Syllabus

Course Objectives 

The primary goals of this course are for students to (1) learn how to locate, read and evaluate psychological literature and (2) develop critical thinking and communication skills. Attempts to achieve these goals require knowledge of basic concepts, techniques, language and logic of research methods and data analyses in psychology. This course is structured around the belief that one of the best ways to obtain these objectives is through active participation in the research process. Accordingly, the course is comprised of both lectures and laboratory sections. In other words, basic information and knowledge will be presented in the assigned readings and lectures. Students are then encouraged to build on this knowledge and are introduced to some of the intricacies of psychological research in smaller laboratory sections where students are exposed to the research of others, as well as being involved in the planning, designing and carrying out of their own research projects.  In the end, a successful student will be able to communicate and think critically about research, and will thus be prepared for more advanced psychology courses. 

Required Text

Ray, W. J. (2005). Methods Towards a Science of Behavior and Experience (8^th Ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

    Grading

Grades in this course will be based on exams (36%), papers (27%), and laboratory assignments and participation (37%). Exams will be multiple-choice, with a combination of objective and problem solving formats. Exams are non-cumulative. Students are responsible for all material covered in assigned readings, lectures, and laboratory sections. Material not covered in the text is often discussed in lecture and in lab. All exams will be given during regularly scheduled course meetings, with one exception. If the last day of courses is cancelled due to weather, Exam 4 will be given during the regularly scheduled FINAL EXAM period, which will be posted on elion October 4.

 Extra Credit

     Students may also earn up to 30 points of extra credit in a variety of ways:  

1.       Research Participation. Students may earn extra credit by participating in research projects. Ten points of extra credit will be given for each hour of research participation. A student may earn a maximum of 30 points of extra credit (i.e., 3 hours of study participation). Opportunities to participate in research will be announced in class. Once you have participated in a study you will need to complete the research participation form, which asks you to identify the hypothesis and the independent and dependent variable(s) of the study in which you participated. These forms can be found on the course web page and must be turned in to your lab instructor. Your lab instructor will keep track of your extra-credit points. There is no guarantee that there will be sufficient opportunities to allow all students to earn the maximum number of extra credit points. Important: students must show up (on time) for the experiments for which you have signed up or cancel with advance notice. Strict records will be kept and students who have failed to show up for experiments (without canceling) will not be allowed to make up these extra credit opportunities.

2.       Talk Summaries. You may write single page papers summarizing talks given in the Department of Psychology. I will announce all talks that are approved for this purpose at the class meetings. Each summary you write for a talk you attended will be worth 10 points. There is no guarantee that there will be enough talks to earn the maximum number of extra credit points.  

3.       Research Reports. Students may write a five page research report worth up to 30 points of extra credit. All extra credit research reports must be turned in during labs that meet November 27, 29 or 30)-no exceptions. Papers may be on one of the following types:  

a.    Journal Research: Representation of women in psychology. The questions to be addressed by the paper are whether women really are underrepresented in the field of psychology and whether the statistics changed over time? Go to the library and select a psychology journal. For each of the years, 1981, 1991 and 2000, select two issues of the journal (e.g., January and June). For each month record the following information:

Total number of articles

Number of first authors who are women

Number of second or later authors who are women

Total number of authors (i.e., add up all the authors on all the articles) 

For each year also take one issue (i.e., a single month) and record,

Number of editors (see inside page of journal, i.e., count all types of   

       editors together, i.e., editor, associate editors, consulting editors).

Number of editors who are women 

Record individuals whose names do not reveal their gender in a separate category as other (e.g., Pat Smith or Chris Miller could be either a man or a woman). For each year, compute the percentage of women who were first, second, third, fourth authors, ect. relative to the total number of second and later authors in that issue. Do the same for the editors. Once you have done this separately for each of the three years, write a report summarizing your findings. Your research report should include (a) a brief introduction that lays out your expectations and generally explains how you are going to test your predictions, (b) a method section that lays out the details of the journal and issues you examined for each year, (c) a results section, where you graph and describe your findings, and (d) a brief discussion, where you interpret the meaning of your findings and consider possible reasons for why you found what you did.  

b.  Literature review. Alternatively, you may locate three or four published articles on a topic of interest, which must be pre-approved by your TA and different from your Paper 1 and Paper 2 topic. You may then write a paper reviewing the main points and findings of the three published pieces of research. Copies of each reviewed article must be turned in with your paper. Papers completed on topics that were not pre-approved by the TA will not be accepted. All literature reviews on the same topic will be compared to assure that only original work receives credit. Academic dishonesty, even on an extra credit assignment, will result in an F for the course.

