Social Psychology Lab   PSYC 362-001  CofC  Spring, 2007  Mondays 9:15 – 11:45 a.m.  133 Science Center

 

Instructor:        Lisa Thomson Ross, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, rossl@cofc.edu,  http://www.cofc.edu~rossl/

                            65 Coming Street, Room 209, 953-6776

 

Office Hours:   Tuesdays 9 – 10:30 am, Wednesdays 1:30 – 3 p.m., and by appointment

 

Readings:              American Psychological Association.  (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological

                                                Association, 5th ed. Washington, DC: APA Publishing.

Coursepack.  Available at SAS-E INK on Wentworth near King (across from Andolini’s Pizza).

               

Overview and Objectives:  Social Psychology is the scientific study of thinking about, influencing, and relating to one another.  The Social Psychology Laboratory course focuses on the research methods of this discipline, including observational, survey and experimental methods, as well as the study of ethics.  Students learn skills and knowledge to critically evaluate as well as conduct social psychology research.  This is a hands-on, writing-intensive course to teach APA style;  students will be expected to present results via a poster and an oral report as well. The process will be based on small group cooperation to design the research projects and carry them out (via data collection, entry, cleaning, analysis, and interpretation).  Written outcomes (papers) will be the result of individual effort, whereas oral and visual outcomes will be the result of collaboration.

 

Prerequisites:   General/Introductory Psychology (PSYC 103, or HONS 163), Statistics (PSYC 211), and Research Methods (PSYC 220) are all prerequisite courses.  Social Psychology (PSYC 310) is a prerequisite or corequisite course.

 

Expectations:  The instructor’s expectations of herself include:  1) providing lectures, facilitating discussions, and incorporating relevant materials; 2) providing fair evaluations to assess learning, including feedback in a reasonable time frame;  3) guiding groups through the research process; and 4) maintaining an atmosphere conducive to learning.  Dr. Ross expects to follow the syllabus closely, however, changes may be necessary due unforeseen circumstances.

 

Students are expected to:  1) participate in class discussions regularly; 2) read assignments prior to class discussions of topics; 3) complete assignments on time; 4) check e-mail account frequently for announcements; 5) bring a portable disc or device for saving data and their APA Publication Manual to class each day; 6) demonstrate knowledge via an exam, writing assignments, and alternative presentation formats (poster and oral report); and 7) be productive and respectful team members.

 

Additional Assistance Information: You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the writing lab and seminars offered by the College Skills Lab (Center for Student Learning, 953-5635). Also, if you believe you have a learning disability, ADD, or other challenges please contact SNAP (Special Needs and Advising Plan) Services at 953-1431.  SNAP services will verify students’ needs and recommend specific accommodations.

 

Grading:

Source

Points

%

 

Exam

20

10

 

Observational Paper

50

25

 

Survey Paper

50

25

 

Experimental Paper

50

25

 

Alternative Presentations

20

10

 

Participation & Professional Demeanor

10

5

 

TOTAL

200

 

 

 

Final Grades:

Total Points

%

Grade

 

184 points       

92%

A

 

180

90%

A-

 

174

87%

B+

 

166

83%       

B

 

160

80%

B-

 

154

77%

C+

 

146

73%

C

 

140

70%

C-

 

134

67%

D+

 

126

63%

D

 

120

60%

D-

 

Below 120

 

F

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLICIES

 

Attendance Policy:  Attendance is mandatory and essential.  You are required to attend all class meetings because missed lab work, in general, cannot be made up.  Thus, you will be dropped from the course if you have an unexcused absence – that is, an absence you did not notify me about ahead of time and/or you cannot get official documentation about it and/or Dr. Ross doesn’t agree that it is a reasonable reason for missing a lab.  As a courtesy, please notify Dr. Ross 30 minutes or more ahead of time if you will be missing class due to an excused absence or if you will be more than 5 minutes late to class.   If there is a reasonable reason for missing a lab and you notify Dr. Ross ahead of time, you will be required to provide documentation on official stationary for any excused absence, signed by a physician, a mortician, or an attorney.  More than one excused absence, however, may result in being dropped from the course at the instructor’s discretion.  This is a very bad time to get a serious chronic illness! Your research team members are counting on your being there.

