Partnership Decision (due Sept 3): Nearly all scientific research is collaborative, and I strongly encourage you to work with a partner.  That said, you may choose whether to work with a partner or alone. Some factors to consider:

• Projects done alone will require 1 manipulated independent variable; projects done with a partner require 2 independent variables. 

• Your pace of work, work style, and angst around due dates.

• Personal standards for excellence.

• Ability to deal with interpersonal conflicts (these are bound to happen).

• If you choose to work with a partner, no "divorces" are granted.  Both authors receive the same grades for what's handed in.

• Projects done with partners are usually of better quality than those done alone.

     I am happy to give you suggestions for a research partner and can help you work through any conflicts.  Use this form to indicate your partnership decision by September 3.

Needs Assessment Interviews (choice due Sept 3; report due by Sept 16): To use research to serve others, we must first discover what needs exist. Therefore, you will interview members of a campus office and determine which issues can be addressed using empirical methods with an experimental (or quasi-experimental) design. 

• Submit this form by September 3 to indicate your preferred offices/areas to interview and collaborate with this semester.  I will assign preferred offices on a first-come, first-served basis and will e-mail the selected offices to let them know about our project and that you will be contacting them to schedule a 15-minute interview in the next week. 

• Decide whether you'd like to schedule separate interviews for different people in the office or try to schedule a group interview with several people, or just interview a single person. You should give at least 2 days' notice in scheduling the interview(s); offer several days/times that work for you between 8am and 4:30pm (yes, you may have to get up early!).

• Interview: take careful notes or ask for permission to audio-tape the interview.  Use the following suggestions to guide your interview, but feel free to develop other probing questions as needed:

• Introductions: names; senior psychology project, interesting in finding issues or needs at work that we can help you solve; confidentiality of information - only you have access to their names and responses.

• "What are some on-going problems or pet peeves that you experience at work?"

• "What are some things that regularly happen that shouldn't (or things that don't happen that you wish would)?  For example, do people hang over your desk?  Do people forget to sign forms?"

• "How would you finish these sentences? "I wish that my co-workers would (would not) ...." and "I wish that students/customers would (would not) ....." "

• Thank the person for his/her time, and indicate that you will get back to them within 2 weeks to consult about your findings.

• Report: In about two double-spaced pages, indicate the campus office and the number of people you interviewed, then summarize your interview findings.  Then select an issue that appeals to you, and outline a number of possible dependent and independent variables for an experiment on that issue.  Bring a hard copy to class with you.

Lit Review and Design Draft #1 (due no later than September 28): This is the first draft of your introduction and method sections.  As such, you'll need to find and read the literature on your main topic (your DV), explore what variables have been studied related to that topic (IVs), and outline your proposed methodology. The more complete and detailed it is, the better feedback you'll get and the better position you'll be in to move forward on your project. I'm happy to read drafts or talk with you about your ideas.  :)

• Lit Review/Intro section:
  • Write a 1-2 page, supported argument that shows your selected DV may be influenced by your selected IV(s) and why that would be the case.
  • For assistance or tips on narrowing your topic and searching the literagure, see chapter 6 in your Martin text and consult Dordt's friendly reference librarians.
  • Remember that the major topic of your introduction is normally the dependent variable, even if you are personally more interested in the IV (e.g., lighting condition) or the situational context (e.g., libraries).
  • If you have an original research idea, you won't find literature on your exact study - that's what makes your idea original, but it does make the lit review more challenging. Let me know if you get stuck.
  • Use at least 4 properly-cited primary/scholarly references to support your argument. 
  • For this assignment only, you may reference sources for which you only have the abstracts; your full paper requires that you only cite sources for which you have read the actual article.
    
• Design/Method section:
  • Write a 1-2 page draft of your possible participants, materials, and procedures; make sure it is clear what variable(s) you plan to manipulate and measure (see chapte 7 in Martin text on operationalization and a range of measurement ideas).
  • Remember that if you're working alone, your study must have one manipulated independent variable; if you're working with a partner, you must include at least one manipulated IV and another IV that is either manipulated or "natural" (e.g., gender, self-esteem).
  • Steal (with credit) the methods or tools that other researchers have used: can you use the same tasks, questionnaires, or procedures that others have used?
  • For each condition in the study, you will need at least 15 participants (so, 3 levels of an IV requires at least 45 participants; if you have a 2x3 design, you'll need at least 2x3x15 = 90 participants).
  • Consider what materials or confederates you will need to obtain or create (e.g., written instructions, props, videotapes); if you'll use a confederate, consider how to train him/her or how you'll make sure that multiple confederates look and act as similarly as possible.
  • Consider how and where you will collect your data and give as much detail as you can at this point.
  • Write the Method section and your hypothesis in the past tense to avoid verb tense revisions in your final paper.
    
• Include an APA-style (6th ed.) references section.

     E-mail your paper to me (intro, method, and references):

• Make sure you self-evaluate your paper with the feedback/evaluation checklist. and the Common Writing Errors checklist.

• Keep the feedback you receive on this paper, as you'll need to submit it with your final paper.

