Research Methods
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| Texts |  Instructor: Andrew Futterman, Ph.D. Office: Beaven 316 Phone: 793-3432 or 793-2533 (Mickie Casello, the Premedical Administrative Assistant) Email: afutterm@holycross.edu Office hours:
Research Methods provides you with an introduction to the ethics, design, and analysis of psychological research. This course builds upon the Statistics course and students are expected to use their knowledge of statistics as they design their own studies. The course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays (2:30 to 4:50 p.m) and is worth 1.5 credits. It consists of lecture and discussion of basic concepts as well as a substantial "hands-on" or laboratory component in which students complete their own independent research project working together in small groups. At the beginning of the semester, the course will be more lecture and discussion oriented; towards the end of the semester, students will be working independently on their group research projects. The different sections of this course (and different professors) all follow the same format. Groups will work together selecting a topic, reviewing the literature on their topic, honing their ideas and hypothesis, designing research to address their hypotheses, and writing up and presenting a final paper. All students in the group are expected to participate in all aspects of the project and all group members are expected to participate equally. Students are expected to keep me informed as to challenges they face in their group work as well as their accomplishments as they progress with their research project. Group projects will be presented in manuscript form (in APA style) and at the Psychology Department's Annual Research Colloquium to be held on the evening of Monday, April 28,2008. By conducting and presenting their own original research, students will "put into practice" what they have learned in the lecture and discussion part of the course and in the first course on Statistics. Topics and readings, the class schedule, grading policy, and other class information, unless otherwise noted, will be accessible at this web site: http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/afutterm/methodshome2008.htm You may want to bookmark this page. Some class exercises, practice questions, etc., may only be accessible while you are on campus. A few additional, but important, comments: We will be writing a great deal in this course. Writing well in the sciences involves seemingly endless drafting of sections of manuscripts. In this spirit, I encourage you to hand in drafts of anything you write. I will gladly help you rework your drafts. I also strongly encourage you to email me if you are having trouble reaching me by phone. I check my email daily and respond quickly. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I am a poor mind-reader, so if you are having difficulties, email me or come in and talk. |