the best course of action. But that is easier said than done. What information is pertinent? Where can that information be found? Who provided it? Is the information reliable? Is it valid? How can you tell? As you can see, there’s a lot you need to know.

The point I’m trying to make is that your ability to ask and answer these and other questions will be enhanced to the extent that you learn about and understand the process that underlies scientific research. Without such knowledge your ability to make decisions of consequence will be severely compromised. To help you obtain that knowledge I will explore with you what scientific research is and is not; its purposes; its functioning; its rewards; its limitations. By doing so I hope you take from here a set of skills that you’ll find valuable as you face the never ending task of best deciding how to live your life to its fullest. This course isn’t just for future graduate students; it’s for everybody.

Attendance:

Attendance is mandatory. The material in the course builds progressively and missing too much would prevent you from making satisfactory progress in completing the course requirements. In order to encourage regular attendance everyone starts the course with 100 points for attendance. These points are counted toward your final grade. For each unexcused absence you will lose 10 points. Unexcused absences are defined in two ways:
 

•  You are not physically present at roll call and you have not notified me in advance to explain your absence. Roll call will occur at 11:15 am. If you miss it you are absent. If you arrive late you are encouraged to stay, but you will still be marked absent.

•  You are not prepared for class. Assume, for example, that you are present at roll call, but during class I ask you to provide an answer for homework or contribute to a class discussion based on an assigned reading. If your homework has not been done, or if you have not done the readings, I will consider you to be absent. Point—not being prepared for class carries a consequence.

Food:

I realize that we meet during a part of the day which is traditionally lunch time for many. Nonetheless, food is not permitted in the classroom. Past experience shows that food is disruptive to the person eating it and to the people watching (and smelling and listening to) the eater. It is also messy. Please eat lunch before or after class. Liquid refreshments are permissible.

Cell Phones:

Please turn off your cell phone before entering class. Cell phones that go off during class time have tremendous potential for sending me into (ala Conan O'Brien) "the rage cage".

Grades:

Final letter grades are based on the following criteria:
 

•  Satisfactory completion of all assignments.

•  Exam performance. There will be 5 exams throughout the semester. Exams are open-book for statistical computations and closed-book for statistical concepts. Other content (methods) is also closed-book. The format for exams includes short-answer essays, identifications, critical thinking problems, and statistical problems.

•  Lab reports. One goal of this course is to teach you how to write a scientific report using the style guidelines specified by the publication manual of the American Psychological Association. We will conduct several class projects for which formal lab reports are required. All final drafts of lab reports must be word-processed.

Written work will be graded on quality of writing as well as stylistic considerations. Multiple drafts of all written work are therefore essential. Plan on submitting rough drafts, engaging in peer-review, and drawing on resources offered by the UniversityWriting Center, located in the bottom level of Lamson Library.

All assignments are due at 11:15 am on the announced due date. Any assignments submitted after this time without prior approval will not be accepted and will earn a zero. I reserve the right to judge the adequacy of any explanations for late assignments.

All exams, homework assignments, and lab reports, as well as attendance, carry a specified number of points (e.g., exams and lab reports are each worth 100 points). Final letter grades will be based on the total number of points earned over the course of the semester. If, for example, it were possible to earn a maximum of 700 points, a student who earned 630 would have 90% of all possible points, which would translate into an A-. Other grades will be determined along a similar percentage basis.

Academic Integrity:

Everyone is expected to uphold the standards of academic integrity that characterize the Plymouth State University learning community. All work submitted is to be your own. When you use the works of others in your writing, proper citations must be used. Fabrication of data is an especially egregious violation of the academic integrity policy. If I suspect that you have committed a violation of the University's policy, I will pursue it through the appropriate channels. If you are found guilty of violating the academic integrity policy, you run the risk of failing the course or, in extreme cases, being suspended or expelled from the University. Please familiarize yourself with PSU's policy. The University’s policy on academic integrity is fully explained on pages 32-34 of the PSU Academic Catalog.

                                       Tentative Course Outline

Unit I: Overview—General Principles of Scientific Psychology

A. What is science? (Ray, chapter 1)

B. Introduction to the Methods of Science (Ray, chapter 2;  Heiman, chapter 1, chapter 2 )

C. Developing Hypotheses (Ray, chapter 3)

D. Ethics (Ray, chapter 14)

EXAM I

Unit 2: General Quantitative Principles/Basic Scientific Writing

A. Describing Behavior Numerically (Ray, chapter 4; Heiman, chapter 3)

B. Writing Research Reports (Ray, chapter 15)

EXAM II

Unit 3: Descriptive Statistics

A. Measures of Central Tendency and Variability (Heiman, chapter 4, chapter 5)

B. z-Scores and the Normal Curve Model (Heiman, chapter 6)

EXAM III

Unit 4: Describing Relationships

A. Correlations (Heiman, chapter 7)

B. Linear Regression (Heiman, chapter 8)

EXAM IV

Unit 5: Foundations of Inferential Statistics

A. Probability (Ray, chapter 5; Heiman, chapter 9)

B. Sampling Distributions and Hypothesis Testing (Ray, chapter 6; Heiman, chapter 10)

C. Significance Testing for a Single Mean  (Heiman, chapter 11)

FINAL EXAM: Friday, December 17th—11:00 am