RESEARCH METHODS

Spring 2024

Class Information

Instructor Information

PSYCH 3002

Helen C. Harton, Ph.D.

WRT 105 (class)/110 (lab)

Bartlett 2080

MWF 11-11:50 + M 10-10:50

273-2235; harton@uni.edu

 

TA: MaKayla Hall, makaylah@uni.edu, Office hours WF 10-11, Bart 63

 

Course Information

 

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

 

Instructor Course Description: In this course, you will learn how to design, interpret, present, and evaluate psychological research.

 

Course Catalog Description: Introduction to fundamentals of psychological inquiry. Emphasis on experimental research but all major approaches (correlational, field, clinical, phenomenological) considered. Prerequisite(s): PSYCH 1001; plus 6 additional credit hours in psychology.

 

Syllabus/Class Information Locations: The course syllabus can be found linked from my website, www.uni.edu/harton, or directly at www.uni.edu/harton/rmsyll24s.htm. It is also linked from the BlackBoard elearning site. Hyperlinks in the syllabus link to PowerPoint slides for the class, readings, and further information on assignments. PowerPoint slides will be posted online before each class. If they don’t seem to open, right click on the link, choose “open in a new window” and hit return at the end of the url. It should then open or download.

 

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 an advanced undergraduate course, the expectation is that you will work approximately 3 hours per week outside of class for every course credit hour, or an average of 12 hours per week.

 

Readings

 

Required:      

Jhangiani, R. S., Chiang, I-C. A., Cuttler, C., & Leighton, D. C. (2019). Research methods in psychology (4th ed.). Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (JCCL)

 

Optional, but recommended, especially if you plan to go to graduate school in psychology or a related area:

 

American Psychological Association (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed). http://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

 

In addition, some short articles and podcasts will be assigned in class. These will be provided in Blackboard and/or linked from the syllabus.  

 

*Note that the online textbook (JCCL) has NOT been updated to new APA style (7th edition), which came out in October 2019, but that you WILL need to use version 7 style for your papers (resources available in Bb).

 

Grading

 

Exam 1                                                            10%

Exam 2                                                            10%

Exam 3                                                            10%

Final exam                                                      15%

Paper introduction                                          10%    

Paper method and results                                10%

Study implementation and group work            5%

Group presentation                                           5%

Final completed paper                                    15%

Homework/Lab                                               10%

 

Earning 90% of the possible points will earn an A, 80% a B, etc., with these categories being further subdivided by pluses and minuses (e.g., 80-82 = B-; 83-86 = B; 87-89=B+).

 

Course Requirements and Expectations

 

Exams: There will be three exams and a comprehensive final. Exams will be made up of multiple choice, short answer, and short essay questions. You can use printed or handwritten notes during the exam (no electronic devices), but the exam is timed, so you won’t have time to look up everything, or even many things (so you still need to study). I recommend studying as if you won’t have the option to look things up, and then only using it when you really need to.

·         Exam 1 will cover the basics of the scientific method, scientific knowing, replication, theories, hypotheses, basic study design, and understanding graphs, tables, and articles.

·         Exam 2 will cover scientific writing, measurement, reliability and validity, the observational method, sampling, surveys, and correlations.

·         Exam 3 will cover experiments, advanced experiments, and validity.

·         Exam 4 will cover quasi-experiments, small n designs, ethics, and honest tables and graphs PLUS information from throughout the semester (50% of points to new stuff vs. things from the whole semester).

 

Research paper: You will choose among several topics to explore this semester. After you rank your topic choices, you will be assigned to a 3-4 person group on one of your top choices. With your group, you will read and find literature on the topic, come up with a hypothesis, and design and carry out a study to test that hypothesis. Each of you will write individual papers, but you will collaborate on literature search, study design, implementation, and analysis. The research paper will include an introduction that pulls together previous research on the topic (aka a literature review). This is not just a compilation of separate paragraphs, each describing one study--you should organize the studies you read in a coherent manner, analyzing what others have done and leading into what needs to be done next (your study) and what you expect to find. You will then have a method section detailing who your participants were and what you had them do, a results section describing what you found, and a discussion section addressing why you think you got the results you did, what they mean, and limitations of your study. These sections should be followed by a list of references (in APA style), and appendices (including questionnaires used). You will turn in the introduction first, then the methods and expected results, and finally the entire paper (with revisions to previous sections based on feedback). The paper should be in the latest APA style (7th edition). Click on the hyperlink above for more information (it also contains links to a detailed rubric and a template for the paper).

