Research Design and Statistics (PSYC 5320-101) 
Fall 2010

Course Description:

PSYC 5320 provides the background of research methods and statistical techniques necessary to understand the principles and methodology used in psychological research. Designed to assist students in the preparation of the thesis proposal. Prerequisites:  Psychology 2317 (or a statistics course) and PSYC 3302 and PSYC 3102 or permission of instructor.

Required Texts and Computer Statistical Packages:
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2010).* SPSS for windows step by step: A simple guide and reference 17.0 update (10^th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Prentice Hall (Datasets).
Jackson, S., L. (2009).** Research methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach (3rd ed.). Florence, KY: Cengage Learning.  (Learning resources, rent).
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association (6^th ed.). Washington, DC: APA. (Chapter Update).

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) is available at the various university's laboratories. Alternatively, the student might considers PSPP a program for statistical analysis (a Free replacement for the proprietary program SPSS) which can be downloaded from here for Windows users, or here for Mac users and available data sets to practice and practice.

Instructional Objectives: Upon completion of this course you will have:
1. Understood the principles and logic in conducting psychological research
2. Understood the mechanics of generating research questions.
3. Understood the mechanics of generating theoretically sound research ideas.
4. Written progressively complete research reports in APA style.
5. Understood how to critically  read and interpret the methods and rsults section of scientific research article.

Policies of the College of Arts and Sciences:

Classroom Behavior:
The College of Arts and Sciences  Sciences encourages classroom discussion and academic debate as an essential intellectual activity. It is essential that students learn to express and defend their beliefs, but it is also essential that they learn to listen and respond respectfully to others whose beliefs they may not share. The College will always tolerate diverse, unorthodox, and unpopular points of view, but it will not tolerate condescending or insulting remarks. When students verbally abuse or ridicule and intimidate others whose views they do not agree with, they subvert the free exchange of ideas that should characterize a university classroom. If their actions are deemed by the professor to be disruptive, they will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, which may include being involuntarily withdrawn from the class.

Warning Concerning Copyright Restrictions:
The Copyright Act of 1976 grants to copyright owners the exclusive right to reproduce their works and distribute copies of their work. Works that receive copyright protection include published works such as a textbook. Copying a textbook without permission from the owner of the copyright may constitute copyright infringement. Civil and criminal penalties may be assessed for copyright infringement. Civil penalties include damages up to $100,000; criminal penalties include a fine up to $250,000 and imprisonment

Plagiarism and Cheating:
Plagiarism Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s work as your own.  1) When you borrow someone else’s facts, ideas, or opinions and put them entirely in your own words, you must acknowledge that these thoughts are not your own by immediately citing the source in your paper.  Failure to do this is plagiarism.  2) When you also borrow someone else’s words (short phrases, clauses, or sentences), you must enclose the copied words in quotation marks as well as citing the source.  Failure to do this is plagiarism.  3) When you present someone else’s paper or exam (stolen, borrowed, or bought) as your own, you have committed a clearly intentional form of intellectual theft and have put your academic future in jeopardy.  This is the worst form of plagiarism.  

Plagiarism, as defined by the Manual of The American Psychological Association (2010, 6th ed.): Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due. Quotations marks should be used to indicate the exact words of another. Each time you paraphrase another author (i.e., summarize a passage or rearrange the order of a sentence and change some of the words), you need to credit the source in the text.

The key element of this principle is that authors do not present the work of another as if it were their own words. This can extend to ideas as well as written words. If authors model a study after one done by someone else, the originating author should be given credit. If the rationale for a study was suggested in the Discussion section of someone else's article, the person should be given credit. Given the free exchange of ideas, which is very important for the health of intellectual discourse, authors may not know where an idea for a study originated. If authors do know, however, they should  acknowledge the source; this includes personal communications (pp. 15-16).

Consult the Writing Center or a recommended guide to documentation and research such as the Manual of the APA for guidance on proper documentation.  If you still have doubts concerning proper documentation, seek advice from your instructor prior to submitting a final draft.

Penalties for Plagiarism:  Should a faculty member discover that a student has committed plagiarism, the student will receive a grade of 'F' in that course and the matter will be referred to the Honor Council for possible disciplinary action.  The faculty member, however, has the right to give freshmen and sophomore students a “zero” for the assignment and to allow them to revise the assignment up to a grade of “F” (50%) if they believe that the student plagiarized out of ignorance or carelessness and not out of an attempt to deceive in order to earn an unmerited grade.  This option is not available to juniors, seniors, or graduate students, who cannot reasonably claim ignorance of documentation rules as an excuse. 

Penalties for Cheating:  Should a faculty member discover a student cheating on an exam or quiz or other class project, the student will receive a “zero” for the assignment and not be allowed to make the assignment up.  The incident must be reported to the chair of the department and to the Honor Council.  If the cheating is extensive, however, or if the assignment constitutes a major grade for the course (e.g., a final exam), or if the student has cheated in the past, the student should receive an “F” in the course, and the matter should be referred to the Honor Council.  Under no circumstances should a student who deserves  an “F” in the course be allowed to withdraw from the course with a “W.”