 

Policy for Handing in Assignments:  Your papers are due at the beginning of the class session on the due date, usually about 5 minutes after class officially begins.    BEING LATE TO CLASS MEANS YOUR ASSIGNMENT IS LATE.   If you do not turn these in on time, slide them under my office door at 65 Coming Street (room 209) as soon as you can. Unless instructed otherwise, please do not interrupt class to turn them in after they are called for, do not turn them in at the end of class, and do not put them in my psychology department mailbox.  Exceptions must be cleared IN ADVANCE.  No materials will be accepted after the last day of class of the regular semester has ended.  Points will be deducted for assignments that are late as follows:

 

- 10% if turned in later that day or the next day (Tuesday) before noon.

- 20% if turned in before noon the next Wednesday.

- 30% if turned in by noon the next Thursday.

- 40% if turned in by noon the next Friday.

- 50% if turned in at the beginning of the next lab session.

 

Make-Up Exam Policy:  A make-up test is possible, only for an official absence or emergency situation.  Notify Dr. Ross as soon as you are aware you will need a make up.  To qualify, you MUST give notification to Dr. Ross at least 30 minutes PRIOR to the exam.  Also, you will be required to provide documentation on official stationary for this excused absence, signed by a physician, a mortician, or an attorney. 

 

Policy for Written Assignments.   Please type and double-space all papers using APA style, which includes 1” margins.  I prefer reading a 12-point, Times New Roman font.  As per APA style, when describing other researchers’ work, please cite author(s) last name(s) and do not name the title of the article or journal.

 

Plagiarism Information:  From The Honor Code Handbook, p.9 : “ The Honor Code of the College of Charleston specifically forbids …Plagiarism:

·         The verbatim repetition, without acknowledgement, of the writings of another author. All significant phrases, clauses, or passages, taken directly from source material must be enclosed in quotation marks and acknowledged either in the text itself or in footnotes/endnotes.

·         Borrowing without acknowledging the source.

·         Paraphrasing the thoughts of another writer without acknowledgement.

·         Allowing any other person or organization to prepare work which one then submits as his/her own.”

 

You will receive a handout on avoiding plagiarism.  Please read it carefully!   You will fail any paper containing plagiarism.  Omission of quotation marks is a 50% deduction, and other, more serious forms of plagiarism will lead to an automatic 0 for that assignment.

 

Extra Credit Policy:  You are encouraged to attend “job talks” by psychologists seeking employment at the College of Charleston.  While these are only worth 2 extra points each (4 max.) they will allow you the opportunity to hear professional presentations and give you an idea of what your presentation might look and sound like at the end of the semester.   You must hand in a brief and legible summary (i.e., one paragraph) of what you did and what you learned within one week of participating.   Extra credit opportunities based on the six job talks will be announced in class and/or via e-mail.  

 

 

GRADED COMPONENTS

 

Exam (20 points):  There will be one exam consisting of multiple choice and short answer questions, covering the material discussed/presented on APA style, ethics, and methods and statistics. 

 

Papers (50 points each, 150 points total):  There will be 3 papers due – one based on your observational research, one based on your survey research, and one based on your experimental research.  All papers will be graded based on following directions, conforming to APA style, using proper grammar and spelling, and expressing your ideas clearly.  Papers should be 8-11 pages long (5-7 pages of text, plus cover page, plus abstract page, plus reference page, plus table or figure).

