Instructor: Edward Lemay, PhD. email: elemay@umd.edu office: BPS 3147B office hours: by appointment Teaching Assistants: Psychology 420 (Sections 101 and 102) Experimental Psychology: Social Psychology Laboratory Rachel Venaglia, TA for Friday 8 AM Lab Section (Section 101) email: rachel.venaglia@gmail.com office: BPS 3143 office hours: by appointment Noah Wolf, TA for Friday 10 AM Lab Section (Section 102) email: noahwolf1@gmail.com office: BPS 3143 office hours: Thursday 12-3:15 or by appointment Course meeting times and locations: Lecture: MW 10-10:50. Most lectures take place in BPS 1236. Some lecture meetings will take place in Lefrak Hall Computer Lab 3 (Lefrak 0229). See the course schedule for dates. Lab: All lab sections take place in Lefrak Hall Computer Lab 3 (Lefrak 0229). Lab Section 101: F 8-950. Lab Section 102: F 10-11:50. Readings: Students are expected to read the assigned reading before class and come to class with any questions. Required text: Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences by Stangor (5th edition). ISBN#: 978-1-285-07702-4. This book should be available at the UMD bookstore. Recommended text: APA Publication Manual (6th edition) is recommended. This will be a useful resource when you are working on your papers and should be available at the UMD bookstore. Additional supplemental readings: Additional supplemental readings are listed on the course schedule and are posted on the course website. Required Software: You will need to access SPSS software to complete course assignments and exams.umd students can purchase SPSS from the Terrapin Technology Store for $15. See this site: http://www.it.umd.edu/units/slic/howto/homeuse.html. In addition, you can find SPSS in several labs on campus. Lab #2 in LeFrak has SPSS and is available for student use. See this PSYC420 Syllabus 1
website for hours: http://www.oacs.umd.edu/computerlabservices.asp. Also, you can find other labs here: http://www.it.umd.edu/as/cl/. Course Prerequisites: You should have completed Psych 300 (Research Methods in Psychology) and Psych 221 (Social Psychology) before you take this course. COURSE OVERVIEW Course Description: The aim of this course is to give you additional exposure to research methods in social psychology so you can become creative and competent consumers and producers of social psychology research. This class takes a "hands on" approach to learning about social psychology research. You will actively be involved in producing your own research and writing reports of this research. This class meets twice weekly for lecture and once weekly for lab. The lab provides students with the opportunity to apply and extend the material learned in lecture. You will learn about and gain experience with all aspects of psychological research, such as hypothesis generation, constructing measures, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, writing, and presentation. In addition, you will learn about advanced social psychology research methods (e.g., priming, implicit measures, coding), which will help you design your research. You will conduct two research projects in this class. The first is focused on mediation and the second is focused on moderation. Learning Objectives: The learning objectives for this course are based on the UMD Department of Psychology s learning outcomes, which include developing students abilities in the following areas: Research methods Critical thinking Communication Content Specific course learning objectives include proficiency in: Conducting literature searches/reviews Critical consumption of existing research Hypothesis generation Writing in APA-style Research design Data collection Carrying out statistical analyses (e.g., correlation, regression) in SPSS PSYC420 Syllabus 2
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING Assessment of Learning: Your learning of course material and accomplishment of the course objectives will be demonstrated by your performance on the tasks listed below. Along with each listed task there is a listing of the degree to which the task counts toward your final score. Midterm Exam: 15% Final Exam: 25% Homework: 15% Research Project 1: 20% Research Project 2: 25% Extra Credit Quizzes: +5% Midterm Exam: The midterm exam will be closed-book and will consist of multiple-choice questions. Students should arrive to the exam on time. No student will be allowed to start the exam once the first student finished has turned in his or her exam and exited the room. The class meeting before the midterm will be reserved for an unstructured review session. Students should look over/work through the review sheet beforehand and come to the review session prepared with questions. Final Exam: The final exam will be a closed-book, in-class exam. The exam will be cumulative and will consist of multiple-choice questions. No student will be allowed to start the exam once the first student finished has turned in his or her exam and exited the room. The date and time of this exam will be announced later and is set by the University. A review sheet is posted on Canvas. The final class meeting will be reserved for an unstructured review session. Students should look over/work through the review sheet beforehand and come to the exam review prepared with questions. Homework: Homework assignments are due on most weeks, as indicated in the schedule