PSYCHOLOGY 362 - L03

LABORATORY IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Spring 2006, Tuesday: 12:15 – 2:45

Location: 133 Science Center

Instructor: Dr. C. Vincent Spicer

Office Location: 65 Coming Street, Room 210

Office Hours: Wednesday 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Thursday 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

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 in class on February 14^th. 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 be penalized 10 points. Papers more than three days late will not be accepted.

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 in class on March 21^st and April 18^th, respectively. For each paper, students will submit the title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference sections of the paper. Late papers will be penalized 10 points. Papers more than three days late will not be accepted.

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 will be assigned as follows:

A = 90 – 100

B+ = 88 – 89

B = 80 – 87

C+ = 78 – 79

C = 70 – 77

D = 60 – 69

F = 59 or less

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 Survey of Research Studies

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: 1:45 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 7 SPRING BREAK NO CLASS

March 14 Research Project-2: Data Analysis APA Review

March 21 Research Project-3: Research Topic

RESEARCH PROJECT - 2 PAPER DUE

March 28 Research Project-3: Design & Procedure SPSS Review

April 4 Research Project-3: Procedure Research Exercise

April 11 Research Project-3: Data Analysis

April 18 RESEARCH PROJECT - 3 PAPER DUE