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SYLLABUS This syllabus can be found online in the Howdy schedule of classes. You can also lick here
for a printer friendly version of it as well.
REQUIRED TEXT
White, T. L., & McBurney, D. H. (2013). Research methods (9th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage. ➔
NOTE. The 8th, 7th, and 6th editions will also be acceptable;
just make sure you are referencing the correct chapters and
corresponding sections. And the author list for these previous
editions is "McBurney, D. H., & White, T. L."
RECOMMENDED TEXT
Arthur, W. Jr. (2018).
PSYC 204 Experimental Psychology lecture notes. [These lecture notes
can be obtained at:
http://people.tamu.edu/~w-arthur/302/
APA. (2009). Publication manual of
the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington DC: APA. http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx
PREREQUISITES Majors only; PSYC 107 and PSYC 301
COURSE DESCRIPTION Research techniques in psychology. Laboratory exercises applied to specified research-related problems in psychology.
LAB SECTIONS |
Section |
Lab Day/Time |
Room |
TA |
Office |
912 |
W 10:00–12:00 |
MILN 201 |
Tabina Choudhury |
TBA |
913 |
W 12:00–2:00 |
MILN 201 |
Omar Garcia |
TBA |
914 |
W 2:00–4:00 |
MILN 201 |
Elizabeth Jenkins
|
TBA
|
915 |
W 4:00–6:00 |
MILN 201 |
Haena Kim |
TBA |
WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COURSE
Policy
governing withdrawal from the course is in accordance with current
University regulations (see Student Rule 17 for details http:/student-rules.tamu.edu/rule17).
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The objectives
of this course are to provide you with an introduction to the
scientific research process, the research designs and methods commonly
used in psychological research, and an understanding of how to
communicate in the writing style of the discipline. At the end of
this course, successful students will be able to: - Demonstrate a basic understanding of the methods, techniques, and
procedures essential to good research design. In short, by the
end of the term, you should have a reasonable working knowledge of basic research methods and design concepts and principles.
- Demonstrate research skills developed through a combination of lecture and "hands-on" experiences in the lab.
- Understand and apply each step in the research process including
the literature search, generating hypotheses, operationalizing
variables, choosing the most appropriate research design, collecting
and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and writing the research
report.
- Apply these skills to become more informed consumers of research
studies presented to the public in the media and other outlets.
- Apply these skills to enhance understanding of material covered
in advanced courses (i.e., 300-400 level courses) in psychology and
other disciplines that use the scientific approach and empirical
research methods.
- Be better prepared to conduct research as part of a future job if warranted.
- Apply these skills as a solid foundation for graduate study in psychology and other scientific fields.
COURSE STRUCTURE
The
course consists of lectures and one 2-hour lab each week. Both
are required. Class lectures will focus on basic principles of
research design, drawing on examples from various research areas in
psychology and other disciplines. Although the material covered in
the lectures may parallel the topics covered in the textbook, it will
not necessarily duplicate the textbook word-for-word or
topic-for-topic. In other words, the lectures and textbook will
supplement each other to produce a more complete coverage of the
material than either would by itself. It is
expected that students would have read and reviewed the pertinent
material in both the textbook and lecture notes before the topic
is covered in class.
Lab. Thelab
is integral to your learning experience in this course; attendance is
therefore mandatory. Labs will be taught by your lab instructor
and will meet in Rm 201 in Milner Hall. The lab section of the course
will consist of computer modules/exercises and multiple writing
assignments which will comprise disciplinary-specific scientific
reports. Your lab instructor will provide a lab syllabus along
with further information on these assignments, which are intended to
provide you with opportunities to apply and communicate basic research
methods and design in the style of the discipline. Papers are
expected to be the product of the person submitting them and no one
else. In other words, although students may jointly work on some
parts of the paper such as the literature review, the written text must
be the student's own work with no collaboration by others. Cases
in which papers appear to be similar will be treated as possible
instances of plagiarism and will be handled according to university
regulations (see http://aggiehonor.tamu.edu/).
Papers and assignments should be submitted on the scheduled due dates. Your lab
instructor will establish penalties for late assignments and papers in accordance with
University regulations (see http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule07).
