Syllabus and Course
Contract for
PSY 138: Reasoning in Psychology Using
Statistics
Section 06: MW 1-1:50
Fall 2009
Contact Information
| Instructor: |
W. Joel
Schneider |
| Office: |
De Garmo 447 |
| Phone: |
438-8410 |
| e-mail: |
wjschne@ilstu.edu |
| office
hours: |
Mondays 2-3pm
Wednesdays 12-1pm
and by appointment |
Derek
Drozd
Office Hours
|
Mondays
12-1pm
Psychology Resource Center in DeGarmo Building (next to
the lab classroom)
|
Josh
Wondra
Office Hours
|
Wednesdays
10-11am
in the Psychology Resource Center in DeGarmo Building (next to
the lab classroom) |
Description
Students develop skills both in statistical reasoning and statistical
method by actively engaging in the practice of statistics as science.
Students will study important current, psychological issues whose
understanding requires a fundamental knowledge of statistical concepts,
in particular, hypothesis testing and regression. Controversial topics
will be chosen that are currently in the news and likely to remain so.
Such psychological controversies are regularly found in journals and
magazines such as American Psychologist and Current
Directions in Psychological Science.
Reasoning in Psychology Using Statistics uses a
classroom/laboratory approach for analysis of data, for hands-on
production of data, and for simulation-based learning. According to
Cobb (1993, p.4), "the lab approach accords with the movement of
statistics back towards its roots in science, and with research in
education that demonstrates the importance of active learning."
Additionally, the classroom/lab setting allows students to access the
vast array of data available through the Internet.
Reasoning in Psychology Using Statistics follows the
guidelines developed by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and
the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) which suggest that
teachers should:
- Motivate students by showing them statistics at work in real
applications, problems, cases, and projects.
- Use real data and statistical computing (SPSS).
- Foster active learning
Textbooks (Very Optional)
Almost any introductory social science statistics textbook will be
helpful. Here is one that I used to require:
Social Statistics for a Diverse Society (3th edition) by Chava
Frankfort-Nachmias & Anna Leon-Guerrero (Pine Forge Press, 2002).
The reason I no longer require a textbook is that there are so many
free statistics resources on the web. A quick search on the search
engine of your choice will probably bring new ones every day.
Here is a free
statistics textbook.
Here is
another.
If you learn best by listening, there are a number of podcasted
introductory statistics courses. You don't need an iPod to listen to
them. You can listen on any computer with speakers. Here is one from my
alma mater,
UC Berkeley.
MIT has a large number of courses with free content on all kinds of
topics. Here are
downloadable slides on introductory statistics.
Software
SPSS (Release 16.0) SPSS,
Inc. - this software is available on the classroom computers and on most
other campus lab computers. You do NOT have to purchase it for the
class, however if you want a copy for your home computer, student
versions are available at the student bookstores.
I will also use Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel often and will
sometimes give you Excel tools for statistics. If you don't have
Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org
offers a FREE, high-quality office suite that is compatible with
Microsoft Office. Althought OpenOffice uses a different format by
default, you can save documents and spreadsheets in OpenOffice in the
same format that Microsoft Office users use. A lot of free software is
not very good. OpenOffice is a major exception. You can also try Google
Docs and Spreadsheets for free.
Required Materials
"Clicker" or RF Response Card (How to
get one). I explain how I use these in class in the "Attendence"
section below.
Calculator: I haven't used a hand calculator in years (I use Excel for
everything.). However, most students will probably want to use a
calculator for the course. Any reasonable calculator with a memory
button will work. You are not permitted to use your cell phone's
calculator on exams.
Lecture Notes. A course packet will be available for purchase from PIP,
in the Bone Student Centre. Make
sure
that you do not purchase Dr. Barone's Psychology 138,
Section 001 packet. They are not the same.
Attendence
You are expected to attend every lecture and participate through
discussion and classwork. Lecture and lab attendance is NOT optional.
All labs are in Room 13 in
DeGarmo. Think of the labs as scheduled homework time with a tutor
(your GA). If you do not attend a lab, you can still the submit lab
assignments with a 10% penalty. Since labs are 10% of your grade and
there are about 23 labs, the penalty is about only half a
percentage point of your final grade. Don't be fooled, though. Getting
many small penalties add up quickly and often make the difference
between 2 grades.
In lectures, from time to time, I will ask questions using the
"Clicker" technology. You must give all your answers in good faith
(i.e., no random or deliberately misleading responses). I will
sometimes use your responses as data to illustrate data analysis. If
the questions are about opinions or life history involving personal
matters you will always have the option of clicking "I prefer not to
answer this question." I will never look at any individual's response
to these kinds of questions nor will I penalize anyone for choosing not
to answer them.
Your class participation grade will be determined by the percentage of
times that you participated using the Clickers. I will allow 2
unexcused absences before it affects the participation grade. You may
make up classwork only if you were absent due to University sanctioned
events, documented illnesses, or documented crises. Make-up assignments
will typically be short essays.
If you forget your Clicker but you attended, you must do 2 things:
1. Tell me you forgot your Clicker
after class.
2. Email me later telling me that you were in class.
Why do you need to tell me twice? Telling me in class makes it easy for
me to believe that you were really there. Telling me by email makes it
easy for me to give you credit.