A new grade to denote academic dishonesty is now available, a “M” for “Academic Misconduct.”  It has the same effect as an “F” but will indicate on the transcript that the failure was due to academic misconduct.

Student Right of Appeal:  Faculty will notify students immediately via the student’s TAMIU e-mail account that they have submitted plagiarized work.  Students have the right to appeal a faculty member’s charge of academic dishonesty by notifying the TAMIU Honor Council of their intent to appeal as long as the notification of appeal comes within 3 business days of the faculty member’s e-mail message to the student.  The Student Handbook provides details.

Students with Disabilities:
Texas A&M International University seeks to provide reasonable accommodations for all qualified persons with disabilities. This University will adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required to afford equal education opportunity. It is the student's responsibility to register with the Director of Student Counseling and to contact the faculty member in a timely fashion to arrange for suitable accommodations.

Incompletes:
The College policy for Incompletesdiscourages them.  Students who are unable to complete a course should withdraw from the course before the final date for withdrawal and receive a “W.”  To qualify for an “incomplete” and thus have the opportunity to complete the course at a later date, a student must meet the following criteria:

(1) The student must have completed 90% of the course work assigned before the final date for withdrawing from a course with a “W”, and the student must be passing the course;
(2).  The student cannot complete the course because an accident, an illness, or a traumatic personal or family event occurred after the final date for withdrawal from a course;
(3). The student must sign an “Incomplete Grade Contract” and secure signatures of approval from the professor and the college dean.  
(4).  The student must agree to complete the missing course work before the end of the next long semester; failure to meet this deadline will cause the “I” to automatically be converted to a “F”; extensions to this deadline may be granted by the dean of the college.

This is the general policy regarding the circumstances under which an “incomplete” may be granted, but under exceptional circumstances, a student may receive an incomplete who does not meet all of the criteria above if the faculty member, department chair, and dean recommend it.

Independent Study Courses:
Independent Study (IS) courses are offered only under exceptional circumstances. Required courses intended to build academic skills may not be taken as IS (e.g., clinical supervision and internships). No student will take more than one IS course per semester. Moreover, IS courses are limited to seniors and graduate students. Summer IS course must continue through both summer sessions.

Student Responsibility for Dropping a Course:
It is the responsibility of the STUDENT to drop the course before the final date for withdrawal from a course. Faculty members, in fact, may not drop a student from a course.

Grade Changes & Appeals:
Faculty are authorized to change final grades only when they have committed a computational error, and they must receive the approval of their department chairs and the dean to change the grade.  As part of that approval, they must attach a detailed explanation of the reason for the mistake.   Only in rare cases would another reason be entertained as legitimate for a grade change.  A student who is unhappy with his or her grade on an assignment must discuss the situation with the faculty member teaching the course.  If students believe that they have been graded unfairly, they have the right to appeal the grade using a grade appeal process in the Student Handbook and the Faculty Handbook.

UConnect, TAMIU E-Mail & Dusty Alert:
Personal Announcements sent to students through TAMIU’s UConnect Portal and TAMIU E-mail are the official means of communicating course and university business with students and faculty – not the U.S. Mail and not other e-mail addresses. Students and faculty must check their TAMIU e-mail accounts regularly, if not daily. Not having seen an important TAMIU e-mail message from a faculty member, chair, or dean is not accepted as an excuse for failure to take important action. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to sign-up for Dusty Alert.  Dusty Alert is an instant cell phone text-messaging system allowing the university to communicate immediately with you if there is an on-campus emergency, something of immediate danger to you, or a campus closing.

Final Examination:
Final Examination must be comprehensive and must contain a written component.  The written component should comprise at least 20% of the final exam grade.  Exceptions to this policy must receive the approval of the department chair and the dean at the beginning of the semester.

Course Philosophy:
This is a demanding course. There is considerable reading and writing to be done and much to think about. You are expected to master the basic material covered in the readings and in lectures, and to participate actively in class. The assumption underlying this class is that we are responsible students and that we want to learn and do high quality work. Some lectures and discussions in the course are designed to supplement the readings. As such, you can expect discussions to present ideas that are not always covered in the readings.

General Expectations:
(1). The student will be able to understand most concepts in design and statistical research
(2). The student will be able to conduct statistical analysis of selected data and be able to correctly report what the analysis indicates.
(3). The student will be able to formulate a coherent thesis proposal which is amenable to scientific and statistical scrutiny.
(4).The student will be able to write an appropriate results section of a report which summarizes statistical results.

Evaluation:
1). There will be two Midterms and a Final each worth 50 points consisting of short answers and essay questions. Each of the two exams will cover only the material since the last exam (except to the extent that the previous material is necessary for understanding the new). The final Examination will be comprehensive.

(2). Class will consist of a mixture of lecture, discussion, and in class activities using SPSS. Active class discussions is required. The purpose of these sections is to allow a more in-depth discussion of the issues discussed in the lectures and readings, particularly discussions of the ways in which these issues apply to problems in everyday life and to your field. You will be much more prepared for lively discussion during the classroom time if you have read the assigned material prior to the time in which it will be addressed in class.