 

Study implementation and group work: Your grade for this portion of the class will be based on the accuracy of your group bibliographic notes, your active participation in designing and analyzing the study, the quality of your study, and your ability to meet deadlines, along with an informal presentation of your group idea to the class. Your fellow group members will also rate you, and your group grade may be lowered if there is consensus that your participation was low in quantity or quality. Click on the hyperlink above for more information.

 

Group presentation: Your group will make a 10-minute presentation of your study’s purpose, hypotheses, method, results, and interpretation and answer questions from the instructor and the rest of the class. The presentation should involve PowerPoint slides. Everyone in the group should participate in the presentation in some way, but it is up to the group how to divide the work (e.g., one person could make the slides, and another do most of the talking). Everyone in the group will get the same grade, and each person in the group will have at least 1 question to answer. Click on the hyperlink above for more information.

 

Homework/Lab exercises: There will be homework exercises and/or lab exercises each week that will be assigned in class to give you practice with course concepts. They may include assignments, computer exercises, class demonstrations, and data collection. The individual pre-paper assignments (e.g., reference section) count as part of your homework grade. In-class assignments such as practice sheets and small group activities will also be included in this part of your grade. Active participation in lab activities is worth 10 points per week, although group-based lab assignments will count as a different part of your grade. In-class activities are generally worth 5 pts. Points for homework assignments vary from 5 to 25 depending on the assignment. Click on the hyperlink above for more information.

 

Course Schedule

The schedule is tentative—it’s possible that some topics may take a little longer or get covered more quickly depending on class understanding, which may also affect due dates, especially for smaller (e.g., homework) assignments. Exam dates and due dates for the paper should be set, but we may still need to be flexible. At any rate, the exams and paper assignments will not be moved forward. 

Further details on each assignment are provided here and in Blackboard. Unless indicated otherwise, all assignments should be submitted via BlackBoard.

Hyperlinks on dates are to PowerPoint slides. They will be posted each week by the start of class. If you have trouble opening a link, right click on it, choose “open in another window” and then hit return at the end of the url in that new window. It should then download. Dates in bold are lab days.

Unless specified otherwise, all assignments should be done individually.

Date

Topic

Assignment

Jan 17

Welcome and introduction to the course

·         Discuss working in groups

·         Turn in ranking of topics

Jan 19

Scientific vs. nonscientific ways of knowing

·         Read JCCL Chapter 1 (textbook)

·          “Me” slide due

·         Groups assigned

Jan 22

Library session/ Scientific ways of knowing

·         Read this article on how to read empirical articles.

·         Lab 1: Library resources and taking notes, introduction to Zotero in Rod Library 373

Jan 24

Logical fallacies

·         Read chapter on logical fallacies (Bb)

·         Logical fallacies assignment due

Jan 26

Basics of experimental design

·         Read JCCL Chapter 2

Jan 29

Hypotheses and operational definitions

·         Questions on assigned articles due

·         Lab 2: Group discussion of assigned articles

Jan 31

Understanding articles

 

Feb 2

Understanding tables and figures

·         Hypotheses assignment due

Feb 5

Theory

·         Lab 3: Group discussion of articles and ideas; work on group bibliography questions (each group member needs to bring in two articles that they have read and are ready to discuss)

Feb 7

Replication

·         Listen to podcast on replication: https://youarenotsosmart.com/2019/03/01/yanss-147-the-replication-crisis-rebroadcast/

Feb 9

(SPSP)

Scientific writing (Class will be online b/c prof is at a conference)

·         Read this article:

Sternberg, R. J. (1993). How to win acceptances by psychology journals: 21 tips for better writing. APS Observer. https://www.csustan.edu/nelson/how-win-acceptances-psychology-journals-21-tips-better-writing

·         Read JCCL Chapter 11

·         References due in APA style (individual assignment) and group bibliography file due (group assignment)

Feb 12

Scientific writing

·         Plagiarism assignment due (upload screen shot of final grade)

·         Lab 4: Writing a literature review and outline

Feb 14

Scientific writing

 

Feb 16

Exam 1

 

Feb 19

Writing

·         Lab 5: Work on study design

·         Turn in outline for paper

Feb 21

Scale creation

·         Read JCCL Chapter 4

 

Feb 23

Reliability and validity

 

Feb 26

Measurement scales

·         Lab 6: Finish designing your study; Present idea to class (group assignment)

Feb 28

Observation

Mar 1

Observation

·         Read JCCL Chapter 6

·         Introduction section due

·         Zotero and google spreadsheet updated and ready to be graded (group assignment)