EXAMINATIONS AND GRADING POLICIES
Final course grades will be based
on performance on the following:
1. Exams (75%)
There
will be four (4) exams covering material from the lectures, textbook, and handouts. The fourth exam will be a comprehensive
final that will be administered on the University-scheduled finals
date. The other three exams will be non-cumulative and the
specific exam dates are noted below. Although the exams will use
a
predominantly multiple-choice format, there may be some write-in and
fill-in questions as well.
2. Lab (25%)
Details
on lab requirements, computer modules/exercises, writing
assignments, and grading criteria will be provided by your lab
instructor in class and in the Lab Syllabus your lab instructor will
distribute. IMPORTANT:
BECAUSE THIS IS A WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE, YOU CANNOT PASS THIS COURSE
(PER UNIVERSITY RULES ABOUT W COURSES) WITHOUT EARNING A PASSING GRADE
(60%) ON THE WRITING COMPONENTS. In other words, if you fail the writing lab component of
this course, you will fail the entire course, irrespective of your
final grade in the lecture component.
FINAL COURSE GRADE. The distribution of
scores across the various course components in terms of their
contribution to the final course grade will be as follows:
Exam 1 |
= 17% |
Exam 2 |
= 17% |
Exam 3 |
= 17% |
Final Exam |
= 24% |
Lab |
= 25% |
To assist you in gauging how well you are doing in the course as we progress through the various exams, you can download a grade calculator here.
You just need to enter your actual and/or hypothetical scores into
Column C to help estimate how well you need to do on the various
course-grade components to achieve your desired grade. I strongly
encourage you to make use of this tool after each exam.The
assignment of final course letter grades will be based on the scale
presented below. I use standard rounding rules to round to whole
numbers (i.e., .5 or higher rounds to the next whole number).
A
= 90–100 |
B
= 80–89 |
C
= 70–79 |
D
= 60–69 |
F
= below 60 |
Although
this is not necessarily a difficult course per se, to do well in this
course requires that you engage the material in a meaningful way.
Specifically, develop the habit of reviewing your notes, the posted
lecture notes, and the specified sections in the text book before class
and then take the responsibility of asking questions in class for
clarifications and expectations. The unique thing about
education—particularly higher education—is that it is not just a
service (me) or a good (this course); it is a process, and the learner
(YOU!!) takes an active role in creating its value. In short, YOU
are responsible and control what you get out of this course, and any
other course that you take in this university!! Related to that,
here are four
really good articles on strategies to maximize your learning and
subsequently success in this and other courses in college; (1) Putnam
et al. (2016), (2) Mueller & Oppenheimer (2014), (3) Payne et
al. (2017), and (4) Miyatsu et al. (2018). So, once again, if you are "lost" and/or do
not understand or grasp what is being covered, ASK QUESTIONS. Do
not assume that because no one else is asking questions, they all
understand the material and therefore, you will be "slowing the class
down." Far be from it!! Answering questions and clarifying
material is one of the reasons why I am here.
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PLEASE
NOTE THAT THE ASSIGNMENT OF COURSE GRADES WILL BE AS STATED IN THIS
SYLLABUS. I DO NOT AND WILL NOT ALTER THESE POLICIES ON A
CASE-BY-CASE BASIS. CONSEQUENTLY, PLEASE DO NOT
APPROACH ME AFTER GRADES HAVE BEEN POSTED TO EITHER ALTER YOUR GRADE OR
GIVE YOU ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES/ACTIVITIES TO CHANGE YOUR COURSE
GRADE.
EXTRA CREDIT QUIZZES AND EXERCISES
There may
occasionally be both unannounced and announced quizzes and/or
exercises. These will be optional.
These exercises and quizzes are used primarily for course pedagogical
purposes to gauge students' grasp of the materials, and incidentally,
also give students an opportunity to earn extra credit; there will be
no penalty for not doing them. However, because
extra credit activities are not part of the course requirements, there will be no make-ups on these activities. Exam CONTENT AND Dates
The content domain for each of the three exams is noted
in the "Course Outline" section below. You will need to bring a Gray Scantron
and a #2 pencil to class on exam day. The dates for Exams 1, 2,
and 3 are as follows: Exam 1 = February 19th Exam 2 = March 26th Exam 3 = April 23rd The
Final Exam will be on the University-scheduled finals date; please
consult the Spring 2019 Final Exam Schedule at http://registrar.tamu.edu/Courses,-Registration,-Scheduling/Final-Examination-Schedules#0-Spring2019. The Final Exam will be comprehensive, encompassing all the material covered in the course.Make–up Exams
Attendance at exams is mandatory.
