Syllabus |
Contact Information
General course information
Course OverviewThis course is designed to cover hypothesis
testing in the behavioral sciences, building on concepts learned in
PSY/ECO/GEO/POS
138. The logic, assumptions, computation, and interpretation of
inferential
statistics will be covered, including one-sample, related-samples, and
independent-samples t-tests; one-way and two-way ANOVA; correlation and
bivariate regression; and non-parametric procedures. In addition
to the logic of hypothesis testing, PSY 340 will integrate the use of the
software package SPSS as a tool for data management and hypothesis
testing.
Writing skills will also be developed through a research report and written
exam questions.
Course ObjectivesAs a result of taking PSY 340 students will have the opportunity to apply important quantitative reasoning skills as they relate to research in the behavioral sciences. Specifically, the course will help students develop the following skills and abilities:
Evaluating Student PerformanceHomework --- 30%The homework is essential to understanding concepts and practicing skills. Assignments are designed to assess students' knowledge of the specific statistical tests, the application of those tests to specific types of data, and the computation of those tests using SPSS. All homework is to be turned no later than the beginning of class on the due-date. Late work that does not comply with the above policies will still be graded, must still be turned in, but will be given 50% of the possible points at best. In all cases, written documentation may be requested.Quizzes --- 5%Students will take 10 quizzes during the semester. These will be administered using Blackboard's quiz capabilities and are intended to encourage reading of the textbook.Exams --- 50%Three in-class exams will test students' conceptual and mathematical understanding of hypothesis testing. Exams 1 and 2 are each worth 15%. The final exam is worth 20%. Exam questions will be short answer (including computational questions) in nature, and each and every exam is implicitly and explicitly cumulative! Exams will cover all material covered in lecture and in the textbook. Similar to the homework assignments, make-up exams will be administered only in grave circumstances.Research Project --- 15%Each student will complete a research project during the semester. The research project involves: choosing a topic problem and data set from several different data sets available from the instructor, choosing an appropriate statistical test for hypothesis testing for the problem chosen, running the appropriate test(s) using SPSS, interpreting the SPSS output, and writing a paper (roughly five pages) describing the problem and the conclusions from the statistical test results. This project will test students' ability to apply and conduct an inferential statistic to a specific problem of interest. The research report will be written in APA style and laser-printed (or printed with an inkjet printer of similar quality). Blurred printing, smudged printing, or less-than-laser quality printing is unacceptable and will result in a grade of 0. The projects are due on the last day of class; late projects will not be accepted and will be assigned a grade of zero. Additionally, failing to run a spell-check on the assignment will result in losing 10% for each spelling error that would have been caught by a standard spell-checking program.Extra-credit opportunities Grading ScaleA weighted grade score will be calculated for each student in which the simple average of all assignments within each category are weighted according to the percentages above and added together:score = 0.30*(homework average) + 0.05*(quiz average) + 0.50*(exam average) + 0.15*(project)The total score will be computed and available within the Mallard web page for each student throughout the semester. Grades will be assigned based on the following ranges:
Academic DishonestyActive participation is the central requirement for the class. Students will be expected to participate in a variety of ways, including several written and oral presentations and discussions. If you are going to miss a class, then you will miss an opportunity for participation. So it is critically important that you notify me AS SOON AS YOU KNOW that youÕll be absent and WHY. Call, e-mail, or talk to me in person. Opportunity to make-up the missed work requires prior notification of the absence and an excused absence (that is one that you instructor accepts as reasonable and legitimate). How and when the work will be made up will be determined by the instructor.To ensure a smooth flow of discussions, the following policies are established: Students are encouraged to listen with an open mind, respect the contributions of others, and avoid personal attacks. Students will often be faced with alternative viewpoints from the professor or their peers. Thus, students should be prepared to defend their own positions with empirical data, obtained from the assigned readings, and reasoned argument. You are expected to do your own work. Plagiarism and cheating of any sort will not be tolerated. Either behavior will result in a grade of "F". Note that plagiarism includes situations where you meet with other students for group discussions and are asked write a summary. Unless otherwise instructed, this means that each participant in the group must write their own summary. Making up false excuses for absences will also be considered cheating and may result in a grade of "F" for missed work. And finally, if you have any questions regarding anything in the syllabus and or the course in general, please feel free to ask. Talk to me in class, via phone, or e-mail. Don't just assume that you know (or should know) the answer, I may not have been clear enough or may have forgotten to mention something.
AccommodationsIllinois State University is an institution and a faculty concerned with helping all of our students feel welcome, and with helping all students learn and develop to their full potential. 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).
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jccutti@ilstu.edu. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
