Psy 241: Research Methods I (102)

Autumn 2008 Syllabus

Instructor: Peter Thaxter Office Hours: Mondays 9-11 AM and by appointment

Office: Byrne Hall 609 Course Meeting Time: T/Th 8:30-10:00 AM
Phone: (773) 325-4271 Course Meeting Room: Byrne Hall 351
Email:* pthaxter@depaul.edu Course Prerequisites: Psy 105/106 (Intro) and 240
(Stats) or equivalent

Course Objectives

1. To learn basic skills for designing and conducting psychological research and to
effectively communicate your findings
2. To learn skills for reading, evaluating, and critiquing psychological and scientific
research
3. To become a more informed psychological researcher and consumer of research

Although this class will involve weekly lectures, I am aiming to make the course highly
interactive. Much of class time will be devoted to class discussions, in-class activities,
and demonstrations of material covered in the course readings. Please make your best
effort to attend each class and be prepared to thoughtfully discuss that week’s material
and participate during in-class activities. These activities and demonstrations are
designed to further your knowledge and skill with course material and matter and make
you a more informed researcher and consumer of research. As such, attendance will be
highly valuable to you as well as the class.

Required Readings

Shaughnessy, J. J., Zechmeister, E. B., & Zechmeister, J. S. (2009). Research Methods in

Psychology (8th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Attendance

As mentioned, attendance for this class will be important because of the in-class activities
and demonstrations to allow you to gain hands-on experience with the material from the
course readings. I will not deduct points for missed classes but will offer extra credit for
those who miss 2 or fewer classes during the quarter:

0 absences: 7.5 points added to cumulative points

1 absences: 5 points added to cumulative points
2 absences: 2.5 points added to cumulative points

Assignments

There will a maximum of 5 in-class and/or homework assignments throughout the

quarter. These assignments are designed to increase your understanding of the material
through hands-on experience. In-class assignments cannot be completed or turned in if
you did not attend the class. Homework assignments are to be TYPED (unless otherwise
noted) and turned in on the assigned date. 2 points will be deducted for an assignment for
each day it is late. Each in-class and homework assignment will be worth 10 points
(equaling 50 points total for assignments), and points will be deducted for incomplete
assignments, messy work, or wrong answers. Assignments and instructions will be
posted on Blackboard.

Exams

There will be 3 exams during this course. Only 2 of the 3 exams will count towards your
final grade. If you miss one of the 3 exams, you will not be allowed to retake it at a later
date, but make sure you make it to the other 2 exams. The final exam is scheduled by the
university for Monday, November 24th – 8:45-11:00; it will take place in our regularly
scheduled room. Each exam will be worth up to 50 points

Final Project

During the course of this class, you will be working on a project in which you will design
a psychological research study. You will conduct research to gather information and
hypotheses using a literature search of scientific journal articles (see PsycInfo on the
DePaul Library website) in psychology as well as collect, analyze, and report your
findings. The final project will be a 7-10 page APA style paper that will report the
psychological literature you found, state your hypotheses, the methods of how you went
about testing your hypotheses, the results of your study, a discussion on your findings,
and reporting of references. Instructions will be posted on Blackboard and discussed in
class closer to the due date. This project will be worth up to 100 points.

Grading

The total points you earned from Assignments, Exams, your Final Project, as well as
Extra Credit points from Extra Credit Assignments and Attendance will be added together
to obtain your final score for the class. All total scores will be rounded up to the nearest
whole number. The following grade scale will be used to calculate your letter grade for
this class:

93- A
100%
90-92% A-
87-89% B+
83-86% B
80-82% B-
77-79% C+
73-76% C
70-72% C-
67-69% D+
63-66% D
60-62% D-
0-59% F

Academic Dishonesty

All work turned in for this class must adhere to DePaul’s Academic Integrity Policy as
outlined in the Student Handbook. For further information on information regarding
academic integrity, including definitions and disciplinary procedures, visit the Academic
Integrity site at DePaul.

Cheating or Plagiarism will result in a grade of F for that assignment, exam, or project.
Plagiarism is also a form of academic dishonesty and may be blatant (e.g. directly
copying someone else’s paper) or simply the result of carelessness (e.g., not citing an
author properly when describing their work). Any instance of cheating or plagiarism may
be reported to the center for Academic Integrity.

One of the scopes and aims of this class is to teach you to properly cite work by authors
and researchers. If you have any questions about how to properly cite someone’s work or
are in any way unsure if what you are doing may be considered Plagiarism, please contact
your instructor; it is better to be safe than sorry!

Class Schedule

Week Topic Readings

1 (9/11) Course Introduction Ch. 1
2 (9/16 & 9/18) Scientific Method and Philosophy of Science Ch. 2
3 (9/23 & 9/25) Ethical Issues Ch. 3
4 (9/30 & 10/2) Observational Research Ch. 4
5 (10/7 & 10/9) Survey Research Ch. 5
6 (10/14 & 10/16) Exam 1--10/14 (weeks 1-5) Unobtrusive Research Ch. 6
7 (10/21 & 10/23) Single-Case Designs and Small-n Research Ch. 10
8 (10/28 & 10/30) Describing Data, Confidence Intervals, Correlation Ch. 12
9 (11/4 & 11/6) Tests of Statistical Significance and “Analysis Story” Ch. 13
10 (11/11 & 11/13) Exam 2—11/11 (weeks 6-10) Writing in Psychology- APA TBA
Style
11 (11/18) Flex week- Finish APA style and discussion/questions TBA
about Final Project
Finals Week Exam 3--11/24—8:45-11:00 (cumulative)
(11/19-11/25) Final Project Due by 11/25 at the latest

Teaching Assistant

There will be a Teaching Assistant (TA) for this class who will be helping me with certain
projects throughout the quarter. If you have any serious questions or emergencies and are
unable to contact me, please contact him:

Mark Brandt
MBRANDT5@depaul.edu

Disability Statement

Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability
should contact me privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain
confidential. To ensure that you receive the most appropriate reasonable accommodation
based on your needs, contact me as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the
first week of class), and make sure that you have contacted the:

- PLuS Program (for LD, AD/HD) at 773-325-1677, Student Center #370, and/or
- The Office for Students with Disabilities (for all other disabilities) at 773-325-1677,
Student Center #370

For more information, you can view the Disability Services website for more information
on the Office of Students with Disabilities and the PLuS Program.