Illness, death in the family, or other traumatic events unfortunately
are part of life. However, to help manage the course and maintain
some level of fairness across all students in the class, the policy
concerning make-up exams is in strict accordance with University policy
(see http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule07).
So, if you have an excused absence per this policy, then I will make
arrangements for you to take the missed exam during office hours; however you must contact me no later than one class period after the missed exam.
If you do not have an excused absence, the comprehensive final exam may
be counted double (i.e., for one, and only one missed exam), if you inform me no later than one class period after the missed exam that you would like to do so.
CLASS ATTENDANCE
Because
the vast portion of the material covered by each exam will come from
the lectures, class attendance is mandatory. However, attendance
will not be directly monitored and there will be no direct penalty for
absences. That being said, if you miss class, please do NOT send
me an email asking "Did you do anything important today?" or "What did
we cover today?" It is YOUR responsibility to obtain lecture
notes from a classmate if you miss class. So, identify a friend
and exchange contact information on the first day! In addition,
as previously noted, outlines for the lectures can be found at http://people.tamu.edu/~w-arthur/302/
Please ensure that your cell phone (and its usage) does not disrupt
class. If your phone has to be on during class for emergency reasons, then please ensure that it is set to a silent mode. Finally, you do not have my permission to electronically record (either audio and/or video) my lectures.
LAB
ATTENDANCE
Lab attendance is mandatory and will be monitored by your lab instructor in accordance with Student Rule 7 (see http://student-rules.tamu.edu/rule07).
Again, your lab instructor will distribute a lab syllabus that provides
more detailed information about the lab attendance policy. There
no labs the
first week of classes.
Course
Outline (The lecture notes for specified topics will be posted as we progress through the semester.)
TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
Additional
Reading |
Exam 1
1.
Psychology and the Scientific Method
2. Research Validity
3. Variables and Measurement |
1 6 5
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Note. Chapters 2, 4, 14, and 15 should be read for your labs. This block of material will be part of the Final Exam.
In
addition, Chapters 14 and 15 are a good review source for material and
concepts that were covered in PSYC 301. Consequently, you are
very strongly encouraged to continuously review this material for ALL
the TOPICS and EXAMS.
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Exam 2
4. Control
5.
Experimental Research Designs |
7 10, 11, 12
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Exam 3
6. Quasi-Experimental Designs
7. Observational Designs
8.
Correlational Designs
9.
Survey Research
10.
Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Designs
11.
Meta-Analysis
12.
Ethics in Research |
13
8
8
9
13
13
3 |
Final Exam |
Comprehensive |
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Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
"The
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination
statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons
with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires
that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning
environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their
disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an
accommodation, please contact Disability Services, currently
located in the Disability Services building at the Student Services at
White Creek complex on west campus or call 845-1637. For
additional information visit http://disability.tamu.edu".
Academic Integrity
Statement and Policy
"AGGIE HONOR CODE.
'An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do.'
Upon
accepting admission to Texas A&M University, a student immediately
assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility
for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor
System. Students will be required to state their commitment on
examinations, research papers, and other academic work. Ignorance
of the rules does not exclude any member of the TAMU community from the
requirements or the processes of the Honor System. For additional
information, please visit http://student-rules.tamu.edu/aggiecode".
Plagiarism—Faculty Senate Addendum
"The
handouts used in this course are copyrighted. By 'handouts', I
mean all material generated for this class, which include but are not
limited to syllabi, quizzes, exams, lab problems, in-class materials,
review sheets, and additional problem sets. Because these
materials are copyrighted, you do not have the right to copy the
handouts, unless I expressly grant permission to do so.
As
commonly defined, plagiarism consists of passing off as one's own
ideas, words, writings, etc., which belong to another. In
accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you
copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you
should have the permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of
the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among
colleagues without which research cannot be safely communicated.
If
you have any questions regarding plagiarism, please consult the latest
issue of the Texas A&M University Student Rules, under the section
'Scholastic Dishonesty'."
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