Mar 4

Sampling

·         Lab 7: Qualtrics implementation; Finalize design

Mar 6

Surveys

·         Read JCCL Chapter 7

Mar 8

Surveys

Mar 18

Correlation

·         Lab 8: Peer review studies

Mar 20

Correlation

·         Final study design due and ready to go (group assignment)

Mar 22

Exam 2

 

Mar 25

Results and discussion

·         Lab 9: Collect data (and provide data)

Mar 27

Measurement and sampling redux

Mar 29

Correlation and survey redux

Apr 1

Experiments

·         Lab 10: Analyze data

·         Read JCCL Chapter 5

Apr 3

Within vs. between designs

Apr 5

Exam 2 retake (optional)

·         Need to bring previous Exam 2 with rationale for why the correct answer is correct on all you missed for possible half credit back and then score on retake will be averaged with that to replace Exam 2 score

Apr 8

Visit Inspire conference

·         Lab 11: Making graphs or tables honestly

Apr 10

Factorial designs

·         Read JCCL Chapter 9

·         Inspire assignment due

Apr 12

Main effects and interactions

·         Method and results sections due

Apr 15

Types of validity; experiment review

·         Lab 12: Interpret data

Apr 17

Main effects/interactions review (online)

Apr 19 (MPA)

Quasi-experiments (class will be online b/c prof is at a conference)

·         Read JCCL Chapter 8

Apr 22

Project presentations

·         Lab 13: Project presentations

Apr 24

Ethics

·         Read JCCL Chapter 10

·         Read JCCL Chapter 3

Apr 26

Experiment mini-test (5% of grade)

·         Last day to participate in extra credit or turn in extra credit papers

Apr 29

Ethics

·         Lab 14: Peer review for paper

May 1

Ethics

May 3

Small n/Review

·         Final paper due along with paper addressing changes you made in response to feedback from peer and instructor

May 7**

Tuesday, 10-11:50

Final exam (20% of grade)

 

 

 

FAQs

 

How can I do well in this course?

The most important thing to do if you want to do well in this course is to come to class and pay attention. Keep up with assignments, especially for the project and paper, and read the extra information I put online for that and the other assignments. Start on the paper assignments early. Talk to me about anything you don’t understand, and meet with me about your paper/study. Read the book and other assigned readings.

 

I’ve heard this is a hard class and a lot of work. I’m scared.

Not technically a question, but yes, this is a challenging class, but one that you can totally do well in if you try. Use the resources (e.g., readings, information in Bb) and ask for help from me when you need it. It’s a 4 credit class and writing intensive, so you should expect to spend about 12 hours a week on the class on average. You’ve got this.

 

What is this “lab” thing?

The main thing we’ll do in lab during the semester is the group work of designing a study. There will also be a few nonproject-related labs where you might practice writing or evaluate a study.

 

Why do we have to work in groups? I hate people.

Most jobs will require some coordination with other people. Even as a professor (a relatively solitary job), I have to work on lots of committees and consult with others, and almost all of my research projects are done collaboratively. Working in groups helps you develop skills you’ll need for work (and for life—most likely you also will need to collaborate at some point with family members or others). It’s also a way to make the workload lower and make it possible to complete a study in this short time frame. If you’re having trouble with your group, talk to me early so we can try to sort things out—or better yet, try to solve the problem among yourselves.

 

Can I just do my project on my own/Do it on a different topic?

No. One of the goals of the class is to learn to work effectively in groups. The topics were chosen so that you have a solid background and idea to start with. This is one project in one semester out of your life—I’m not asking you to spend the rest of your life studying this topic or hanging out with your group.

 

Do we have to get together with our groups outside of class?

There will be some time each week in class and/or lab to get together with your group members. You will definitely need to work on parts of the project outside of class, but they may or may not require your group to actually meet (and if you do need to meet, you could use zoom). You may also want to meet with me outside of class, but that also could be with a subset of the group.

 

Since we’re working in groups, can we just write a group paper? 

No. You need to write a separate, individual paper to show that you’ve learned writing skills and understand your study. Some parts of the paper will be similar—the references, method, and results will be very similar across group members—but the paper should be written on your own.

 

Why are there so many assignments?

I’ve been teaching research methods for a long time, and I don’t assign things just for the thrill of grading them. Every assignment has a purpose, and they are designed to help you become a better critical thinker, writer, and consumer of research and prepare you for later assignments and tests. The rationale for each assignment, how many points it is worth, and its grading criteria are detailed here.

