Basic
Statistics for Psychology
(Psyc
2317-202)
Spring 2010
|
Office: CH 301 |
E-mail: rheredia@tamiu.edu |
|
Class Time & Place: TR 12:00 - 1:15 45 PM PH 101 |
Phone: (956) 326-2637 |
|
Office Hours: By Appointment |
|
Course
Description:
Introduces
practical knowledge of statistical reasoning, from descriptive
statistics such as histograms, measures of central tendency,
variability, and correlation, to inferential statistics including,
probability theory, hypothesis testing, effect size, t-tests,
analysis of variance (ANOVA),
regression, and chi square, which are essential for understanding
scientific reports in psychology and cognitive science. Students
enrolled in this class must obtain a "C"
or better to enroll in PSYC
3302. Prerequisite: PSYC
2301 or permission of instructor.
In
this Course You Should Gain the Following:
1.
Ability to understand and explain to others the statistical analysis
in reports of social and behavioral science research journals.
2.
The ability to identify the appropriate statistical procedures
for basic quantitative research, and to carry out the necessary
computations.
3. The ability to apply and utilize statistical
concepts in designing, executing, and interpreting psychological
experimental research.
4. Further development of your quantitative
and analytic thinking skills.
5. A preparation for more advanced
courses in statistical and research
methods (or experimental psychology).
Methods
of Learning:
1.
Reading the assigned material, which includes following the numeric
examples closely and writing down questions about anything not
entirely clear to you.
2. Reading statistics requires close study
and rereading, not just reading through once as you might an ordinary
book.
3. Testing your knowledge and reviewing each lecture using
your Student's
Study Guide and Workbook,
and visiting the book's Official
Web Page for learning aids (e.g., Exams Questions).
4.
Completing the assigned practice problems. Statistics is a skill--it
is necessary to DO
statistics, not just read and understand!
5. Attending lectures, listening closely, asking questions. DO
NOT
fall behind!
6. Studying for, taking, and reviewing answers for
exams.
7. Improving your understanding of statistics by using
statistical software such as SPSS
(available at
the computer labs), and MyStat
(a free of charge stats program for students). Better yet, use
PSPP,
OpenStat,
or Gnumeric
which are Free GNU/Open
Source applications. Take advantage of your FREEDOM
and choose among other statistical programs available here.
Required
Texts and Statistical Computer Program:
Aron,
A., Aron, E. N., & Coups, E. J. (2008). Statistics
for the behavioral and social sciences: A brief course
(4th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Aron,
A., & Aron, E. N. (2008). Study
guide and computer workbook for statistics for the behavioral
sciences
(4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Huff, D.
(1993). How
to lie with statistics. New
York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.
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.
Calculator:
Inexpensive Calculator
with X2
(22
= 4) and SQR-Root Number Capabilities. You must have your own
calculator!
Policies of the College of Arts and Sciences:
Classroom
Behavior:
The
College of Arts and 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.
Copyright
laws do allow students and professors to make photocopies of
copyrighted materials under strict conditions. You may not copy
most, much less all, of a work, but you may copy a limited portion of
a work, such an article from a journal or a chapter from a book.
These copies must be for your own personal academic use or, in
the case of a professor, for personal, limited classroom use. In
general, the extent of your copying should not suggest that the
purpose or the effect of your copying is to avoid paying for the
materials. And, of course, you may not sell these copies for a
profit. Thus, students who copy textbooks to avoid buying them
or professors who provide photocopies of textbooks to enable students
to save money are both violating the law.
Plagiarism
and Cheating:
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 or the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 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 Incompletes discourages them.
They are appropriate,
however, when the following requirements are met: The student cannot
complete the class because of a severe illness to self or immediate
family member at the very end of the semester (after the date for
withdrawal from class) or because of a traumatic event in the
student’s life (e.g., death of or serious injury or illness to an
immediate family member) at the end of the semester, AND The student
is passing the class at the time he or she cannot complete the
semester, AND The student has completed either 85-90% of the course
requirements or is missing only major assignments due after the final
date for withdrawal from class and after the onset of the illness or
traumatic event (e.g., assignments such as the final exam for the
course or a research paper), AND, finally, The faculty member must
have the approval of the department chair before giving an
Incomplete.
Independent
Study Courses:
Independent Study (IS) courses are offered only under exceptional
circumstances. The chair of the department is to determine whether
the IS will be offered on the basis of the student's and the
University's needs, as certified by the University Registrar. 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.
is 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.
About
exams:
1. Each of
the four exams will cover only the material since the last exam
(except to the extent that the previous material is necessary for
understanding the new).
2. Exams will be multiple choice and
short answer essays requiring conceptual understanding of
statistical principles necessary in experimental research.
3. The
final Examination will be comprehensive and will contain a written
component. The written component will comprise 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.
Make-ups:
Since the lowest exam grade will be dropped, no Make-ups
will be allowed (Note: The Final Exam cannot be dropped).
About important
issues related to class, and assignments:
1.
Class starts on time.
2. Cellular phones should be turned off and
put away. Students will be asked to leave classroom
if phones ring during lecture or student is activaly
using/checking phone.
3. All
assignments and
requirements must be
completed by the start of the final exam to pass the course.
4. To
better appreciate and learn the methods of psychology, you
are required to participate in 1 on-going psychological experiment.
Students with learning, visual, or hearing disabilities are exempt
from this requirement. This exemption also applies to participants
that may not meet the specific requirements of the particular
experiment or study. As an alternative, if you do not wish to
participate in psychological experiments, you can write two 4-5 paged
review of a journal article. Please discuss this possibility with
your professor.
