Research (Thesis), Spring 2024

 

Class Information

Instructor Information

PSYCH 6299

Helen C. Harton, Ph.D.

Bartlett 34; 2080

Bartlett 2080

tba

273-2235; harton@uni.edu

 

Office Hours: W 2-3; Th 11-12; F 1-2; whenever I’m around

 

Course Information

 

Course Learning Outcomes: By the end of this two-course series, you should be able to:

·         Analyze, critically evaluate, and integrate previous research;

·         Design a study to assess an original hypothesis or research question based on previous research

·         Collect, manage, and analyze empirical data or obtain an existing dataset to test a hypothesis or research question;

·         Demonstrate knowledge of ethical principles in research through practices such as ethical interactions with participants, concern for privacy and participant well-being, proper documentation of sources, pre-registration, and transparency in materials, data collection, and analyses;

·         Present and defend your research project; and

·         Write a scientific paper describing your research project.

 

Instructor Course Description: You will complete a Master’s Thesis. You must have or obtain IRB training, participate regularly in research team meetings, and present your research at at least one conference. You will be required to meet with me face-to-face at least once per week to review your progress. You will read and review past literature, design the study, collect data, analyze the data, write up a thesis, and defend it publically. I will help and advise you during all the steps of the project. You will also help with other projects in the lab.

 

Course Catalog Description: Research. Prerequisite(s): consent of department.

 

Course Policy Information

 

Missed Meetings Policy: We will have regularly scheduled meetings to discuss the progress of your project. When you miss a meeting, you affect the progress of the entire research team. You may miss one meeting per type (i.e., large group, small group) for good reason (e.g., illness, conference presentation, religious observance) per semester without any penalty (make sure to let me know ahead of time to check with group members for any assignments). Meetings will generally occur face-to-face, but we can meet virtually under approved circumstances. If you have a need to miss more than one meeting, talk to me.

 

Academic Ethics Policy Statement: Students must observe the Academics Ethics Policy (http://www.uni.edu/policies/301). You should adequately cite your sources on PowerPoint slides and in your presentations and papers. You should not use another’s words on your slides or in your presentation without proper attribution. All sources should be ones that you’ve read directly; do not cite secondary sources.

 

Open Science Policy: My lab is committed to open science principles. As such, all studies will be pre-registered, materials and data will be made public where possible, and we will strive for transparency and ethicality in all our projects.

 

Harassment Policy: You do not have to put up with inappropriate treatment (e.g., verbal, physical, or sexual harassment) of any kind. If you have problems with a lab member, participant, or conference goer (or other person you interact with through your lab assignments), please let me know. It is important to note that if you do report it to me, I may have to report it to the university. If you are not comfortable talking with me about the issue, you can talk to the department head, Adam Butler.

 

Authorship Policy: You are expected to be first author on your first year project presentations, indicating that you have done the majority of the work. If the project is later published in a journal, you would also likely be first author, but authorship may change depending on how much work you are willing to contribute to the manuscript. For small group projects, authorship is determined by the amount each person in the group contributes to the project. For conference presentations, I will usually take last author, but for manuscripts the order may change based on contributions, especially to writing. See APA guidelines for more information on authorship order.

 

Credit Hour Statement: This course meets the Course Credit Hour Expectation outlined in the Course Catalog. Students should expect to work a minimum of 2 hours per week outside of class for every course credit hour. Since this is a graduate course, the expectation is that you will work approximately 4 hours per week outside of class for every course credit hour.

 

Required Readings

 

Required readings can be found at https://osf.io/f2atg/. They include:

·         Harton Lab pre-registration form

·         Harton Lab Manual

·         Introduction to OSF

·         Lab inclusion-exclusion (of data) document

·         Qualtrics basic information

·         Harton, H. C., & Nail, P. R. (2008).  Political orientation and contemporary racism in America. In M. A. Morrison & T. G. Morrison (Eds.), The psychology of modern prejudice (pp. 51-75). New York: Nova Science Publishers.

·         Harton, H. C., & Bourgeois, M. J. (2004). Cultural elements emerge from dynamic social impact. In M. Schaller & C. S. Crandall (Eds.), Psychological foundations of culture (pp. 41-75). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

 

You will also do readings relevant to your projects as well as general readings relevant to psychology methods or lab topics.

 

Course Elements and Expectations

 

Research Project: You will design and carry out a research project. Some of the steps along the way include a successful proposal meeting, followed by a list of changes (signed and submitted to the psychology office). Then you will get IRB approval if needed and pre-register the study. After you collect data, you will analyze it using best practices and write up your thesis and revise it until it is ready to go to the committee. Make sure you run statcheck at this point as well. After the thesis defense, final changes are likely. Then you will turn it in to the Graduate College (when you have all the signatures of the committee members) and they will do additional reviews before the thesis is finalized. I ask that all my students order a copy of their thesis for me to keep (in addition to the copies you’ll make for the library and the psychology department).

 

Lab activities: As a member of my lab, you’ll also work on projects that benefit others in the lab. For example, you may be asked to give suggestions on a questionnaire, pretest a study, or serve as a confederate.

 

Meetings: You’ll schedule a half hour meeting with me each week for your thesis. We’ll also have one, hour-long large group meeting per week. You are expected to attend and participate actively in these meetings.

 

Presentation: You will submit to one or more conferences in the fall and present at one or more regional, national, and/or local conferences in the spring. Presentations may be posters or oral presentations.

 

Open Science Requirements: You will create an account on OSF and keep all of your study materials up-to-date there. All studies will be pre-registered and gain IRB approval before data collection begins. Materials and data will be made public where possible. All data will be independently analyzed by at least two people, and files will contain proper and clear documentation.

 

Data Blitz: Toward the end of the semester, you will do a 5 minute presentation on your project for the lab.

 

Final Grade Determination

 

Grading in the course is based on the quality of your participation (e.g., punctuality, meeting attendance and participation, preparation, ethical behavior, attention to detail, pre-registration, data cleaning, data analysis), timeliness (e.g., meeting deadlines), and your outputs (e.g., quality of poster and presentation). If you do everything well, you will earn an A in the course. Deficiencies in one or more areas will result in a lower grade. To get a grade in the fall, you need to have successfully completed your proposal meeting, gotten IRB approval, pre-registered, and collected your data. To get a grade in the spring, you need to have successfully defended your thesis.

 

Course Schedule

 

These are general time guidelines. Other assignments related to the large group will arise as needed (e.g., helping as a confederate).

 

Week

Tasks/Topic

1

Finalize studies; post pre-reg, begin collecting data

2

Continue data collection

3

Data cleaning

4

Data analysis

5

Data analysis

6

Data interpretation; submit to Inspire

7

Work on introduction updates

8

Work on method and results sections. Do poster for conferences.

9

Work on discussion; Revise poster

10

Revise thesis document

11

Present at Inspire; Discuss feedback from the conference. Revise document.

12

Make final changes for MPA; Present at MPA. Revise document.

13

Discuss feedback from MPA. Continue revisions. Get thesis to committee.

14

Double check files; Make sure everything is uploaded to OSF. Report back to lab

15 (finals)

Schedule thesis presentation.

 

Resources and University Policy Statements

 

Further information and required syllabus statements related to free speech, non-discrimination, student accessibility services, and the Learning Center are available at https://provost.uni.edu/syllabus-statements.