ArgosyUniversity
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Number: PP6025
Course Name: Research and Program Evaluation
Faculty Information
Faculty Name: Jacquie Lewis, PhD
Campus:Chicago
Contact Information: 773.925.8227
Office Hours: 3:15 – 4:15, by appointment
Short Faculty Bio: My PhD has a focus in both clinical and research psychology. I graduated from SaybrookGraduateSchool and ResearchCenter with a degree in psychology, with an emphasis in consciousness and spirituality.
I also teach psychology at Northcentral University, California Southern University, Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and SaybrookGraduateSchool and ResearchCenter, where I am the Interim Co-Director of the Dream Studies Certificate Program. I also serve on the board of directors and am the E-News editor for the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
I am a runner, yoga practitioner, and meditator. I also enjoy documentaries and reading fiction, particularity historical fiction, and non-fiction. I am the president of SPEAK (Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom), an all-volunteer national animal rights humane education speakers bureau. I live with a Shetland Sheepdog named Gaia, a Welsh Pembroke Corgi named Darshan, an African Grey parrot named Opus, a Brazilian Cardinal named Bernadine and Pandora the box turtle.
Course description:A basic understanding of types of research is presented, covering basic statistics, research report development, and research implementation. Other areas studied include program evaluation, needs assessment, publications of research information, and ethical and legal consideration pertinent to the psychotherapist.
Course Pre-requisites: None
Required Textbook:Barker,C., Pistrang, N., and Elliott, R. (2002). Research Methods in Clinical Psychology: An Introduction for Students and Practitioners. Wiley. 978-0-471-49089-0.
Technology:Intel Pentium IV 1.4 GHz processor or equivalent Microsoft Office 2000 or equivalent. Windows 2000 Professional or equivalent. Acrobat (full version); Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (PC), 5.0 (MAC),Anti-virus software (e.g. McAfee or; Norton Antivirus).
Course length: 15 Weeks
Contact Hours: 45 Hours
Credit Value: 3.0
Program Outcomes: The Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology has been designed to educate and train students to enter a professional career as MA level practitioners.ArgosyUniversity, Chicago Campus provides students an educational program with all the necessary theoretical and clinical elements that will allow them to be effective members of a mental health team. The program introduces students to basic clinical skills that integrate individual and group theoretical foundations of applied psychology into appropriate client interactions and intervention skills
In addition, the Program offers excellent preparation for those considering application to the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology.
Course Objectives:
This course will require students to understand and interpret research designs in published research by critically examining published psychological research. Students will learn how to design and carry out a research project. Students should be able to: study the major categories of research methods, examine the research methods used in previous studies, formulate research questions and how the research questions will be investigated, describe the potential significance of the research, identify research constructs, conduct a literature review, and determine the nature of the relationships to be studied.
Assignment Table
Topics & Session Content / Readings / Assignments1 /
- The Research Process
- Perspectives on Research
- Philosophical Issues
- Professional Issues
- Personal Issues
- In class: Course overview, introductions by students and teacher
Chapters 12
2 /
- Foundations of Quantitative Measurement
- Formulating the Research Question
- The Politics of Research in Applied Settings
- The Process of Measurement
- Foundations of Quantitative Methods
- Psychometric Theory
- In class: Discussion questions. Forming of research teams
Chapters 3 & 4
3 /
- Foundations of Qualitative Methods
- Phenomenological Approaches
- Social Constructionist
- Approaches
- Ways of Evaluating Qualitative Studies
- Self Report Methods, Quantitative and Qualitative
- In class:Qualitative exercise
Chapters 5& 6 / Submit Research Question, Research Design, and Survey Questions
4 /
- Observation, Qualitative and Quantitative
- Nonexperimental Designs
- Experimental Designs
- In class: Quantitative exercise
Chapters 7 & 8
5 /
- Single Case Experimental Designs
- Naturalistic case Study Designs
- In class: Video, The Human Behavior Experiments
Chapters 9 & 10
6 /
- What is Evaluation
- Preparation for Evaluating A Service
- Monitoring the Process of Service Delivery
- Outcome Evaluation
- In class: Discussion questions, examination of research articles
Chapters 11 & 12 / Midterm Paper: Literature review due – 12 reference minimum
7 / Quantitative vs. Qualitative
In class:Examination of research articles / Sample qualitative and quantitative articles on reserve in Library: Psychotherapy Process Variables Associated With the Retrieval of Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Qualitative Study. Phelphs, A., Friedlander, M.L. and Enns, C.Z.Journal of Counseling Psychology. Vol 4, No. 3, p. 321-332, 1997.
Hand Out: The Significant Life Experiences (SLEs) of Humane Educators. Lewis, J. E.Society & Animals Journal. Vol 15, No 3, 2007.
8 /
- Ethics in Research
- In class: Discussion questions, critique of ethical/unethical research scenarios
Read Ethical Standard #8, Research and Publishing. On reserve in Library or visit:
9 /
- Research Paper Format & APA Style
- In class:Practice exam
10 /
- Anatomy of a Research Project
- In class: Exercise evaluating research
11 /
- Anatomy of a Research Project
- In class: Exercise evaluating research
12 /
- Anatomy of a Research Project
- In class: Exercise evaluating research
13 / In Class Presentation of Student Research
14 / In Class Presentation of Student Research
15 / Research Paper Due – Minimum 12 written pages, excluding reference section
Grading Criteria
Grading requirements
Attendance/class participation / 25%Mid Term- Literature Review / 15%
Final paper- Research Paper / 40%
Final Presentation / 20%
100%
Grading Scale
A / 100 – 93A- / 92 – 90
B+ / 89 – 88
B / 87 – 83
B- / 82 – 80
C+ / 79 – 78
C / 77 - 73
C- / 72 – 70
D+ / 69 – 68
D / 67 – 63
D- / 62 – 60
F / 59 and below
Library Resources
ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features more than 21,000 full-text journals, 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences.All electronic resources can be accessed through the library’s website at User IDs and passwords are distributed during orientation, but can also be obtained at the circulation desk, calling 312-777-7653, or by e-mail at .
In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Library Online Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections.Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.
Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach fundamental and transferable research skills, including selecting sources appropriate for academic-level research, searching periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluating and citing information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at
Academic Policies
Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.
Americans with Disabilities Act Policy
It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.
Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.
TheArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity
ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Boththe academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.
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