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Course EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS

PSY 3393 (Section 003)


Term Fall 2008
Meetings Tuesdays 2:30 – 5:15, GR 4.208

CONTACT INFORMATION
Instructor Teaching Assistant
Dr. Candice Mills Tara Davis Reed
candice.mills@utdallas.edu tara.reed@utdallas.edu
972.883.4475 N/A
GR 4.202A GR 4.808
Tues 1:00 – 2:00 or by appointment Monday 12:00 – 1:00 or by appointment

GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION


Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions
PSY 3392 or PSY 3490

Course Description
Laboratory and field experience in designing and conducting psychological research, with a major emphasis on the
writing of research reports. This course fulfills the advanced writing requirement for Psychology majors because you will
write, receive feedback on, and re-write more than 15 double-spaced pages.

Student Learning Objectives


After completing the course, students should be able to:
2.3 Locate, accurately summarize, and evaluate bodies of scientific literature in psychology.
2.4 Use critical thinking to design and conduct basic studies to address psychological questions using appropriate
research methods.
2.5 Demonstrate proficiency in writing research reports following APA Style Guidelines that include an abstract,
introduction, methods, results and discussion sections.
3.2 Use critical thinking to analyze empirical reports.
4.2 Demonstrate effective oral communication skills in various contexts (e.g., group discussion, presentation) and for
various purposes (e.g., explaining and persuading).
10.2 Write effectively using appropriate organization, mechanics, and style for psychology.
10.3 Construct effective written arguments.
10.4 Gather, incorporate, and interpret source material in their writing.

Required Textbooks and Materials


Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (5th Ed.) (2001). Washington, D. C.: American
Psychological Association.

Additional required readings will be assigned. These assignments will be posted on the WebCT site for our class.
Articles can be downloaded from the WebCT site or campus library online resources in PDF or word document format.

Course website
New assignments, revisions to the syllabus, announcements, and your grades will be posted on the WebCT site,
http://webct6.utdallas.edu/ When the course site is set up by the computer center, you will be notified via your UTD email
address. You are then responsible for creating an account on this site and for checking this site frequently (at least twice
weekly) in order to remain aware of new learning activities, announcements, etc. You also need to enter a UTD email
address on this account (see info below on UTD email policy). Any email to students enrolled in this class will be sent
through this service.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week Date Topics Required Readings Major Assignments Due
(others added later)
1 Aug 26 Introduction to course. The science of
psychology. Becoming a knowledgeable
consumer of research.
2 Sept 2 Critiquing psychological research. The Zimbardo, 2004; NICHD Data Activity
shape of journal articles. Developing NICHD readings
research ideas.
3 Sept 9 Methods and study design. Computer Article 1 Article 1 Activity
workshop 1. Using Excel.
4 Sept 16 Methods and study design 2. Computer Article 2 Article 2 Activity
workshop 2. Using SPSS.
5 Sept 23 Computer workshop 3. Results and Article 3 Article 3 Activity
discussion activity.
6 Sept 30 Surveying the psychological literature. Results & Discussion Activity
7 Oct 7 Catch-up day. Research project discussion Lit Search Activity
8 Oct 14 Research project discussion. Primary Source Critique
9 Oct 21 Research project discussion.
10 Oct 28 *Group appointments
11 Nov 4 *Group appointments
12 Nov 11 Research project discussion. Choosing an
audience for your work.
13 Nov 18 *Group appointments. GR3.206 lab
available 4:00 – 5:30 PM.
14 Nov 25 *Group appointments. GR3.206 lab
available 4:00 – 5:30 PM.
15 Dec 2 Presentations
16 Dec 11 Final paper due. Final paper

Important Note: These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor. It is your
responsibility to keep track of changes in the schedule through WebCT and by attending class.

ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATIONS


1. Short Reports. There will be 8 of these, worth 5 points each.
a. Activities. You will read peer-reviewed journal articles and answer questions about the articles designed
at increasing your knowledge about methodology, statistics, and writing in psychology.
b. Critiques. You will write several 1- to 2-page critiques critically evaluating journal articles.
c. APA Style Sections. You will write several parts of an APA-style paper based on class activities and
research.
d. Quizzes. Open-note quizzes on the course material may be given.