Lit Review & Design Draft #2 (due no later than Oct 6): After you receive feedback on your first draft, read more literature to develop a fuller context and stronger argument for your study and to refine your methodology (see chapter 7 in your Martin text).

• This version of your lit review/introduction section should be about 3-4 pages long:
  • It should reflect a well-synthesized argument supported by the literature and logically leading to a specific hypothesis. 
  • Note that you will need at least 7 primary/scholarly references and at least 10 references in total for your final paper (a maximum of two sources from the web); it may be hard to believe, but you're more motivated to get high quality, relevant literature now than you will be in mid-November when you revise this section again, so work on it now to make this section strong.
  • I'm happy to review drafts of this and talk with you about ways to strengthen your work - don't be afraid to ask!  :)
    
• Method section tips:

• Pilot study:  I strongly, strongly recommend that you do a pilot study with some friends to help you think through some details.  This may be the best pro-active step you can take in creating a strong study and preventing problems later.

• Control & measurement: Carefully think about your control group and controls for threats to validity, how the IV(s) will be manipulated, and how you are operationally defining your variables.  Chapter 7 in your Martin text has a number of helpful ideas on this.

• Participants: Decide who will be your study participants (e.g., freshmen, people who are alone, employees) and any benefits and/or risks to them.

• Materials: Describe the specific materials you will need to obtain or develop (e.g., written instructions, props, videotapes) and give relevant descriptions (e.g., 5-item survey with a 7-point Likert response scale; 2-min videotape; 4 x 6m projected image; 3.5m x 5m room). The Psychology Department can cover reasonable, pre-approved costs for materials (submit receipts to me).

• Confederate(s): If you'll use a confederate, describe his/her appearance and training in the materials section; if using more than one, consider how to make them as comparable as possible.

• Ethics: Make sure that your methodology abides by ethical standards, and draft your informed consent and debriefing documents with consideration of risks and benefits.
  

• Academic integrity: Make sure you cite your sources properly by putting others' ideas entirely into your own words then referencing author(s) and year of the source.  Papers with any amount of plagiarism (whether intended or not, whether a draft or your final paper) will receive a grade of F and the incident will be reported to the Student Life Committee chair (see the student handbook for details). 

     E-mail your paper and ethics documents to me (intro, method, title page, references page, informed consent, debriefing):

• Before you submit your paper, self-evaluate it and make revisions based on the feedback/evaluation checklist and the Common Writing Errors checklist. 
• Keep the feedback you receive on this paper, as you'll need to submit it with your final paper.

Brown Bag Meeting (October 13): "Brown Bags" are informal meetings where colleagues discuss their research over lunch (thus the strange title for the meeting). Participants briefly present their work, and colleagues ask questions or make suggestions for improvement. Our Brown Bag gives you an opportunity to give your "Grandmother speech" and get feedback on your proposed research from the psychology profs and your classmates. 

• Each researcher/team will give a 4-5 minute presentation of their research.  Using Powerpoint is not required, but it does help communicate with your audience and is helpful in preparing for your conference presentation.

• Your listeners will have about 10 minutes to ask you questions or comment on your ideas; take notes or ask a classmate to do so (make sure you keep these to submit with your final paper).

• You can also ask for advice about some aspect of your study; this is a good opportunity to get help.

Method & Study Materials (due no later than October 19): This package includes a revised version of your method section (reflecting feedback from the Brown Bag) and your study materials, as listed below; I am happy to review drafts of these documents with you.

• APA-style title page

• Informed consent form (revised)

• Debriefing form  (revised)

• Revised method section (please include your hypothesis at the top of the first page for my reference)

• Any pictures/videos or other stimulus materials you'll use

• Any survey(s) or questionnaires you'll be using

• Any written instructions you'll give to participants

• Any filler task(s) you'll be using to distract participants

• A written plan for debriefing participants (when, where, your "grandmother speech," key questions to ask - see also Collecting Data, below, for some tips).

     E-mail your method and materials to me:

• Before you submit your paper, self-evaluate it and make revisions based on the feedback/evalaution checklist and the Common Writing Errors checklist. 

• Note that you may need to submit additional drafts of particular materials (e.g., debriefing, measures subsection) before receiving approval for your next step.

• Keep the feedback you receive on your study materials, as you'll need to submit it with your final paper.

IRB Materials (due no later than October 27): After I've approved your methodology and study materials, go to Dordt's IRB web site (https://denis.dordt.edu/academics/irb/):

• Submit a completed cover form (for research with humans).

• Also submit your intro and method sections and your informed consent and debriefing forms; these are not required, but help prevent questions and speed the approval process.

• The IRB often requires clarification or revision of particular aspects of your research materials; final approval may take 10-14 days from the date of submission.

Collecting Data (after receiving IRB approval; finish by November 12): Once your study is approved by the IRB, it's time to collect data! You can give me any materials for photocopying 12+ hours in advance so the Psychology Department can cover the costs; also submit any receipts for other, pre-approved costs.  Here are some tips for collecting your data.

• Data collection tips:

  • Run another pilot study with some friends, from their arrival and informed consent to debriefing.  Ask for their feedback and make changes as needed.