General Policies 

Attendance: Attendance is important. Material will be presented in lecture and lab that is not covered in the book and you will be held responsible for that information. Additionally, you will seriously jeopardize your grade if you choose to miss lab meetings or lectures; you will loose valuable experience participating in demonstrations and group tasks, as well as missing assignments and exercises (there is an assignment that is worth points every week). Opportunities to make up lab activities will be available only for students with medical or family emergencies. However, you need to contact your GTA prior to the course meeting so that arrangements can be made to make-up missed work. Missing class will also mean missing important discussions of assignments and papers, as well as review of difficult test material. You may also miss announcements about scheduling changes and extra credit opportunities. You are responsible for all announcements made in lecture and lab sections regardless of whether or not you attend class. Finally, if you miss labs and lectures you may miss opportunities to earn in-class extra credit points.

Late work: Lab-assignments that are completed in class will not be accepted late (i.e., will receive a zero) except from those students who have serious medical or family emergencies. Other late work (larger lab assignments and papers) will be penalized at a rate of 5 percent per day. For example, if a paper that would have received a grade of 80 points is turned in one week late it will be worth 65 percent of the original grade (52 points). Non-penalty extensions may be granted in the case of a family or medical emergency, but only if discussed with the TA and instructor prior to the due date. Except where noted, assignments are due on the day the lab section meets. Work will not be accepted after the beginning of finals period without prior approval from both the TA and the instructor.

Make-up policy: Make-up exams will be given only in the case of medical or family emergency and if you have contacted your GTA prior to the exam.  

Accommodation for special needs: The Pennsylvania State University encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please talk to the instructor or a teaching assistant as soon as possible.

Office hours: Addresses and office hours for teaching assistants will be provided on your first day of lab, as well as being posted on the course web page (see above). I hold office hours every week. I am also happy to make appointments and to speak briefly following class. You can also reach me via my office phone or email (which I check Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings). I do, however, ask that you please refrain from calling me at home. If you need to reach me to notify me of an emergency it is fine to leave a phone message or send an email.

Academic Integrity: Academic integrity refers to honest and ethical behavior in all aspects of academic activity. This includes: not cheating on exams or homework assignments (e.g., copying the work of others or using crib notes), not passing off someone else's ideas as your own (plagiarism), not engaging in dishonesty of any kind with regard to your class participation and assignments. Importantly, copying material off the web is plagiarism and a serious form of academic dishonesty that will result in an F and academic actions. You will need a calculator for one or two of the exams. However, you may not use a graphing calculator. Cheating is not a difficult issue, if you do it and you get caught, you will receive an F in the class. You will also receive a grade of zero on any exam on which you choose to use a graphing calculator. If finances prohibit you from purchasing a second calculator, speak to the instructor or your TA prior to the exam date and you will be provided with a calculator to use.

Plagiarism is a more difficult issue. Of course, turning in a paper or exam written by someone else is a violation of academic integrity: it’s cheating. If caught cheating the stiffest penalties allowed by University policy will be imposed upon you. There are, however, other behaviors that fall under the rubric of plagiarism. We’ll discuss in class what this means. However, the basic idea is that any work you present must be your own. A general guideline is that you should acknowledge the source of ideas you use; we’ll talk in class and labs about how to do this.

Course Schedule: A tentative course schedule appears on the final two pages. The schedule outlines the assigned readings and major assignments. There are additional assignments administered in the laboratory sections and lecture that are not listed on the schedule. Additionally, the following schedule is provided so that you can plan your semester while thinking about the major assignments you need to complete. However, it is important to remember that it is a tentative schedule, meaning that there may be changes in the dates of exams, dues dates for various assignments, or content of assigned readings. Any changes will be announced in class at least one week in advance. Students are responsible for any changes announced in class or laboratory sections whether or not they are present

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