2. Research Project. During the second half of the semester, you will design and execute a real study with a small
group of classmates. All students in the group will be expected to be involved in every step of the project. The
instructor and TA will closely supervise the project.
a. Research Proposal. You will develop and write a research proposal that will include a short introduction,
hypothesis, method section, and planned data analysis section. The proposal is worth 15 points.
b. Presentation. Your group will give a 15-minute presentation to the class about your research project. The
presentation is worth 10 points.
c. Final Paper. You will write a complete APA-style paper based on your group research project, written up
individually. It is expected that you will take the comments received on your research proposal to rewrite
and develop your final paper. The final paper is worth 35 points.
3. Participation. Students are expected to attend classes regularly, complete the assigned readings before each class,
and participate in class discussions. Given that we meet once a week, it is essential that you make every class
period. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to acquire missing lecture notes, assignments, and
announcements from a classmate. The class periods marked with an * may not require attendance, although group
meetings may be required. In addition, three or more unexcused absences will lead to a five-point penalty on the
final grade for the course. Someone with that many absences before we break into groups will not be able to be in
a group for the research project.

COURSE POLICIES
Grading policy
The course grade will be based on the above assignments.
Short Reports: 40
Research Proposal: 15
Presentation: 10
Final Paper: 35
TOTAL 100

Final grades will be calculated as follows: 90-100% = A, 80-89% = B, 70-79% = C, and 60-69% = D. Plusses and
minuses may be given for borderline cases. If you are concerned about your grade, see me as early as possible.

Late policy
Make-up quizzes and work will not be given except in the case of verified illness (by a doctor) or death of a member of
the immediate family. Anyone missing a quiz without such approval will be given a “0” for the quiz. It is your
responsibility to make up the quiz within one week of the scheduled exam time. Be prepared—make-up quizzes are
designed to be more difficult than regular quizzes to compensate for having more study time.

Because of the number of assignments and the importance of understanding one assignment before moving on to the next,
it is imperative that work be turned in on time. Short reports and any papers are due at the BEGINNING of the class
period, and they must be turned in proofread and typed. After this, penalties are as follows:
Up to 24 hours late 10% deduction
24 to 48 hours late 25% deduction

For out-of-class homework, grades will also be lowered 10% for assignments that are not typed. FINAL VERSIONS OF
PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN 48 HOURS AFTER THE DUE DATE.

Early policy
You may hand in your final paper up to 7 days before the deadline for a “free” evaluation. In order to receive this early
feedback, you will need to provide a cover letter regarding your specific concerns when you hand in the paper. Complete
papers will be read over, comments made, but no grades recorded. While the short papers are not eligible for early
readings, we encourage you to discuss any paper with us more generally.

Extra credit
There will be no individualized extra credit given for this course.

Contacting us
The best way to reach us is by email rather than by phone or WebCT. Please put the course name (Experimental Projects)
in your subject line and include your first and last name in the message. In addition, you should use a UTD email address
for all email correspondence (see the Email use policy below).

A few words of advice:


This may be the most difficult class you’ve ever taken, but it also may be the most rewarding. This class gives you the
opportunity to apply what you’ve learned in other psychology classes and to engage in a project related to your own
interests. Come to class, and stay on top of the assignments. Really think about why you are interested in psychology, and
what psychology research can tell others about human behavior. The more you get into the assignments and projects, the
more you’ll get out of the class. Take advantage of our office hours to ask questions. We want you to walk out of this
class with a deeper understanding of psychology research and writing.
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Student Conduct & Discipline respondent’s School Dean. If the matter is not resolved by the written response
The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the
rules and regulations for the orderly and efficient conduct of their business. It is School Dean. If the grievance is not resolved by the School Dean’s decision,
the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be the student may make a written appeal to the Dean of Graduate or
knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student conduct Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic
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Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, are blind. Occasionally an assignment requirement may be substituted (for
and from any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the example, a research paper versus an oral presentation for a student who is
university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details). This course hearing impaired). Classes enrolled students with mobility impairments may
will use the resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible have to be rescheduled in accessible facilities. The college or university may
plagiarism and is over 90% effective. need to provide special services such as registration, note-taking, or mobility
assistance.
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The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for
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the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the identity of present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs
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The Department of Information Resources at U.T. Dallas provides a method for 11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated.
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