 

What if I can’t make it to class because I’m sick or for other reasons?

If you email me by 9am the day of class, I can send you a zoom link for class. I don’t recommend doing this regularly, as it’s harder to pay attention online and people who’ve done this frequently in the past have tended to do poorly in the class. If you let me know before class that you’re missing class, you can also make up any in-class or lab activities we do that day in class. You’ll need to turn those in by the next class period.

 

What if the weather is bad?

If UNI cancels face-to-face classes, we’ll move class online to zoom at the regular time. If they don’t cancel, I will be here as usual, but if it’s dangerous for you to get in, you can email me and get the zoom link.

 

Can I turn things in late?

You get two “free” late passes--that is, you can turn in up to 2 assignments up to 48 hours late with no penalty and no need for a rationale. Turning things in late may delay you getting feedback on them. The “free passes” do not apply to the final paper, extra credit, or your group study. Any additional late assignments, or ones later than 48 hours, will have half a letter grade (5 points on a 100-point scale) taken off per day. If illness or other things become an issue for you, talk to me.

 

What if I’m sick and can’t take the test on time?

If you are sick or have a family emergency (vacations are not a good excuse), let me know before the test and we will discuss options. Your test may be different from that given to the rest of the class in that case.

 

What’s the deal with plagiarism and cheating?

They are bad. Make sure you read and follow the UNI Academics Ethics Policy (http://www.uni.edu/policies/301). We’ll also talk about plagiarism and ways to avoid it in class. Cheating and plagiarism of any kind or amount will result in lowered grades, including a possible 0 on the assignment in question and/or F in the class, regardless of intentions. If you have any questions about what is acceptable, ask. Note that it is not acceptable to use secondary sources in scientific writing—you should cite and read the primary source—that is, the study written by the authors themselves that describes their methods and results in detail. We’ll also discuss the proper use of AI in class—it may be used to help you brainstorm ideas or proofread your writing, but should not be used to generate written responses or papers.

 

How do I find materials for class?

The syllabus is online and can be accessed directly from my home page, but it is also linked in Blackboard. Many resources are linked directly from the syllabus, including the PowerPoint slides. If the slides don’t open when you click on them, then right click on the link and choose “open in another window.” You should then be able to hit return on that page and download the slides. Slides will be posted sometime before each class session (usually but not always the day before). Other resources, such as sample papers, are only available in Blackboard. The textbook for the class is online and free and linked from the syllabus.

 

How will you get in contact with me or share class information?

There is a class listserv that will be used to contact you with additional information about assignments, notices if class goes online, etc. Make sure to check your UNI email so you get those notices. I may also post them in Blackboard, but the default and first place they will show up is in email, so check there first.

 

What is the best way to reach you?

The best way to meet with me is to talk to me before class—I have another class after this one and will have to leave quickly after class--or email me to set up a time to meet. We can meet over zoom or face-to-face, depending on your preference. You can also stop by my office hours, but you may have to wait if there is another student ahead of you.

 

Are there any opportunities for extra credit?

Yes! You can get up to 8 points of extra credit on your final exam by participating in research projects through the department’s SONA system, getting your IRB certification (see https://rsp.uni.edu/irb-training) and/or attending research-relevant talks (only those announced in class or via email will count). One hour of research or talk is equivalent to a maximum of 2 points, depending on the quality of the paper turned in. For both talks and research participation, to receive any credit, you must turn in a 1-2 page informal summary and analysis of the experience (i.e., relating it to class topics, critiquing it based on knowledge of research methods) within a week of participating. For IRB certification, you can get 6 points for your training certificate (doesn’t count if you’ve already done it for a previous class).  

 

You can also get up to 10 points of extra credit from presenting your group study at the UNI Inspire conference on April 8 or 9. This would entail submitting an abstract by the deadline (roughly spring break), having your data analyzed and a poster created by April 3 to submit to me for feedback (that you need to address) and presenting the day of the conference. This credit would only go to group members who are actively involved in the presentation (creating and presenting).

 

See further information on assignments for more information.

 

What if I’m having other issues I need help with?

I’m happy to help you with class or psychology (as a field, e.g., graduate school, research) questions. I can also help direct you to other places to get help, such as the UNI Counseling Center, The Learning Center @ Rod Library, or the Panther Pantry (food bank on campus).

 

Are there other things you or the university want me to know?

You can find more information on university policies related to free speech, nondiscrimination, and accessibility, along with opportunities for tutoring here.