Extra-Credit:
You
can earn extra points by participating in ongoing research projects,
provided that you meet the requirements of the particular experiment.
These requirements are determined by the investigator of the
particular study. After you complete the required experiment (1
hour), you will earn 2 extra points for every additional hour (up to
3 hours) that you participate.
Summary:
Points
will accumulate over the semester such that there will be:
|
3 Examinations |
@ 50 Points |
150 Points |
|
1 Final Exam |
@ 50 Points |
50 Points |
|
Participation |
@ 5 Points |
5 Points |
|
Assignments |
@ 10 Points |
10 Points |
Total possible points: 215 pts.
A =
90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F =59% and below
|
DATE |
TOPIC |
CHAPTER READING |
ASSIGNMENT |
|
PART I |
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JAN 19 |
Introduction/Administrative |
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JAN 21 |
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JAN 26 |
HW# 1: 1-2, 4 |
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JAN 28 |
HW# 2: 1 |
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FEB 2 |
Variance and Standard Deviation/Z Scores |
HW# 3: 3-5 |
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FEB 4 |
HW# 4: 1-3 |
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|
FEB 9-11 |
HW# 5: 6 |
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|
FEB 16 |
FIRST EXAM Includes Chapters 1-3 From How To Lie With Statistics |
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|
PART II |
|
|
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|
FEB 18-23 |
HW# 6: 1-2 |
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FEB 25 |
HW# 7: 3 |
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| MAR 2-4 | Ch 5 |
HW# 8: 1-4 |
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MAR 9-11 |
HW# 9: 1-4 |
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| MAR 15-20 |
Spring Break: No Class | ||
|
MAR 23 |
HW# 10: 1
|
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| MAR 25 |
SECOND EXAM Includes Chapters 4-6 From How To Lie With Statistics |
||
|
PART III |
|
|
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|
MAR 30 |
Ch 8 |
HW# 11: 1-2 |
|
|
APR 1 |
Ch 8 |
HW# 12: 3, 6 |
|
|
APR 6 |
Ch 9 |
HW# 13: 2-3 |
|
|
APR 8 |
Ch 9 |
HW# 14: 4-5 |
|
|
APR 13 |
One-Way ANOVA (Sir Fisher & ANOVA, Critical F Ratio) |
Ch 10 |
HW# 15: 1 |
|
APR 15 |
Ch 10 |
HW# 16: 2, 4 |
|
|
APR 20 |
Ch 10 cont. |
|
|
|
APR 22 |
THIRD EXAM Includes Chapters 7-10 From How To Lie With Statistics |
|
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|
PART IV |
|
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|
APR 27 |
Chi-Square Test of Goodness of Fit / Chi-SQR Test of Independence (Chi-SQR Calculator) |
Ch 11 |
HW# 17: 1, 2 |
|
APR 29 |
Ch 12 |
HW# 18: 1, 4, 7 |
|
| MAY 4 |
General Review and Conclusion |
||
|
MAY 6 |
|
|
|
| MAY 7 |
Reading Day |
||
|
MAY 11 |
|
|
| JAN 18 | Martin Luther King Holiday: University Closed |
| JAN 19 | First Class Day |
| JAN 22 | Final Late Registration |
| FEB 3 | 12th Class Day: Last Day Courses May Be Dropped Without Record |
| MAR 5 | Midsemester |
| MAR 15-20 | Spring Break: No Class |
| APR 12 |
Faculty Evaluations |
| APR 16 |
Last Day to Drop a Course or Withdraw from the University |
| MAY 6 | Last Class Day |
| MAY 7 |
Reading Day |
| MAY 8-14 | Final Examination Period |
NOTE:
The above schedule and procedures in this course are subject to
change in the event of extenuating circumstances.
Related
websites of interest to the student:
Tips on how to take Multiple Choice Exams:
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~haw4/test.html
Computer
Statistical Programs that are Completely Free (as in Freedom):
|STAT;
OpenStat; InStat;
Gnumeric, PSPP
Important
sites for Free Statistical Software Programs:
Free
Statistics; Freee.Statistics;
Free
Software; Peanut
Software; StatSci.org;
Statistics.com;
StatLib;
Spreadsheets,
Graphics
Lectures,
Articles, & Books on Statistics:
On-Line
Books, Software; On-Line
Lecture: Linear Models; On-Line
Multivariate Statistics; On-Line
Lecture: Logistic Regression;
On-Line
book on Maximum Likelihood;
On-line: Life
Data Analysis; On-line
Text: Visual Statistics; Articles
on Statistics; Test/Scale
Construction; Lectures:
Statistics Concepts; Evaluation
Personnel; Assessment,
Research & Evaluation; Statistical
Services Centre.
Other
Related Topics:
Statistics
& Research I
& II;
Statistics
for Psychology
&
Research;
Statistics
Explained I,
II,
& III;
An
Excellent Statistics Book;
Package
for GPS Deformation; Nonparametric
Statistics; T-test,
Factorial
Designs; Statistical
Significance; Social
Research Methods
Practice,
Do & Learn:
Vista
Program: Visual Statistics; Learning
Statistics;
Statistical
Data; Java
Statistics
More
Statistics:
Statistics
on the web:
http://www.crestcapital.com/tax/business_statistics.html
http://www.psychologie.uni-trier.de:8000/projects/gpower.html
WANT
TO PRACTICE AND READ MORE ABOUT STATISTICS? TRY 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
FOR
FREE
(OPEN
SOURCE) SOFTWARE (Linux, Macintosh, & Windows) 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.
Note:
This page was proudly created with Openoffice.org,
Mozilla.org, NVU
and lately modified with Kompozer
(Free, Open
Source) software.