 

All papers will include 4 appropriate and relevant articles in your introduction section.  The articles must be empirical articles having to do with your topic – that is, they are research articles that have collected data (so look for a method section and a results section in these articles). If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of your articles, have Dr. Ross look them over BEFORE the paper is due. Your articles should not be more than 10 years old – exceptions to this guideline should be cleared in advance with Dr. Ross.  Your articles must be from reputable journals - APA published journals qualify as such. Articles printed out from the Internet are not acceptable unless they are full reprints of a journal articles that include all tables and all figures.  Newspapers and trade publications (e.g., Psychology Today) do not count, nor do meta-analyses, dissertations, or review articles. 

 

Two weeks before the first paper (the observational paper) is due, you will turn in an outline of your paper, a References page (containing the journal articles you are including in your paper), and a Xeroxed copy of the abstracts from your four articles.  Please present these materials either bound together or in a folder.  The two to three page outline should briefly cover all sections of your paper (i.e., the introduction, Method, Results and Discussion sections).  Full sentences aren’t necessary in your outline.  Make sure your outline specifically states where each article fits into your paper, and give some details regarding the methods and the findings from each article. 

 

For the second paper (based on your survey research), you are encouraged to turn in a draft of the paper (in its entirety or whatever sections you have done at the time) one to two weeks ahead of the due date.

 

Alternative Presentations (20 points): In groups of two, you and a teammate will give a brief (10 minute total) oral report to the class based on the findings from one of your projects.  In addition, you and a different teammate (preferably from a different project) will make a poster that summarizes your research – this will resemble posters presented at professional meetings.  For both the oral and poster presentation, include a one-page handout for the “audience.”  Grading criteria and a sample poster will be provided in class.   The posters and oral reports will be presented during the final examination session.

 

Participation and Professional Demeanor (10 points):  Participation points (5 points) can be earned by asking questions, providing answers, summarizing class material, describing examples from your life that apply to course material, and offering information from your papers. Although you will lose points if you are not a respectful listener, respectfully listening when other people are talking does not contribute toward participation points.   Checking email during class time is not considered respectfully listening.  Professional demeanor (5 points) refers to conducting yourself in a respectful and courteous manner when dealing with classmates, the professor, and research participants;  this includes but is not limited to being a good “team player” on your research projects.  Therefore, your teammates will contribute their opinions as to a portion of your a portion of your professional demeanor grade.

 

 

 

Schedule (note: except for the “final exam” session, all class days are Mondays from 9:15-11:45 a.m.)

 

Date

Topic(s)

Due

1/8

Introduction to each other, the course, policies, topics

 

 

 

 

1/15

MLK Holiday

 

 

 

 

1/22

Review APA style;  Ethics discussion

Ethics training from NIH:  http://cme.nci.nih.gov/

Handouts on ethics and APA style;

 APA Manual, Appendix C

 

 

 

1/29

Review on Research Methods and Statistics

 

 

Coursepack Readings

 

 

 

2/5

Exam;

Learning PsycInfo and finding articles; 

Observation Project:  Plan study, design data set, begin data collection

NIH certificate

 

 

 

2/12

Exam feedback;

Observation Project: continue data collection; begin data entry 

Observation project data

 

 

 

2/19

Observation Project:  finish data collection and data entry,

clean and analyze and interpret data

Article abstracts, outline, & reference page for OP; 

 

 

 

2/26

Plan Survey Project

 

 

 

 

3/5

Spring Break

 

 

 

 

3/12

Survey Project: analyze and interpret data

Observation Paper

 

 

 

3/19

Plan Experimental Project & formalize protocols

Survey Paper Draft

 

 

 

3/26

Experimental Project:  begin data collection, design data set

Survey Paper

 

 

 

4/2

Experimental Project:  collect data, begin data entry 

Experimental Project data

 

 

 

4/9

Experimental Project: continue data collection and data entry

Experimental Project data

 

 

 

4/16

Experimental Project: finish data collection, entry, cleaning, & analysis

 

 

 

 

4/23
Wrap-up; course evaluation

Experimental Paper

 

 

 

4/30

8-11 am Oral Presentations & Poster Presentations

Oral Presentation & Handout, Research Poster & Handout