Research Methods
Fall, 2022

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Projects, Exams, Quizzes, and Exercises

General Information

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Books, Software

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In addition to these objective items, your grade will be based on my evaluation of two projects: the field experiment, and the research proposal --100 points each), and class participation (100 points).

Approximate cut-offs for each grade are

90-100% A

80-89% B

70-79% C

60-69% D

0- 59% E

 The workload is heavy, but you are often allowed to correct your mistakes.

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The Field Experiment Project

The Research Proposal

Note that, during  lab, you will do activities (e.g., searching for materials in the library, writing up summaries of articles, writing up method and results sections, writing up references in APA style, doing a survey research project, and designing experiments) that should help you in accomplishing these larger projects.

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1. To show that you know APA style.
   Knowing APA style is a goal of this course and will be important for the research proposal. You will also be expected to write papers in APA style for other psychology courses at Clarion. Even if you do not go on to graduate school, the ability to write a report that looks professional and does not waste words (two hallmarks of APA style) should serve you well.
2. To develop a better understanding of how articles are organized.
   Once you understand what should be included in each section of the paper, you should have an easier time understanding articles that you read.
3. To show that you can apply some of the knowledge from Chapter 10  to this study.
   So please, do not confuse an independent variable for a dependent variable, random assignment with random sampling (if you're not sure about the distinction, try this tutorial), control group with experimental group, or the value of "t" with the "p" level. Finally, do not misinterpret null results (on page 348, review both Figure 10-1 and Table 10-2).

   Length: It should be about 4 pages long, although a paper with a perfect score could be as short as 3 pages or as long as 6 pages. Most papers will be 5 to 6 pages long.
   

   Helpful Hints:

   1. You will be graded primarily on conforming to APA style. Therefore, you should read Chapter 15 and then compare your paper against both the APA style checklist (Appendix A) and the APA style sample paper (Appendix B).
   2. The instructions the protocol team had you copy down may be useful in writing the method section. Also, in writing the procedure section, discuss what happened to participants. Do not talk about procedures you followed ("as a group, we calculated a mean") that have nothing to do with what participants experienced. After reading the procedure section, the reader should know how the participants were treated.

      Due Date: The write-up is due November 1.
      
      
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      Research Proposal

      For this project, you will NOT conduct a study. The proposal must be for a study that uses a factorial design (see chapter 12). In addition,

         

      1. at least one of your factors must be a "true" independent variable (one that is randomly assigned).

            

      2. one of your factors must be a moderator variable (see Chapter 3)

            

      3. you should propose and discuss at least three hypotheses (one for each main effect and one for the interaction).

      
      Begin the Introduction by justifying why the general research area is important. Then, cite specific research to show why your specific study is  important (see Chapter 15). Cite relevant research to show how your research expands on previous research. End your  introduction with your predictions for the main effects and the interaction, a justification for each of your predictions, and a reference to a graph that pictures your predicted effects.
      Your results section should simply describe how you plan to analyze your data. That is, how you will get a score for each participant and what statistical test you will use to analyze your data. Often, this section will only be two sentences long.
      The discussion should start "If the results are as predicted," and then go on to review Proposals that strictly adhere to APA format (see checklist in Appendix A), seem to be well thought out, and make a convincing case for the value of doing the proposed research will get high grades.
      The paper must contain abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and reference sections, as well as a title page.
      Length: The paper should be between 7-10 pages long. The introduction should be at least one and half pages long and the discussion should be at least a page long.
      Due Date: A rough draft is due by the beginning of our November 15 class meeting. You can--and should-- turn it in before then. The proposal is due by the beginning of class on December 8.
      
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      Exams

      
      Exams will be primarily multiple-choice, although there may be some short answer items. They will cover both text and lecture.

      
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      Quizzes

      
      Online quizzes will be multiple-choice and worth 10 points each.  You are allowed to take quizzes more than once.  You will receive your most recent score.
      
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      Class Participation

      
      Class participation will be based mostly on your i>clicker performance and on completing the assigned exercises. For some of these exercises, you will be given the full number of points provided that you are present and appear to be trying. In other cases, you will be graded on the quality of your work. Some exercises involve doing assigned homework problems. Some exercises may involve group work. Other exercises may include presenting a research hypothesis to the class, reporting on an article, and participating in a debate.
      
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      Scheduled Sessions

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      Scheduled Session 1: August 30

      Plan for the Session

      • Review syllabus
      • Discuss course goals and value of the course
      • Exercise: Scope and limits of science
      • Exercise: Inferences, objectivity, and science.
      • Introduce concept of operational definitions
      • Learn about scripts
      • Develop a research methods script

      Assignments Due This Session

      • None

      Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 1

      
      
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      Scheduled Session 2: September 1

      Plan for the Session

      • We will discuss the relevance of science to psychology. More specifically, we will discuss the advantages of applying the scientific method to studying behavior.

      Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 1

      Assignments Due This Session

      • Read Chapter 1.
      • Turn in pretest.
      
      
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      Scheduled Session 3: September 6

      Plan for the Session

      • We will examine the implications of research for clinical practice and the conflicts between science and practice.

      Assignments Due This Session

      • Read Chapter 2.

      Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 2

      
      
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      Scheduled Session 4: September 8

      Plan for the Session

      • Review Chapter 2

      Assignments Due This Session

      • Chapter 1 Exercises: 5, 7, and 10

      Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 2

      
      
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      Scheduled Session 5: September 13

      Plan for the Session

      • Read Chapter 3

      Assignments Due This Session

      • Chapter 2 Exercises: 1, 2, 4, and 7

       

      Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 3

      
      
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   Scheduled Session 6: September 15

   Plan for the Session

   • Small group discussion of ideas
   • Presentation of research hypotheses

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Turn in a typed, research hypothesis. Your hypothesis must include a moderator variable. If you are not pleased with your hypothesis, submit 3 hypotheses. In other words, quantity can compensate for quality.
   • Turn in Handout 3.4

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 3

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 7: September 20

   Plan for the Session

   • Presentation: How to modify a published study.

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Read Chapter 4
   • Turn in an abstract of an article that you find interesting. Explain why you find it interesting.

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 4

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 8: September 22

   Plan for the Session

   Discussion of Reliability

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Read Chapter 5
   • Do Chapter 5 Exercises: 1, 2, 3, and 4

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 5

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 9: September 27

    

   Plan for the Session

   • Presentation on Construct Validity

   Assignments Due This Session

   • None

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 5

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 10: September 29

   Plan for the Session

   • Presentation and Exercises: Validating a Measure

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Chapter 5 Exercises: 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 5

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 11: October 4

   Plan for the Session

    

   • Presentation: Choosing the best measure for your study.

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Read Chapter 6

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 6

   
   Study sheets
   • Table to help you distinguish between nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales of measurement
     
   • Review sheet for Exam 1
   
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   Scheduled Session 12: October 6

   Plan for the Session

   • Take Exam 1 (It cover lectures and Chapters 1-6).

   Assignments Due This Session

   • None
   
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   Scheduled Session 13: October 11

   Plan for the Session

   1. Review Exam 1
   2. Presentation: "Threats to Internal Validity"

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Read Chapter 9

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 9

   
   
   
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   Scheduled Session 14: October 13

   Plan for the Session

   • We will design a simple experiment in class.

   Assignments Due This Session

   1. Turn in a question based on the White article. The key is to use a different opinion question than the original authors used. Your question must be typed.
   2. Turn in a one-page, typed set of instructions that White might have given his researchers. To develop those instructions, read the "General Method" section, as well as the other Method sections. Your instructions would include detailed advice about
      1. Who to approach
      2. What the researcher should say when approaching a participant
      3. How to deal with questions
      4. What to say to the participant at the end of the interaction
      5. Important rules that the researcher must follow
   3. Read Chapter 10

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 10

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 15: October 18

   Plan for the Session

   • Review the elements of a simple experiment

    

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 10

   
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   Scheduled Session 16: October 20

   Plan for the Session

   1. Review of the t test
   2. Analyze the data collected from the field experiment.

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Run participants and bring data to class.
   • Do Chapter 10 Exercises: 7, 8, 9, and 10.

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 10

   
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   Scheduled Session 17: October 25

   Plan for the Session

   1. In class exercise to review statistics of the simple experiment
   2. Finish discussing simple experiment

   Assignments Due This Session

   1. Read Chapter 11
   2. Do Chapter 11 exercises 1, 4, & 7

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 11

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 18: October 27

   Plan for the Session

    

   1. Participate in a multiple-group study.
   2. I will explain ANOVA.

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 11

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 19: November 1

   Plan for the Session

   • Interpret data from a multiple-group experiment
   • You will orally present your description of a study (see "Assignments Due This Session").

   Assignments Due This Session

   • Turn in Field Experiment report!
   • Either summarize or propose an experiment that uses at least 3 levels of an independent variable. Explain why, in the study you describe, using multiple levels is better than using 2 levels. This summary is to be typed and handed in during class. Time permitting, you will also orally present your summary.

   Downloadable Materials and Valuable Links for Chapter 11

   
   
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   Scheduled Session 20: November 3

   Plan for the Session