PSY 402: Advanced Lab

This course is designed to be your "capstone" or "culminating" experience as a psychology major. Although you will learn new information about social/personality psychology and research methods, the most important objective for the class is to give you a chance to hone the skills you've learned throughout your time at Muhlenberg. I hope that this course helps your knowledge coalesce and helps you realize your strengths and weaknesses as you prepare for graduate school or a career. The "skills" and "knowledge" that I am referring to are captured best in the Psychology Department Mission Statement, found on-line at http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/psychology/mission.htm. Please review that mission statement and consider where you stand right now, and what areas you may want to focus on particularly this semester.

This is a 400, senior-level course. As such, you are expected to take primary responsibility for your learning. I am here less as an instructor and more as a mentor or guide. You should expect to participate in discussions, complete and reflect on readings in preparation for class, and keep a careful eye on the "big picture" with respect to when various assignments are due. You should also expect to be proactive in your learning: ask me questions about things you don't understand, visit my office hours, generalize feedback from one assignment to other parts of the course. Because this course will be largely discussion-oriented, regular class attendance is essential.

In order to quickly get all students in the class up-to-speed, the course will begin with a mastery test. Your first mastery test is today (the first day of class). The test covers basic topics you learned in PSY 104. There will be a second opportunity to take a mastery test the 4th week of classes. Those scoring below 80% on the first test must take the second test. Other students may also take the second test, but the first test score will then be thrown out - even if it is higher than your second test score. All students who score below 80% on the second test (including those who voluntarily took the second test) will have to complete an alternative assignment consisting of problem sets; the score on this alternative assignment will be the final grade for the Mastery category.

We will be reviewing & expanding on topics such as ethics, reliability/validity, experiments, power and effect size. We will also cover multiple regression and ANCOVA as more sophisticated analysis strategies. There will be one exam covering ethics and all topics (including SPSS skills).

35% Group Project Paper (an individual assignment); 15% Group Project Presentation

The focus of the course will be your semester-long group project. We will be taking class time to go through various texts for topic ideas, discuss more specific research areas, and debate the import and rigor of your hypotheses. We will also discuss your group's final design ideas and, later in the semester, your results. Each group will give an oral presentation at Psychology Research Day, and each individual member of the group will write an empirical paper about the project. It is obvious that there will be significant collaboration when designing your study, gathering background readings, running the study, analyzing results and interpreting their meaning. Thus, there will be a great deal of shared information. However, each individual member of the group needs to independently write his or her paper. You may not discuss drafts, # of references or pages, wording or phrasing with any group member. Please see me or a Writing Tutor for assistance.

You'll note that a great deal of this course involves independent work, class participation, and team collaboration. As such, "participation" counts for a larger percentage of your grade than is typical (in my courses). Participation includes the traditional measures of involvement in discussions and demonstrable completion of readings. Participation also includes, however, completion of homework assignments, ratings provided by your project collaborators, and participation (as subjects) in no fewer than two Advanced Lab or Research Methods student projects.

In the spirit of this course as a culminating experience (and as a Writing Intensive course), I am assigning a formal essay in addition to your empirical paper. After participating in and presenting at Psychology Research Day, I would like for you to use those experiences as a starting point for a critical analysis of your intellectual development throughout college. This paper should be approximately 4-5 pages, double-spaced. Although it is a "personal" essay, please note it is also a formal essay which requires a thesis (I have given you a topic, but you must develop a thesis and properly explain/defend that thesis). Graded for accuracy of summaries (use of vocab terms), development of thesis, sophistication of thought and clarity of writing style. Please include the following elements:

(1) summarize the topic of your own presentation plus one other presentation AND one poster (use proper citations for conference presentations)
(2) comment upon, and compare and contrast those projects on criteria such as the topics, the rigor and import of the hypotheses, design sophistication
(3) the larger purpose of the essay is to recall your own experiences as a psychology major from first year to now; discuss what information and skills you have learned, the "habits of thought" you have developed for analyzing and evaluating information, and, more generally, the ways in which your analysis of and attitudes or values about your social world have (or haven't) changed as a consequence of your study of psychology as part of a liberal arts education. This analysis may include positive and negative changes (as judged by you), and also areas (skills, attitudes) in which you feel you need more development. Feel free to use the mission statements of the college and/or psychology department for inspiration.

Final Course Grades will be assigned as follows:
Excellent A+ (98-100%); A (93-97%); A- (90-92%)
Good B+ (88-89%); B (83-87%); B- (80-82%)
Acceptable C+ (78-79%); C (73-77%); C- (70-72%)
Poor D (60-69%)

You are responsible for maintaining a functioning email account - preferably the account the college provided to you. Check your email often. I use Blackboard to email the class, so be sure that the email address listed in Blackboard is accurate and functioning. If you wish to send me email, please note that I have spam-protection software which may automatically delete your message if you are using a domain other than muhlenberg.edu (e.g., optline.net or comcast.net).

I encourage you to print all assignments (except your final paper) double-sided or print on the back of scrap paper. As long as your work is legible and I have space to write comments (i.e., double-space most work), I encourage you to use whatever practices you can to reduce the amount of paper used on campus. Please also remember to recycle discarded paper AND to consider placing usable, one-sided discards in a scrap pile next to public printers so that others may also re-use paper. The printers in Moyer Hall may be loaded with scrap paper already; this practice is encouraged.

Teaching Philosophy

I want you to learn about psychology, and grow to love learning. I'll do my best to facilitate that. Please remember, however, that how much you get out of this class (or any class), is largely up to you. With respect to grading and assignments, I try to treat students fairly and provide as much information as I can regarding grading criteria, expectations and deadlines. However, I am also very strict regarding these issues. I will do my best to assist you but you must alert me to potential problems early on and stick to any alternate plans we make. I’m happy to discuss ideas, or review outlines or drafts for any assignment. I’m also happy to help you prepare for tests or double check your understanding of the material. However, please remember I can be much more flexible if you discuss problems with me before an assignment is due - not after. Also, please indulge me & my biggest pet peeve: buy a stapler & carry it with you. You may also use binder clips, but not paper clips. I do not want to lose any pages of your papers or have 2 papers end up clipped together via a paperclip.

Yes.

No.