(3). Journal Article Assignment: Students will choose a published research article from the field of Psychology and critically review the methods and results section, and propose one or several studies as follow-ups.

(4). Discussion Points: By 3:00 P.M. of every Wednesday, please submit by email a set of at least five brief discussion points related to the broad themes of the readings from your textbook. Discussion points should be implications raised by the material that suggest creative connections to other issues, thoughtful experiments, or application of the material. Do not submit clarifirication questions of the material. Comments must reveal thoughtful reflection on the material in fewer than 100 words. Be prepared to discuss the issues you raise and please bring a copy of your discussion points to class.

(5) Attendance: Attendance is not only mandatory, but crucial for this course to function well. You will be allowed 1 absence for emergencies, and you should provide adequate notice or documentation of these. Failure to provide notice or documentation, or having more than 1 absence will result in heavy penalties (i.e. dropping a whole letter grade or two).

(6). Research Proposal:  Awritten research proposal (15-25 double-spaced pages) worth 50 points with at least 15 references is due December 3. Psychology Today and internet articles are not valid references. The emphasis on the proposal will be on your ability to write well (i.e., APA style, 6th ed.), to integrate the existing literature, and your ability to reason scientifically and propose a novel study. This paper will be an independent project (e.g., a systematic observation, an experiment, or a survey) related to your field of interest (e.g., Counseling, Clinical, Cognitive, or Developmental Psychology). An academic presentation (15-20 minutes) will accompany this proposal.
 
How to write a proposal? It is highly recommended that you consult, Cone, J.D., & Foster, S. L. (1999). Dissertations and theses from start to finish: Psychology and related  fields. Washington, DC: APA. Writing well is a skill requiring practice, motivation and a lot of EDITING. If you need assistance with your writing, please visit the Enrichment Center where you can be helped.

(7). This is a graduate course and you are expected to reason at a graduate level. This class is not an introductory course, and as such, do not expect lectures to be devoted to explanations of concepts that you learned and should have mastered in introductory Statistics and Research Methods.

(8). All assignments and requirements  must be completed by the start of the final exam to pass the course.

Summary: Points will accumulate over the semester such that there will be:

3 Examinations (Evaluation, 1)                                 @ 50 points= 150 points
Participation & Attendance (Evaluation: 2, 3, 4, 5)   @ 15 points = 60 points
1 Research Report + Presentation (Evaluation: 6)     @ 50 + 25 points = 75 points

Total possible points: 285  pts.
   A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, Unsatisfactory = 79% and below

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER: FALL 2010

NOTE: The above schedule and procedures in this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances.

MATERIALS  (WORD NORMS) FOR LANGUAGE/MEMORY STUDIES:

Word Frequency, Imagery and Concreteness Ratings: http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Online/paivio/
The English Lexicon Project:  http://elexicon.wustl.edu/
Nonword Database:  http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/~nwdb/
University of South Florida Word Association Database: http://www.usf.edu/FreeAssociation/

For Information on Other Databases, See Materials for Cognitive Scientists:

Related websites of interest to the student:
Links to Information on APA Publication Style: http://www.tiac.net/users/fscpac1/apa.htm
Tips on how to take Multiple Choice Exams: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~haw4/test.html
Writing Workshop: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~writcnt/
Psychology with Style: http://www.uwsp.edu/acad/psych/apa4.htm
APA Style Resources: http://www.psych-web.com/resource/apacrib.htm
Computer Statistical programs info : http://kom.net/~dbrick/newspage/comp.soft-sys.html
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) info: http://www.spss.com/Support/Articles.html
General Statistics (Unix Stats) for ANOVA and more: http://ergo.ucsd.edu/unixstats/
You can obtain this program free from http://www.acm.org/~perlman/statinfo.html at your own risk.
This is a full blown program that you can use with DOS.
Manuals and examples are provided in this site
Statistics on the web: http://www.execpc.com/~helberg/statistics.html
http://www.psychologie.uni-trier.de:8000/projects/gpower.html
Also, you can obtain a Spreadsheet (like Excel) completely Free: http://www.openoffice.org/

FOR FREE (OPEN SOURCE) SOFTWARE (Windows, Macintosh, & Linux), VISIT MY WEB PAGE
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR FREE PROGRAMS FOR WINDOWS, MACHINTOSH, OR LINUX (E.G., WORD PROCESSOR, SPREADSHEET, AND PRESENTATION), OBTAINED THEM FREE BY SIMPLY CLICKING HERE.

ALSO VISIT  MY WEBPAGE FOR OTHER SITES RELATED TO RESEARCH METHODS

TO REVIEW SOME OF THE BASICS IN STATISTICS, PLEASE VISIT THE FOLLOWING SITES:

http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/
http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/alphabet.html
http://www.uvm.edu/%7Edhowell/StatPages/Fundamentals/Glossary.html
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/statglos/statglos.htm
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/ascodesc/statdesc.htm
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

Note: This page was proudly created with Openoffice.org, Mozilla.org, NVU and lately modified with Kompozer (Free, Open Source) software.