PSYC 52a Research Methods and Laboratory in Psychology

Spring 2016

Section 1, Tue/Thur 1 – 2:50 PM

Goldfarb Library 230

InstructorGraduate Teaching Assistant

Dr. Teresa MitchellSarah Lupis

Office: Brown 107Office: Rabb 117

Email: mail:

Office Hours: Mon, Tue 3-4 pmOffice Hours: Wed, 12-2

“The test of all knowledge is experimentation. Experimentation is the sole judge of scientific ‘truth’. But what is the source of knowledge? Where do the laws that are to be tested come from? Experimentation, itself, helps to produce these laws, in the sense that it gives us hints. But also what is needed is imagination to create from these hints the great generalizations – to guess at the wonderful, simple, but very strange patterns beneath them all, and then to experiment again whether we have made the right guess.” Richard Feynman, Six Easy Pieces

“Behavior is all the more difficult to study scientifically because everyone seems convinced that they know what they are studying.” Evan Balaban (2001)

Course Description

Psychology is the scientific investigation of behavior. That means that psychologists are interested in discovering the laws and rules that govern individual behavior. Sometimes the pursuit of this knowledge is with the goal of therapeutically changing behavior – what is generally referred to as applied research – and sometimes the knowledge is pursued for its own sake – what is referred to as basic research. In this course you will be immersed in the world of behavioral research and how it is conducted. You will learn about:

  • the philosophy of science – what counts as science and how is it applied to behavior
  • ethical conduct in research – what you can and cannot do in pursuit of knowledge
  • reading and interpreting original research articles – what do those papers mean??
  • formulation of research hypotheses – how is a hypothesis different from a question?
  • measurement of psychological variables – how do you measure a behavior?
  • experimental design – under what conditions is the behavior of interest observed?
  • analysis of research data – how do you know if what you find is meaningful?
  • reporting research findings – how do you explain what you did and what is the right format?

The goal of this course is for you to develop sufficient knowledge to conductpsychological research and, perhaps more importantly, to be an intelligent consumer of research findings. Regardless of whether you will ever conduct a psychology experiment on your own, the knowledge gained in this course will be vital and applicable to multiple aspects of your life because of the pervasiveness of scientific research in modern life. Finally, in the end you will be a knowledgeable ambassador for the discipline of psychology, capable of skeptically analyzing and interpreting findings from psychological research that is presented to you by friends, family, and the media.

If you are a student with a documented disability at Brandeis University and if you wish to request a reasonable accommodation for this class, please see me immediately. Please understand that reasonable accommodations are not provided retroactively. If you are an athlete and will be away for any of the classes, please also contact me immediately. I have done my best to schedule around the Jewish holidays, but this is not always possible.

Academic Honesty Students are expected to be honest in all academic work. Academic dishonesty in any form (cheating, plagiarism, etc.) will not be tolerated, and suspected cases will be turned over to the Office of Campus Life for investigation and possible referral to the Student Judicial System, as required by University policy. See the Rights and Responsibilities handbook (section 5) for the University policies in this area. Please note that ignorance of these policies is not a sufficient excuse for violation of them. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask me.

Readings

Textbook: Morling, B. Research Methods in Psychology, 2nd edition. W. W. Norton. (comes in paperback, 3 hole punch, and ebook formats).

Various articles uploaded into LATTE

Course Content and Requirements:

The course will consist of lectures, quizzes and lab work, individual and group projects.

Four-Credit Course

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).

Writing-Intensive Course

This is a writing-intensive course, with four major writing assignments throughout the semester. If you have challenges with writing, please make good use of the Brandeis Writing Center – they have specialized skills that your TA and I do not have!

Experiential Learning Course

This course involves hands-on experience in conducting psychological research and is therefore listed as an experiential learning course. For more information about experiential learning, go to

Exams (30% total, 15% each): You will have 2 non-cumulative exams during the semester. These exams will be short answer, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank format and will be based on lecture content, readings, and lab activities.

IRB Proposal (10%): You will conduct a literature review on a topic of your choosing using original empirical papers. Based on this review, you will formulate your own research hypothesis and design a study to test that hypothesis and write a proposal for submission to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) seeking approval to conduct the research. The proposal will describe what you plan to do and what ethical considerations and privacy protections you will afford to your research participants. This is an individual assignment.