below. Unless the instructor or TA indicates otherwise, all assignments should be submitted in hardcopy and electronic submissions will not be accepted. Research Project 1: You will complete a research project on mediation for project 1. You will develop an original hypothesis related to social psychology, design and carry out a study to test this hypothesis, analyze data and interpret the results, write a research manuscript that describes the study, and give an oral presentation to describe your study to the class. The point breakdown for the various components of the research project is as follows: 1. Research proposal: 20% of project grade (or 4% of final course grade) 2. Oral presentation: 20% of project grade (or 4% of final course grade) 3. Final research report: 60% or project grade (or 12% of final course grade) A detailed description of the project and each of the above components is provided on Canvas. PSYC420 Syllabus 3
Research Project 2: You will complete a research project on moderation for project 2. You will develop an original hypothesis related to social psychology, design and carry out a study to test this hypothesis, analyze data and interpret the results, and write a research manuscript that describes the study. For this project, there is no proposal or oral presentation. The final research report counts for 25% of your overall course grade. A detailed description of the project will be provided on Canvas. Extra Credit Quizzes: Between 5 and 8 times during the semester, I will administer an impromptu ("pop") quiz assessing your understanding of the assigned reading. These quizzes will be administered during the first five minutes of the class. These quizzes will provide up to 5 extra credit points to your course grade, depending on your performance. For example, if your final grade in the course was originally 80 and your average score on these quizzes was 90%, your new final grade in the course would increase by 4.5 points (5 x.90) to 84.5. If your average score on these quizzes was 100%, your new final grade would increase by 5 points to 85. Missed quizzes will count as a zero and cannot be made up under any circumstances. EXPECTATIONS AND GUIDELINES Policy on Attendance: Attendance is not required for lectures. However, attending lecture will improve your learning and your performance in this class. Lab attendance is mandatory. For every additional lab missed after the first lab that you miss, 2 points will be deducted from your final grade. If group tasks are assigned during a lab that you will miss, it is your responsibility to contact your group members beforehand and make appropriate arrangements. If you miss a lab that involves group work, you may be required to complete the assignment on your own. This is at the instructor's discretion. Missed exams and late assignments: The midterm and final exams constitute major scheduled grading events. You must take exams on the dates they are scheduled unless you provide documentation of an excused absence (see UMD policies on excused absences and required documentation at http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540). You should notify the instructor as far in advance as possible about any scheduled excused absences on these dates. Students who have an excused absence will be responsible for contacting the instructor to arrange a make-up exam within a reasonable amount of time. Students who miss an exam without a university-approved reason for the absence will not be allowed to make up the exam and will receive a zero on the exam they missed. Late assignments and papers will receive a 5-point deduction per day late, including days on the weekend. Missed extra credit quizzes and oral presentations will receive a grade of zero and cannot be made up. Policy on academic dishonesty: Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following acts: Purchasing or copying work from another source and turning it in as your own Failing to cite or improperly citing the ideas of others Plagiarism (i.e., intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one s own in any academic exercise; UMD Code of Academic Integrity) Copying off of other students exams or assignments PSYC420 Syllabus 4
Providing a dishonest reason for missing class or submitting an assignment late I will not tolerate academic dishonesty. Any apparent case of academic dishonesty will be immediately referred to the Honor Council and may result in a grade of F for the course. Further information on the Honor Code and Council can be located here: http://www.shc.umd.edu/shc/default.aspx Accommodations for students with disabilities: I will make every effort to provide accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students requesting accommodations should provide me with a Disability Support Services (DSS) accommodation form by the last day of the schedule adjustment period. If you need additional support: You may contact the Learning Assistance Service, 2202 Shoemaker Building, 301-314-7693. Their educational counselors can help with time management, reading, math learning skills, note-taking and exam preparation skills. All their services are free to UM students. Religious observance: University policy states that students should not be penalized because of observances of their religious beliefs; students shall be given an opportunity, whenever