Psychology 242; Research in Psychology
Dr. David J. McKirnan

1/12/09

Basic assumptions of the scientific method.

Politics & science: evolution v. creationism.

1/19/09

General methods & theory in science. 

The role of science in society: What does science "do", "Neuro-law".

1/26/09

Developing hypotheses, basic research designs.

Identifying theories, hypotheses, & methods in a research article.

2/2/09

Ethics in research.

Ethics and bias in research.

2/9/09

Experimental design, the research context.

2/16/09

Finish experimental control, Sampling

Exam overview.  Analyze the key design features of a published study.

2/23/09

Quasi-experimental and evaluation designs.

Measurement v. experimental studies as they apply to your paper topics.

3/2/09

Descriptive research; Quantitative & qualitative studies.

Introduction & design of your paper due this week.

3/9/09

Surveys & questionnaires, general sampling issues.

Design a survey.

3/16/09

Finish Surveys, begin basic statistics.

Methods section for your paper due this week.

3/30/09

Basic statistics; variance and distributions.

Exam overview, basic frequency distributions

4/6/09

Inferential statistics: t-tests, correlations, Chi square

The logic of the t-test, calculate a t-test by hand, initial paper results.

4/13/09

Multiple independent variables, factorial designs, interactions.

Correlations: Statistics & results for your paper due this week.

4/20/09

Multivariate and within-subjects designs.

Science in the public domain: “Relative risk” statistics.

4/27/09

Finish multivariate designs, within-subject designs, final course overview. 

Course evaluation during discussion group, review for final exam.