Do not use an absent classmate's Clicker to make it seem that the
student was in attendence. This is dishonest and will result in an
automate failing grade for everyone involved in the activity.
Special circumstances may result in
reasonable substitutes for missed assignments.
I reserve the right to change this syllabus as needed throughout
the semester. I hope that these changes are few and minor. I will
notify you of any changes that I make.
The work necessary to obtain the grade you desire has been
outlined here. No additional work will be accepted to increase your
grade. Do not come to me at semester's end asking if there is some
additional work you can do to increase your grade. At semester's end,
there is none.
If You Need Help...
Please visit me during my office hours with any questions you have. My
job is to help you learn. If you need help, get it early; don't wait
until you find yourself saying "I'm so lost I don't know what to ask!"
If you cannot make it
to my regular office hours then, please, make an appointment with me.
Talk to me after class, call me (438-8410), or e-mail me at: wjschne@mail.ilstu.edu.
Extra assistance
Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a
documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell
Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TDD).
Evaluation
Your grade will be determined by weighting your performance on
homework,article assignments, Mallard quizzes, in-class labs, 3 exams,
and two projects.
- Class Participation:
Attendence in lecture will be taken by Clickers.
- Labs: Labs will include both group and individual
exercises. Each of the labs will be described in a web page. Most of
them will involve submitting answers to your GA by email and/or
BlackBoard
- Homework: Problems to be
worked on independently and submitted by BlackBoard.
- Exams: There will be three exams. They are cumulative to
the extent that the material from later parts of the class build upon
material from the early parts. These exams may include both conceptual
and compuational questions. The format will typically be both multiple
choice and short answer. Some portions of the exams will be closed
books. More information will be given in class.
- Project: You will demonstrate an integrative understanding
of reasoning with statistics by analyzing a large dataset and writing
up your results.
The grading scheme is not a curve. This is a good thing. This means
that everyone can get an A if everyone performs well. Of course, this
means that everyone could fail the course if everyone blows it off. A
curve would make it so that only a certain percentage can receive high
grades and that certain percentage would fail the course no matter how
well they understand the material.
Each exam is worth 200 points (3 Exams x 200 points = 600 total).
Each homework will be averaged to compute a total grade that is worth
100 points.
Each lab will be averaged to compute a total grade that is worth 100
points.
The project is worth 100 points.
Class participation is worth 100 points.
Therefore, there is a total of 1000 possible points. Your final
semester grade is determined as follows:
Performance Grade
900-1000 A
800-899 B
700-799 C
600-699 D
0-599 F
Tentative Course Outline (This may change as needed throughout the
semester)
| Class Dates |
Tentative topic calendar |
Things due |
| WK1 |
8/17 |
Introduction and syllabus review |
Lab 1 |
| 8/19 |
Measurement and Reliability |
Lab 2
|
| WK2 |
8/24 |
Measurement and Reliability |
Lab 3 |
| 8/26 |
Frequency Distributions |
Lab 4 |
| WK3 |
8/31 |
Measures of Central Tendency |
Lab 5 |
| 9/2 |
Variability |
Lab 6 |
| WK4 |
9/7 |
Labor Day (No class, no lab,
Tuesday lab also canceled)
|
|
| 9/9 |
Normal Distribution |
Lab 7
|
WK 5
|
9/14
|
Correlation |
Lab 8
Homework 1 (Due at 11:55pm) |
9/16
|
Regression |
Lab 9
|
| WK6 |
9/21 |
Exam
1
(Conceptual part in lecture, computational part in lab)
|
Homework 2 (Due at 11:55pm) |
9/23
|
Basic Probability |
Lab
10 |
| WK7 |
9/28 |
Sampling Distributions |
Lab
11 |
9/30
|
Null and Alternative Hypothesis Testing
|
Lab
12 |
| WK8 |
10/5
|
Hypothesis Testing |
Lab
13 |
10/7
|
Statistical Power |
Lab
14
Homework 3 (Due at 11:55pm) |
| WK10 |
10/12
|
Confidence Intervals
|
Lab
15 |
10/14
|
Effect Sizes
|
Lab
16 |
| WK11 |
10/19
|
Review
|
Lab
17 |
10/21
|
Exam 2 (Conceptual
part in lecture, computational part in lab)
Link to
Spreadsheet
Tools
|
Homework 4 (Due at 11:55pm) |
| WK12 |
10/26
|
One-Sample t-test |
Lab
18 |
10/28
|
Related samples t-test |
Lab
19 |
| WK13 |
11/2 |
Independent samples t-tests |
Lab
20 |
11/4
|
Which test?
|
Lab
21 |
| WK14 |
11/9
|
Confidence Intervals with t-tests
|
Lab
22 |
11/11
|
Regression and hypothesis testing |
Lab
23 |
| WK15 |
11/16 |
Chi-Square |
Lab
24 |
| 11/18 |
Data analysis in the real world |
Work on Project in Lab
Homework
5
(Due at 11:55pm)
Homework
5
Datafile
|
| WK16 |
11/30 |
Review for Computational/Lab Part of Exam 3 |
Work on Project in Lab
|
| 12/2 |
Review for Conceptual/Lecture Part of Exam 3
|
Computational
Part
of Exam 3
Project
Due
on 12/3 at 11:55pm |
| Finals Week |
12/9
|
Exam 3 (Wednesday
12/9
at 1pm in same classroom)
|