feasible, to make up within a reasonable time any academic assignment that is missed due to individual participation in religious observances. Please inform me of any anticipated absences for religious observance no later than the end of the schedule adjustment period. Inclement weather: If the University of Maryland is closed, course meetings will not be held. Any homework or projects that are due on days when UMD is closed will be due at the next course meeting. Classroom etiquette: You should abide by the following classroom etiquette guidelines: Be respectful of others thoughts, ideas, and questions. When others have the floor to talk, you should listen and not talk or whisper. Turn off your cell phones and other distracting electronic devices. Do not distract your classmates with Facebook, email, and similar activities. If you need to arrive late or leave early, please let me know ahead of time. Course evaluation: As a student member of the University of Maryland academic community, it is important that you submit course evaluations each semester (www.courseevalum.umd.edu). You will receive an email request to do so when the online course evaluation system opens at the end of the semester. PSYC420 Syllabus 5
Tentative Course Schedule (Subject to Change) Topic Reading Assignment (read by start of class) M 1/26 Course Overview W 1/28 Scientific Method; Types of Designs Stangor, Chapter 1 F 1/30 Lab 1: Literature Reviewing (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) M 2/2 Mediation W 2/4 Automaticity and Priming Methods F 2/6 Lab 2: Implicit Measures (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Article: Gardner et al. (1999) Article: McConnell & Leibold (2001) Assignment (by start of class) M 2/9 Content and Narrative Methods Article: Baumeister et al. (1993) Article: Back et al. (2010) W 2/11 Developing Hypotheses Stangor, Chapter 2 Take-home Quiz 1 (HW1) F 2/13 Lab 3: Brainstorming Research Topic and Hypotheses; Forming Research Groups (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Article: McGuire (1997) M 2/16 Designing Questionnaire Measures Stangor, Chapter 4 W 2/18 Reliability and Validity Stangor, Chapter 5 F 2/20 Lab 4: Begin Creating Measures and Materials (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) M 2/23 Content and Narrative Methods (cont.) Article: Deaux & Hanna (1984) W 2/25 Behavioral Methods F 2/27 Lab 5: Finalize Research Protocol and Materials (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Article: Darley & Batson (1973) Stangor, Chapter 7 Project Brainstorming Worksheet (HW2) Take-home Quiz 2 (HW3) M 3/2 Writing Research Proposal; Overview of Statistical Analysis Stangor, Appendix A Stangor, Chapter 8 CITI Training (HW4) W 3/4 Behavioral Methods (cont.) Article: Fraley & Shaver (1998) F 3/6 Lab 6: Data Collection No lab meeting M 3/9 Review for Midterm Exam Research Proposal Due W 3/11 Midterm Exam F 3/13 Lab 7: Data Entry / File Construction (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Bring Complete Project 1 Data (HW5) M 3/16 Spring Break PSYC420 Syllabus 6
W 3/18 Spring Break F 3/20 Spring Break M 3/23 Correlational Designs; Writing Research Paper Stangor, Chapter 9 W 3/25 Overview of Regression (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) F 3/27 Lab 8: Scoring, Correlations, and Descriptive Statistics in SPSS (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) M 3/30 Conducting Mediation Analysis in Regression (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) W 4/1 Article review 1: Mediation; Experimental Research; Alpha Stangor, Chapter 10 Article Review 1: Mediation (HW6) F 4/3 Lab 9: Mediation Analysis and Project 1 Data Analysis (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Take-home Quiz 3 (HW7) M 4/6 Moderation; Factorial Designs Stangor, Chapter 11 Mediation Analysis HW (HW8) W 4/8 Conducting Moderation Analysis in Regression (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Article: Baron and Kenny (1986) F 4/10 Lab 10: Moderation Analysis (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Final Paper for Project 1 Due M 4/13 Article Review 2: Moderation Article Review 2: Moderation (HW9) W 4/15 Experimental Validity Stangor, Chapter 12 F 4/17 Lab 11: Brainstorming Research Topic and Hypotheses for Project 2; Forming Research Groups (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Project 2 Brainstorming Worksheet (HW10) M 4/20 Overview of Oral Presentations; External Validity Stangor, Chapter 13 Moderation Analysis HW (HW11) W 4/22 Developing Procedures and Measures for Project 2 F 4/24 Lab 12: Constructing Measures for Project 2 (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) M 4/27 Event / Experience Sampling Methods Article: Crocker et al. (2002) Article: Reis et al. (1980) Mediation and Moderation Worksheet (HW12) W 4/29 Data Collection for Project 2 (no class meeting) F 5/1 Lab 13: Data Entry and Analysis for Project 2 (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) Bring Project 2 Data (HW13) M 5/4 Project 1 Oral Presentations W 5/6 Project 1 Oral Presentations (cont.) F 5/8 Lab 14: Additional Time for Project 2 Data Analysis (Lefrak CPU Lab 3) M 5/11 Final Exam Review Session Final Research Paper for Project 2 due Note: This schedule is subject to change at any time. Please read course announcements and emails to learn about any changes. PSYC420 Syllabus 7