Psychology 400-102

Psychological Statistics

Section 2

Syllabus - Fall 2009

Instructor:  Dr. Robert T. Hitlan

Office:  Baker 437
Office Phone: 273-2223
Office Hours: M, W  3:00-4:00 and by appointment

email:  rob.hitlan@uni.edu

Teaching Assistant: Derrick McAdams

Office: Baker 434

Office Hours: T, R 3:00-4:00 and by appointment

email: mcadamsderrick@googlemail.com

Course Website can be accessed via my homepage at: http://www.uni.edu/~hitlan/

Class Time:  M, W, F    10:00-10:50  (Lang 365)     Lab:   F   11:00-11:50  (Studio IT 1 & 2)                                                             

 Text:   Gravetter, F. J., & Wallnau, L. B (2005).  Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (6th  Ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth

Course Overview:

This course provides students with an introduction to the basic methods of collecting, organizing, and analyzing psychological data. Students will learn a variety of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The inferential techniques include an emphasis on statistical inference (e.g., t tests, F tests, and selected non-parametric statistics). The course is designed to provide the student with the basic statistical concepts and skills necessary for the laboratory research, survey work and to provide adequate quantitative background for understanding psychological literature. Prerequisites: 400:001; 400:101; one college-level mathematics course or consent of instructor.

You are expected to read the chapters that correspond to the lectures in advance and complete the problem sets within each chapter. We will proceed from the front to the back of the book (we may not cover every chapter), excluded chapters will be announced.

 Grading:

Homework = 30%                                                                                                Grading Scale:

Midterm Exams = 40%                                                                                         100 - 90% = A

Final Exam = 20%                                                                                                  89 - 80% = B

Laboratory Assignments =10%                                                                               79 - 70% = C

                                                                                                                             69 - 60% = D

                                                                                                                          Below 60% = F

Homework:

There will be approximately 10-15 homework assignments throughout the semester. Homework assignments will be given out at the end of class and due at the beginning of the next class meeting. If you are unable to attend class when a homework assignment is distributed or due, never fear! All homework assignments will be posted on the course website the day it is to be handed out. So…..even if you were not able to attend class you can still print off a copy of the homework assignment and have it completed by the due date. If you are not able to make it to class when a homework assignment is due, never fear! You can email your homework assignment. If you choose to do this, make sure that the homework assignment is sent no later than the start of class for that day – to be fair to all students, I will be checking the time emails were sent. Why is this important; well…..late homework will not be accepted (unless you are on official university business or have a valid and acceptable excuse, e.g., from a doctor). To be clear, a note from student health services that states, “Betty was not seen by us but she indicated that she was sick…….”, does NOT count as an acceptable excuse.  I reserve the right to determine what constitutes a valid and acceptable excuse. There is no way to make up homework, but one homework grade -- the lowest -- will be dropped.

Midterm Exams:

 There will be three midterm exams throughout the semester. Each exam will count 13.33% toward your final course grade. Thus, the midterms will count for 40% of your overall grade in this course. Each midterm will consist of multiple choice, short answer, and problems. You are NOT permitted to use your book on any of the midterms or the final exam. I do, however, allow you to use a formula card (5" x 7" max) on each of the midterms. The formula cards are for you to write formulas. You are NOT allowed, however, to put any words or other identifying information on the formula card (i.e., information to help you determine the correct formula to use with a given problem). Any formula card observed with this kind of information will be taken away prior to beginning an exam. If you are unsure of the type of information that is OK for the formula card see me PRIOR to the exam. Midterm exams cannot be made-up unless you are on official university business or have a valid and acceptable excuse (see above). In such circumstances every attempt must be made to take an exam early. The instructor has the final say and will determine whether the "every attempt" criterion has been met. 

Students should read the textbook chapters outside of class and consider class time as a period to clarify and expand on select topics.  It is my view, as well as many others, students who read the text should get a higher grade than those who do not. Thus, there may be some material from the text book that was not covered in class at all. Besides these questions, reading the text helps students to absorb the lecture information more fully and thus improves test performance as a whole. 

Laboratory Assignments:

During the semester you will have several lab sessions (this lab session is why statistics is a 4 hour course and not a three hour course). During lab each week you will learn different aspects of the statistical program SPSS. This is one of the most widely used statistical programs used in psychology, sociology business, etc... The final exam will also consist of some output from this program that you will have to interpret (these should be easy points assuming you attend and listen at the lab sessions). Overall the lab aspect of the course is worth 10% of your grade. We will have approximately 7-10 lab sessions throughout the semester, thus each lab is worth approximately 1-1.5% of your overall course grade. Attendance WILL be taken at each lab session.

Final Exam:

The final exam IS cumulative. Maybe more than any other course you will take in psychology, statistics is a building process. You will need to understand the material from previous chapters if you are to understand what the heck is going on later in the semester. Not all instructors give cumulative final exams in statistics but I do. Research indicates that giving cumulative exams aids in the retention of knowledge and I want you to retain what you learn in this course or, at the very least, to be able to distinguish what are the appropriate statistics to use in a given situation. Further, if you know where you made your mistakes on the midterm exams, the final should be mostly reviewing and applying what you already know. The final exam is worth 20% of your overall grade.