Archival study (15%): We will design and conduct an archival study as a class. While the design and data collection is a group effort, each student will write a short report of the study as an individual assignment.

Group Research Project Paper (15%): We will conduct a simple experiment in class. We will collect and analyze data in class. You will be divided into groups of 4-5 students and each group will write a research report of this study. All members of the group receive the same grade, so it is crucial for each member to pull his or her own weight. DEAD WOOD IS NOT WELCOME.

Individual Research Project Paper (20%): We will conduct a factorial design experiment in class. We will collect and analyze data in class. We will do several writing workshops in class, but the final report is an individual assignment. WHEN I SAY INDIVIDUAL, I MEAN INDIVIDUAL.

Quizzes and class Assignments (10%): There will be pop quizzes in class. You will also have several lab activities across the semester, in class and occasionally for homework. When these are to be completed individually, I will make that very clear.

Grading scale:

A / A- / B+ / B / B- / C+ / C / C- / D
93< / 90-92.9 / 87-89.9 / 83-86.9 / 80-82.9 / 77-79.9 / 73-76.9 / 70-72.9 / <69.9

**All dates and assignments are tentative and subject to change. You will be informed ahead of time to any changes.

Class session / In class / homework for next class
Week 1 / Thur / 1/14/2016 / first class / 1 / Introduction / Feynman, Ch. 1
Week
2 / Tue / 1/19/2016 / 2 / philosophy of science, critical thinking / Ch. 2
Thur / 1/21/2016 / 3 / More scientific method / Ch. 3
Week 3 / Tue / 1/26/2016 / 4 / 3 claims 4 validities / Critically Reading a Journal Article, Beauchamp et al paper + 5 critiques
Thur / 1/28/2016 / 5 / Reading empirical papers, APA style reference sections / Literature search for 3 papers, summary of articles
Week 4 / Tue / 2/2/2016 / 6 / APA style, cont’d / Ch. 5
Thur / 2/4/2016 / 7 / Reliability & validity / Ch. 6
Week 5 / Tue / 2/9/2016 / 8 / Surveys & observations / Study for exam
Thur / 2/11/2016 / 9 / EXAM ONE / Ch. 7
Week
6 / Tue / 2/16/2016 / MIDTERM RECESS
Thur / 2/18/2016 / MIDTERM RECESS
Week 7 / Tue / 2/23/2016 / 10 / Sampling, design archival study / collect data for archival study
Thur / 2/25/2016 / 11 / data entry, analyze archival results, writing template / write summary of archival results
Week 8 / Tue / 3/1/2016 / 12 / Complete archival study report / Ch. 10; upload archival paper by midnight.
Thur / 3/3/2016 / 13 / Simple experiments / Stats review (pp. 441 – 486)
Week 9 / Tue / 3/8/2016 / 14 / Simple experiments, cont’d, review of descriptive & inferential statistics / Ch. 11
Thur / 3/10/2016 / 15 / Confounds, data collection in class, data summary / APA style (pp. 487-521)
Week 10 / Tue / 3/15/2016 / 16 / more APA style / Work on research paper
Thur / 3/17/2016 / 17 / Complete research paper in class (group assignment) / CITI certification,
Ch. 4
Week 11 / Tue / 3/22/2016 / 18 / Ethics - conducting research, consenting / Study for exam
Thur / 3/24/2016 / 19 / EXAM TWO / IRB proposal sample on LATTE; write your own outline
Week 12 / Tue / 3/29/2016 / 20 / IRB proposal workshop / Complete IRB proposal
Thur / 3/31/2016 / 21 / IRB proposal due,
Factorial designs / Ch. 12
Week 13 / Tue / 4/5/2016 / 22 / Factorial designs, cont’d, data collection in class
Thur / 4/7/2016 / 23 / data summary & analysis / Complete method & results
Week 14 / Tue / 4/12/2016 / 24 / writing workshop - introduction / Complete introduction
Thur / 4/14/2016 / 25 / writing workshop - methods & results / Complete methods & results
Week 15 / Tue / 4/19/2016 / factorial design paper due (individual assignment)
Thur / 4/21/2016 / 26 / writing workshop - discussion / Paper due midnight, May 3
Week 16 / Tue / 4/26/2016 / SPRING RECESS
Thur / 4/28/2016 / SPRING RECESS