  • Collect data from more participants than you think you'll need.  You may need to throw out some data because something went wrong (e.g., your timer broke) or you needed to change your procedure (e.g., the first three participants correctly guessed the hypothesis).  Have I mentioned that a pilot study can help prevent some of these problems?  :)

  • Take digital pictures of your confederates, stimulus materials, data collection area, or anything else that would help your conference presentation audience understand your study; make sure to get written permission if photographing any people so you can use the pictures in your conference presentation.
    

• Debriefing tips:

  • Debrief the participants in a personal, conversational style; help ensure that this experience is educational for them and gives a good name to psychological research. 

  • Ask them questions about whether (or when) they guessed your hypothesis, what they thought during the study and what might be improved or changed, etc. 

  • Ask them not to talk about the purpose or details of your study until all of your data are collected (by Thanksgiving) because that information would change future participants' behaviors.

  • Invite them to your conference presentation on December 8 - they often enjoy learning about the results of your study, and this furthers the objective of making their participation a good educational experience.

  • Thank them for their time and assistance.
    

• Data preparation tips:

• Write an ID or code number on every participant's set of data (questionnaire, survey packet, your observations record, etc.) - this can help a lot with later tracking, data entry, etc.

• Take notes about any unusual situations that happened and which participants were involved (use the ID or code numbers). These notes can help you choose which data to drop and help you identify possible limitations to your study.

• Give your Informed Consent forms to me - I will keep them on file for you, as required by the IRB.

Results & Discussion Sections (due no later than classtime on Nov 16): Congratulations -- you've collected, coded, cleaned, analyzed, graphed, and interpreted your data!  Now write and submit the following materials (I'm happy to help you):

• Results section (data management, descriptive stats, hypothesis testing, exploratory tests)

• Discussion section (overview of your results, connections to literature and theory, broad applications)

• At least one figure to show the effect of your main IV on your DV, plus figures for any other results of interest

• Title page

     E-mail your material to me before 7:30am:

• Before you submit your paper, self-evaluate it and make revisions based on the feedback/evalaution checklist and the Common Writing Errors checklist. 

• Keep the feedback you receive, as you'll need to submit it with your final paper.

Full Draft (due no later than 4pm on Nov 19):  We're almost done!

• E-mail your full APA-style paper to me, including figures and an appendix with any questionnaire(s) or other written stimulus material

  • This paper should show me your best work. Do not approach this with a "oh, it's just a draft" attitude and submit a sloppy, slapped-together paper; it makes your audience (me, your peers) less likely to give feedback that will strengthen your final paper.

  • This paper should reflect the feedback you've received so far on your various section drafts.

• Before submitting your paper, self-evaluate your work and make revisions based on the evaluation criteria for the full paper and the Common Writing Errors checklist.

• Keep the feedback you receive to submit with your final paper.

Conference Program Information (e-mail by Nov 30): Send me the following information in the body of your e-mail:

• Paper title
• Author(s) names
• Abstract
• A 3-4 sentence biography of each researcher (major/minor & hometown, hopes/dreams regarding future education, career, family, world travel, etc.).  I reserve the right to edit these, but the creative ones are the most fun for the audience to read.

Final Paper (due in my office no later than 4pm on Friday, Dec 3; late papers are not accepted):

    In a large envelope or folder with your name(s) on the outside, submit:

• 2 hard copies of your full APA-style paper, including figures and an appendix with any written stimulus material.  One copy is for my files and one will be graded and returned to you in January.
• One printout of your SPSS output; include at least your descriptive stats, hypothesis test, and exploratory testing results.
• One copy each of your informed consent and debriefing forms.
• All feedback received from me and your classmates (lit review & method drafts, study materials, brown bag notes, results and discussion, full paper).

• Your paper will not be accepted if there are more than an average of 2 departures from standard written English per page (spelling, typos, punctuation, verb forms, verb tense, verb-subject agreement, etc.).  This is a formal, polished paper for which you should have no silly mistakes.
• Papers that include any amount of plagiarism or are based on falsified data will receive a grade of F and will be reported to the Student Life Committee.  If you have a particularly low grade in the course already, this may cause you to fail the course and perhaps not graduate. 

Conference Presentation (3:30-5pm on Dec 8 in the Eckardt Lounge): Our Psychology Student Research Conference each fall gives you an opportunity to professionally present your work to the campus community. You are also required to present your research at the annual meeting of the Siouxland Undergraduate Social Sciences Research Conference (normally held the 3rd or 4th Thursday in April). This requirement must be met or your course grade will be reduced retroactively.  The Psychology Department believes it is very important for students to practice presenting their work in front of an audience, and we therefore require both presentations for the psychology major. 

• Prepare a 10-12 minute PowerPoint presentation, which you will practice giving to the class on December 7 (note: class may run late that day). 
• Revise your presentation based on feedback you receive in class.
• E-mail your final presentation to me by 2:00 on December 8; I'll save it on my laptop's desktop for easy access during the conference.
• Your conference presentation will be evaluated by at least two of the other psychology profs; their scores determine your grade (I don't grade your presentation).

     The evaluation criteria are shown at the bottom of the research paper feedback/evaluation checklist.