Calculators:

Calculators may be used for homework and exams. Also, we will be working through numerous examples during class so it is imperative that you bring your calculator to every class. bring them to class to work problems. Try to obtain a calculator that takes square roots. Prior to exams, be sure to charge the batteries.  I will not spend time showing you how to work your calculator. There are too many and I am not familiar with all of them. Read the manual of your calculator.

        Calculations:

            a.  Unless a problem is very simple, you must show all work that led to your answer. Partial credit may be given if you do a problem by the correct procedure but make a minor computational error. However, NO credit will be given unless computations are provided, even if your answer is correct.

            b.  Be neat and systematic in displaying computations. Do the problems in order, and clearly number all problems. If the grader can not read your writing or cannot follow your computations, no credit will be given for the problem.

            c.  Rounding: Unless instructed otherwise, round all answers to three decimal places (four decimal places when we discuss probability). If the digit in the fourth place is less than 5, do not change the digit in the 3^rd place.  If the digit in the 4th place is equal to or greater than 5, raise the digit in the 3rd place by one point.  Examples:

                                    2.4695 = 2.470

                                     .0341 = .034

                                    12.5954 = 12.595

Assistance:

The time to get assistance is when a difficulty first occurs, not the day before the midterm or final examination. This is particularly the case in statistics because each section may depend on the previous sections. If you do not understand something, there are several alternatives available:

            a.  Ask questions before, during, or after class.

            b.  See the TA or myself during our office hours.

            c.  Get help from Tutorial Services.

            d.  Ask a fellow student for assistance.

Cheating: 

In short, cheating will not be tolerated. Cheating is copying work, letting someone else copy your work, and sneaking peaks at other students’ exams. Anyone caught cheating will receive a grade of "F" for that work and will be subsequently reported to the appropriate authority for further action. Although I may not always be able to tell if you copied homework from a fellow student, I can say with confidence that your exam grade will suffer because you will not fully understand what to do when in a time pressure situation (e.g., taking an exam). Please note:  Use of any electrical devises including cell phones during exams is strictly prohibited and will constitute cheating resulting in a failing grade (“0”) for that particular exam and referred to the appropriate body for disciplinary action.  In addition, on exam days please make sure you have used the restroom recently because you will not be allowed to leave in the middle of an exam to use the restroom. One you leave the classroom, it is assumed you have completed your exam in its entirety.

Academic Ethics Policies

http://www.uni.edu/pubrel/catalog/ACAD-REG.html#withdrawl

Students at the University of Northern Iowa are required to observe the commonly-accepted standards of academic honesty and integrity. Except in those instances in which group work is specifically authorized by the instructor of the class, no work which is not solely the student's is to be submitted to a professor in the form of an examination paper, a term paper, class project, research project, or thesis project.

Cheating of any kind on examinations and/or plagiarism of papers or projects is strictly prohibited. Also unacceptable are the purchase of papers from commercial sources, using a single paper to meet the requirement of more than one class (except in instances authorized and considered appropriate by the professors of the two classes), and submission of a term paper or project completed by any individual other than the student submitting the work. Students are cautioned that plagiarism is defined as the process of stealing or passing off as one's own the ideas or words of another, or presenting as one's own an idea or product which is derived from an existing source.

It is not acceptable for the work or ideas of another scholar to be presented as a student's own or to be utilized in a paper or project without proper citation. To avoid any appearance of plagiarism or accidental plagiarism, it is important that all students become fully cognizant of the citation procedures utilized in their own discipline and in the classes which they take. The plea of ignorance regarding citation procedures or of carelessness in citation is not a compelling defense against allegations of plagiarism. A college student, by the fact that s(he) holds that status, is expected to understand the distinction between proper scholarly use of others' work and plagiarism.

A student who is found to have improperly used others' work must expect to be penalized for such action -- even if the argument is made that the action was taken with innocent intention -- and the student's instructor will normally judge such work "unacceptable." But it should be noted that the assignment of a low or failing grade for unacceptable work is not in itself a disciplinary action -- even if the assignment of such a grade results in the student's receiving a lower grade in the course, including "F", than s(he) would otherwise achieve. Such a response by an instructor is part of the normal grading process; if a student feels that s(he) has grounds to protest a grade received through this process, the student has access to the academic grievance procedure which the university has developed to deal with all student academic grievances.

Students with Disabilities:

In compliance with the University of Northern Iowa policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services, 103 Student Health Center, to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.

No retroactive accommodations will be provided in this class. The web address for UNI Student Disability Services is http://www.uni.edu/sds/. This site provides detailed information about student, faculty, and university rights and responsibilities.

 Pet Peeves:

1.  Out of courtesy for both your fellow students and the instructor, make sure all electrical devises are shut off for the duration of class (e.g., pagers, cell phones, etc.)

2.  If you must come to class late, do not walk in front of the instructor but take the first available seat

3.  It is your responsibility to make sure you are on the class discussion list, not mine.

4.  If you miss a class, please do not email me to ask what you missed or if the lecture material for that day was important. If I go over a topic – it IS important for you to know. Look at the course schedule and/or get the notes from a fellow student.

5.  Other class disruptions are also frowned upon (e.g., putting on make-up during class, sarcastic remarks directed toward another student and/or the instructor)

Tentative Class Schedule

       Date                       Chapter                       Material                                 Assignments                     Notes

Final Exam Review Session Time: To be determined

Final Exam:  10-11:50 on Monday, December 14, 2009