PSYCHOLOGY 362 - L03

LABORATORY IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Spring 2008, Thursday: 12:30 – 3:00

Location: 133 Science Center

 

Instructor:                  Dr. C. Vincent Spicer

Office Location:         65 Coming Street, Room 210

Office Hours:             Tue. Thur.  11:00 am – 12:00 noon

                                    Friday  9:00 am – 11:00 am

                                    And by appointment

Phone:             953-6785

E-mail:                        spicercv@cofc.edu

 

COURSE MATERIALS

Required:      American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American                                                                                                                                                                    Psychological Association, 5th ed. Washington, DC: APA Publishing

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is an introduction to research methods in social psychology.  The major goal of the course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to conduct independent research and to critically evaluate research. The course will explore a variety of data gathering methods (e.g., experimentation, surveys, interviewing, and/or observation). Students will design and conduct research studies, analyze data, interpret findings, draw conclusions and implications from the data, and write APA style research reports.

 

COURSE PREREQUISITE

Students must have completed Introduction to Psychological Science (Psychology 103), Psychological Statistics (Psychology 211), Research Methods (Psychology 220), and

Social Psychology (Psychology 310) or currently be enrolled in Social Psychology (Psychology 310).

 

ATTENDANCE

Students are required to attend all class meetings.  Missed laboratory work generally cannot be made up.  Thus, any unexcused absence may result in the student being dropped from the class. Only absences for extreme circumstances or serious illness will be considered for excuse and even these absences may only be excused if the student delivers to the instructor authentic documentation or written medical excuse signed by a physician on official stationary. 

 

EVALUATION OF COURSE PERFORMANCE 

Exam: There will be only one exam during the semester, which will consist of objective and/or short-answer questions. The exam will be given in class.

Make-up exam: If you know that you are going to miss the exam, you must contact the instructor to make arrangements to take the exam before the scheduled time of the exam.  If you miss the exam due to other reasons such as illness, you must deliver to the instructor a written medical excuse signed by a physician on his/her official stationary.  Only those students who miss the exam and have excusable reasons that can be documented (e.g., on a doctor's official stationary) will be allowed to take the alternative version of the exam (of equal length and difficulty to the regularly scheduled exam).

 

 

 

 

 

OBSERVATIONAL/CORRELATIONAL STUDY

The class will design and conduct an observational or a correlational study. A report of the study in APA format is due at the beginning of class on February 14th.  For this paper, students will submit the title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference sections of the paper.  The reference section will include a minimum of five, peer-reviewed sources.  An expected report length is 6 to 10 pages (excluding the title page, abstract page and the reference page).  Late papers will not be accepted and the student will earn zero credit for the assignment.

 

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

The class will design and conduct two experimental studies and analyze the data.  The first study will use a simple design with one independent variable. The second study will use a factorial design with more than one independent variable or a design with more than one dependent variable. A report of each project in APA format is due at the beginning of class on March 20th and April 17th, respectively.  For each paper, students will submit the title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference sections of the paper. Late papers will not be accepted and the student will earn zero credit for the assignment.

 

GRADING: Students may earn a total of 400 regular points for the course.

            Exam                                                    100 points

            Observational /Correlational Paper        100 points

            Experimental Paper-1                           100 points

            Experimental Paper-2                           100 points

 

Final grades for the course (Old system):                New System

A         =          90 – 100          4.0                               A         =          93 – 100          4.0

B+       =          88 – 89            3.5                               A-        =          90 – 92            3.7

B          =          80 – 87            3.0                               B+       =          87 – 89            3.3

C+       =          78 – 79            2.5                               B          =          83 – 86            3.0

C         =          70 – 77            2.0                               B-        =          80 – 82            2.7

D         =          60 – 69            1.0                               C+       =          77 – 79            2.3

F          =          59 or less         0.0                               C         =          73 – 76            2.0

                                                                                    C-        =          70 – 72            1.7

                                                                                    D+       =          67 – 69            1.3

                                                                                    D         =          63 – 66            1.0

                                                                                    D-        =          60 – 62            0.7

                                                                                    F          =          59 or less         0.0

 

 

 

GENERAL INTERNET RESOURCES FOR SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

www.socialpsychology.org/

·        The Social Psychology Network, maintained by Scott Pious at Wesleyan University provides an updated database with links to more than 5,000 Internet resources on social psychology including information on social psychology doctoral programs, journals, online surveys, psychology organizations, and sources for research funding.

 

www.apa.org/students/brochure

·        This site, maintained by APA, discusses career options in psychology and provides suggestions for high school, college and graduate students on preparing for a psychology career.

 

 

 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

(Subject to modification)

 

DATE                                     TOPIC                                               READING ASSIGNMENT

 

January 10      Introduction and Review: Research Methods and Statistics

 

January 17      The Psychologist and the Experiment:                APA: Chapter 1

                   Ethics in Research; Research Project 1:

                   Research Topic; Library Resources: 2:00 pm

 

January 24      Research Project-1: Design & Procedure                     APA: Chapter 2; Section

                                                                                                            3.07 (Parentheses) &

                                                                                                            pages 94 -100 (Capitalization)

                                                                                                                                                                   

January 31      Research Project-1: Procedure                                    APA: pages 122-130

                                                                                                            (Numbers); pages 136-140;

                                                                                                            (Statistics); pages 207-213 &                                                                                                   pages 223-224 (References)

                                                                                                                                                           

February 7       EXAM                                                                      SPSS Review

                         Research Project-1: Data Analysis                              

 

February 14     Research Project-2: Research Topic                            Research Exercise

                         RESEARCH PROJECT - 1 PAPER DUE

 

February 21     Research Project-2: Design & Procedure                    

     

February 28     Research Project-2: Procedure                                    SPSS Review

 

March 6           NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK

 

March 13         Research Project-2: Data Analysis                               APA Review

 

March 20         Research Project-3: Research Topic

                         RESEARCH PROJECT - 2 PAPER DUE 

 

March 27         Research Project-3: Design & Procedure                     SPSS Review

 

April 3              Research Project-3: Procedure                                    Research Exercise

   

April 10            Research Project-3: Data Analysis                              

 

April 17            RESEARCH PROJECT - 3 PAPER DUE

 

LAST DAY OF CLASS:  April 23rd (Wednesday)

If there is a student in this class who has a documented disability and has been approved to receive accommodations through SNAP Services, please feel free to come and discuss this with me during my office hours.