Schedule: Experimental Psychology 366

Class: Tues & Thurs 8:00-9:15am in CL-2246 | Lab: Weds 3:00-4:50 in CL-1302

Syllabus  | Dr. Sherri Lantinga | Dordt College  |  http://homepages.dordt.edu/~lantinga/expsych.htm | Fall 2009

 Dates
Topics

What to read/do for class
(chapter references are to your Martin text)

 
Knowing, Writing, and Reading in Psychological Research
 
W Aug 26 LAB Getting started together: introductions, survey, research methods review, epistemology, and course preview  
Th Aug 27 Science & faith: what does worldview have to do with science? DeVries; Chapter 1 (pp. 1-19); Entrance card #1 due
T Sept 1 Scientific communication: APA style as worldview; expert writing advice; introduction sections Chapter 13 (pp. 271-275 & 286-288); APA Chapters 1 & 2 (pp. 3-6 & 31-41); Entrance card #2 due
W Sept 2 LAB Empirical questions: generating and evaluating research ideas Chapter 3 (pp. 43-57); Entrance card #3 due
Th Sept 3 The literature: why use it? what kinds are there? where is it? what makes a good article title? Chapter 6 (pp. 112-127); Professional reflections due
 

Experimental Design & Methods

 
T Sept 8 True experiments: making causal inferences through control and manipulation Chapter 7 & Chapter 8 (pp. 150-159 & 169-173)
W Sept 9 LAB Practice with experimental design; introduction section powerpoints Introduction draft #1 due (powerpoint)
Th Sept 10 Validity & control issues: identifying threats to internal validity and way to prevent them Chapter 2
T Sept 15 Ethical treatment of participants: assumptions behind informed consent and debriefing; deception Chapter 4 (skim the animal section); IRB handbook (at http://denis.dordt.edu/academics/irb)
Entrance card #4 due
W Sept 16 LAB Practice writing ethics documents: writing informed consent and debriefing statements; use Word Review features to provide feedback to classmates Bleeker et al.
Th Sept 17 Ethical scientific conduct: issues of authorship, fabrication, falsification Chapter 5; Entrance card #5 due
T Sept 22 Method section: APA structure and tips  
W Sept 23 LAB Practice data collection & reporting: collect experimental field data and draft a method section  
Th Sept 24 Project consultation meetings (20 min/team) Introduction #2/Method #1 due
T Sept 29 Questionnaire design: scales of measurement; types of reliability; tips for questionnaire design Chapter 10 (pp. 220-226); Appendix A (pp. 313-315); Bordens & Abbott (pp. 175-184)
W Sept 30 LAB Practice designing questionnaires: creating a questionnaire, using Word Review features to provide peer feedback, and writing a measures subsection  
Th Oct 1

*** Have a good Heartland Break! (no class) ***

 
T Oct 6 Factorial designs: comparing factorial and basic designs; design statements; interpreting main effects and interactions from tables of means Chapter 9; Chapter 12 (pp. 258-262)
W Oct 7 LAB Brown bag:  present your proposed study to the class and psych profs Chapter 11; brown bag powerpoint
Th Oct 8 More on factorial designs: interpreting results of factorial designs using graphs Method #2 due by 4pm Friday, October 9
T Oct 13

Mid-term Test

 
 
Conducting Analyses & Drawing Conclusions
*** Bring your calculator every day ***
W Oct 14 LAB Practice writing peer reviews review Bleeker et al.; Writing Peer Reviews
Entrance card #6 due; self-correcting test due
Th Oct 15 Descriptive stats: distribution, central tendency, variance, correlations; writing results statements Chapter 12 (pp. 245-255); Appendix A (pp. 315-318)
T Oct 20 Intro to inferential stats: statistical significance; steps of hypothesis testing Chapter 12 (pp. 262-269); Appendix A (pp. 319-326, skip Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests)
W Oct 21 LAB Practice with SPSS: coding, entering, cleaning, and graphing data IRB proposal due
Th Oct 22 Basic hypothesis testing: interpreting t-tests & SPSS output; writing results statements, calculating effect sizes  
T Oct 27 Inferential stats & type of variance: within- and between-groups variance; interpreting SPSS output for one-way ANOVAs; post-hoc tests  
W Oct 28 LAB Practice with SPSS: data transformation & reduction; basic stats (descriptives, correlations, t-tests); writing results statements  
Th Oct 29 Inferentials & factorial designs: interpreting SPSS output for factorial ANOVAs  
T Nov 3 Practice interpreting inferential stats  
W Nov 4 LAB Practice with SPSS: oneway and factorial ANOVAs; post-hoc tests  
Th Nov 5 No class - Dr. Lantinga at Chicago Semester Board Meeting  
T Nov 10 Statistics review & project consultations (20 min/team)  
W Nov 11 LAB Practice writing & stats review: writing results and discussion sections; wrap up stats  
Th Nov 12

Statistics Test

 
T Nov 17 Peer reviewing: review each others' R/D sections in class Results/Discussion due (3 hard copies); self-correcting test due
  The Wrap-Up!!  
W Nov 18 LAB

Final touches: writing an abstract, putting an APA-style paper together; work on paper revisions

 
Th Nov 19 Peer reviewing: exchange papers and begin reviewing Draft of full paper due; conference program info by 5pm
Tu Nov 24 Presenting professionally: examples of oral and poster presentations peer review due
Nov 25-Nov 30

*** Have a happy, relaxing Thanksgiving Break! ***

 
T Dec 1 No class - work on paper or presentation  
W Dec 2 LAB No lab - work on paper or presentation  
Th Dec 3 No class - work on paper or presentation Final paper due Friday, Dec 4 by 4pm
T Dec 8 Practice presentations: *** class may run late today ***  
W Dec 9 LAB Conference 3:30-5:00pm in the Eckardt Lounge (followed by Psych Dept Dinner)  
Th Dec 10 Course wrap-up: Conference debriefing, course evaluations, and knowledge post-test  

Dordt College Psychology Department Mission Statement:
In light of God's Word, the Dordt College Psychology Department is dedicated to a Reformed Christian perspective in developing students'
understanding of the psychological knowledge base, professional and interpersonal skills, and desire to use their knowledge and skills in serving others.

Syllabus
Experimental Psych Home Page
E-mail Dr. Lantinga

page last revised August 2009