Psy 596 Assignments
Fall 2007
Prof. Conway

Human Studies Council form assignment: Due Tuesday Dec. 11

As you write your research proposal you should, in parallel, complete the HSC approval form (available at http://www.ccsu.edu/humanstudies/) for your proposed project.  This means:

1. Completing the form itself;

2. Drafting an informed consent form; and

3. Providing copies of whatever materials you will use (if you have them).

You can adapt your consent form from the sample available on the HSC website.  Feel free to take the text and use it in your form (be sure to proofread carefully to make sure you’ve made appropriate changes and deleted things not relevant to your study).

On Tuesday the 11^th please bring to class:

            Four (4) copies of the completed HSC approval form and consent form; and

            One (1) copy of your materials.

You will turn in one copy of your HSC form and consent form (plus your materials) to me; the other copies will be reviewed by a group of your peers.

Reading for Nov. 20:

Cook & Campbell (1979), Logic of Experiments (pp. 341-344); Threats to internal validity (pp. 51-54)

t-test assignment: due Tuesday Nov. 20

Here are your scores from the goal setting replication.  The independent variable was the specificity of the goal (high; 14 things vs. low; Do your best).  The dependent variable is the number of things you listed in one minute.

1. Create a SPSS dataset with an ID variable, an independent variable, and a dependent variable.  You must start with an Excel file and pull it into SPSS.

2. Calculate descriptive statistics using the Explore procedure.

3. Conduct an independent-samples t-test in SPSS.

4. Interpret the results as completely as you can.

Turn in:

            a. a printout of your Excel dataset

            b. a printout of your SPSS exploratory and t-test results

            c. your interpretation of the results, typed on a separate sheet (refer to the information in the SPSS results on which you base your interpretation, and circle the info. on the SPSS results).  You should say whether there is anything to be concerned about in the distributions (e.g., skewness) as well as interpreting the t-test results.

For October 30: Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Now that you have your keystone article representing recent, state-of-the-art research, you need to broaden your knowledge of the literature in your topic area.  Explore the literature on your topic using PsycINFO and the reference list from your keystone article.  You should identify at least nine additional articles, which you will read and summarize.  At least five must be empirical articles.  For each article you should provide the reference in APA style (consult the APA publication manual) and you should answer three questions:

1. What was the major purpose of the study/article?

2. Who were the participants and what was the general methodology?

3. What were the major findings?

You should write a paragraph for each study/article, and each study/article’s paragraph should consist of the answers to the three questions above.  The annotated bibliography should be structured as follows:

(1) First reference

(2) Paragraph describing first study/article

(3) Second reference

(4) Paragraph describing second study/article

etc…until you have provided the references and descriptions for all your studies/articles.

In addition you must turn in:

1. a photocopy of the first page of each paper.

2. a PsycINFO printout for at least one of the articles.

In grading this assignment I will be looking at how clearly you describe each study but also at how coherently the studies seem to fit together (i.e., I’m looking for you to have a set of sources that is fairly well focused on a particular topic).
 

For October 23: Spector (1992)

By Oct. 23 you should have read the following:

pp. 1-28 (up through 'Designing the Scale')
pp. 46-64 (on Validation)

For October 16: Descriptive Statistics Assignment

For this assignment you will create your own data for two variables, both measured on a scale of 0-100.  The variables represent scores on two quizzes; a perfect score is 100 for each quiz.  Your assignment is to:

1. Create distributions of 5 scores for each quiz (i.e., write down 5 hypothetical scores for each quiz, for 5 hypothetical students).

2. Create an Excel datafile including the 5 students’ quiz scores.

3. Compute the mean, median, and standard deviation (using the sample formula) for each quiz both by hand and using SPSS (pull the Excel file into SPSS).  Turn in:

* The numbers you used, in hand-written columns;

* Your hand-calculations (you must show all your work);

* A printout of your Excel dataset; and

* A printout of your SPSS results.

The stipulation is that for quiz 1 the standard deviation must be less than 10 and for quiz 2 the standard deviation must be greater than 20.

For October 9: Keystone Article Assignment

You need to find a "keystone" article in the library representing the state of the art in your topic area.  The article must be recent (2000 or later) and be in a peer-reviewed journal.  It must describe at least one original empirical study (not a review or essay), and can be either correlational or experimental.  You must have a copy of the entire article, which you must know thoroughly.

Turn in:

1. One photocopy of the first page of the article with your name on it.

2. A typed summary/critique that addresses the following issues:

• What is the major purpose of the study as described in the Introduction?  That is, what research question is addressed?
• What are the hypotheses?
• Does the Method section provide enough detail so that other researchers (such as you) could replicate (repeat) their procedure?  What additional information would be helpful?
• Briefly summarize the Methods: (1) who were the subjects, and how many were there; (2) what equipment/materials were used; (3) what were the basic procedures (i.e., what did the subjects do)?
• What were the major findings described in the Results section?
• What, if anything, do the authors say in the Discussion/Conclusion section about what kinds of experiments should be tried next?

For Sept. 25: Mediator/Moderator Reading

For Sept. 17: Read Introduction sections only of Frese (1999) and Chang (2000).  The goal is to understand these studies as examples of moderation (Frese, 1999) and mediation (Chang, 2000) so focus on the hypotheses of the studies.
 

For Sept. 17: Human Subject Protection Assignment

You must complete an on-line course offered by NIH and the Office of Human Subjects Research, and turn in a print-out of your completion certificate.

The on-line course can be accessed at http://cme.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/learning/humanparticipant-protections.asp.

There are several components to the course (e.g., History, Informed Consent, IRB Review) and you must complete each component.  At the end of each component there is an exercise (really a brief multiple choice test) that you must complete to get credit for the component.  When you have finished all the components, follow instructions to obtain your certificate of completion.

Turn in a print-out of your completion certificate, or e-mail it to me, by Sept. 17.

For Sept. 11: Read Cook & Campbell (Ch. 2, Validity)