Psychology Research Methods

Class Schedule, Fall 2011

	Week click for notes	Date	General topic	Discussion group
	Week 1	8/22/11	Basic assumptions of the scientific method.	Politics & science: evolution v. creationism.
	Week 2	8/29/11	General methods & theory in science.	The role of science in society: What does science "do", "Neuro-law".
	Week 3	9/6/11	Developing hypotheses, basic research designs.	Identifying theories, hypotheses, & methods in a research article.
	Week 4	9/12/11	Ethics in research.	Ethics and bias in research.
	Week 5	9/19/11	Experimental design, the research context.	Searching for references & readings. Main topic of your research paper due this week.
Exam # 1 Wednesday, 9/21/11.
	Week 6	9/26/11	Finish experimental control, Sampling	Exam overview. Analyze the key design features of a published study.
	Week 7	10/3/11	Quasi-experimental and evaluation designs.	Measurement v. experimental studies as they apply to your paper topics.
	Week 8	10/10/11	Descriptive research; Quantitative & qualitative studies.	Introduction & design of your paper due this week.
	Week 9	10/17/11	Surveys & questionnaires, general sampling issues.	Design a survey.
	Week 10	10/24/11	Finish Surveys, begin basic statistics.	Methods section for your paper due this week.
Exam # 2, Wednesday, 10/26/11
	Week 11	10/31/11	Basic statistics; variance and distributions.	Exam overview, basic frequency distributions
	Week 12	11/7/11	Inferential statistics: t-tests, correlations, Chi square	The logic of the t-test, calculate a t-test by hand, initial paper results.
	Week 13	11/14/11	Multiple independent variables, factorial designs, interactions.	Correlations: Statistics & results for your paper due this week.
	Week 14	11/21/11	>Multivariate and within-subjects designs.	No discussion groups (Thanksgiving). Papers are due Monday, 11/28, in class or by 5:00 pm in your TA's mailbox.
	Week 15	11/28/11	Finish multivariate designs, within-subject designs, final course overview.	Course evaluation during discussion group, review for final exam.
Exam #3, 10:30-12:00 p.m. Tuesday, Dec 6, in classroom.