COURSE SYLLABUS

PSY302

Research Methods

Argosy University

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: Frank Sullivan, Ed. D. (ABD) in Counseling Psychology

Campus: Chi.

Contact Information: ;

Office Hours: TBA

Short Faculty Bio:

I have been teaching for 33 years as of 2009, first as a high school Social Studies teacher, and then as a teacher of Psychology and History at the post-secondary level. I am presently Associate Professor of History and Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Art. I have been there since 1999. Now, I am proud to teach at ArgosyUniversity, as well.

Course description: In this course you will review quantitative and qualitative scientific research methods used to investigate psychological questions. You will learn to gather and evaluate information from multiple sources, synthesize findings from available literature into specific research questions, and design effective methods to address those questions. An emphasis will be placed on critical thinking, problem solving, and developing writing skills in a style appropriate to the discipline of psychology (APA format).

Course Pre-requisites: None

Required Textbook: Mitchell, M. L. & Jolley, J.M. (2007).Research design explained (6th ed.).Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN:0-495-09223-1.

Course length: 7.5 Weeks

Contact Hours: 45 Hours

Credit Value: 3.0

Program Outcomes:

  1. Cognitive Abilities
  2. Critical Thinking - Given a psychological issue, employ skeptical inquiry and a scientific approach to respond to the issue.
  3. Information Literacy - Given a research question related to psychology, access information from a variety of sources and select appropriate sources to respond to the question.
  4. Research
  5. Understanding Research Methods – Given an article about research findings in the field of psychology from a scholarly journal, identify the research methods used and the findings of the article.
  6. Identifying Research Methods – Identify the appropriate statistical tools and basic research methods in psychology, including research design, data analysis, and interpretation.
  7. Communication Skills
  8. Oral - Effectively present psychological concepts orally as appropriate to the audience.
  9. Written - Effectively present psychological information, in writing, using software and style appropriate to the audience.
  1. Ethics/Diversity
  2. Ethics - Identify the issues and challenges related to ethics in the field of psychology.
  3. Diversity - Identify the issues and challenges related to diversity in the field of psychology.
  4. Knowledgeof the Field
  5. Foundations – Recognize the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, applications, and historical trends in psychology.
  6. Knowledge of Applied Psychology

Apply psychological principles to personal, social, and/or organizational issues.

7. Interpersonal Effectiveness

Students will develop and improve positive relationship skills via effective communication, respect for others, appreciation of diversity and cultural sensitivity, and awareness of their impact on others.

7.1 Apply active listening communication skills in interpersonal and organizational scenarios to establish empathetic, collegial relationships that facilitate consensus building in working toward common goals and are appreciative of diversity and culture.

7.2 Analyze the importance of effective nonverbal communication skills in developing strong interpersonal and organizational relationships that are culturally sensitive and respectful of diversity.

7. 3 Solicit and utilize feedback to develop adaptable strategies of facilitating dynamic interpersonal and organizational relationships.

7. 4 Analyze the impact of technological advances on communication within interpersonal and organizational relationships.

7. 5 Utilize effective communication and relationship skills in order to promote the growth of others and effect change.

Course Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, the students should be able to:

  1. Explain why psychology is a science.

Explain the scientific method of inquiry and how it applies to psychology.

Explain the value of theory and the concept of hypothesis testing.

  1. Compare and contrast quantitative and qualitative scientific research methods.
  2. Develop appropriate research questions.

Identify weaknesses or missing information in the literature surrounding the concept under investigation.

Create a logical argument around the critical analysis of the body of literature that summarizes what is known about the concept under investigation and leads to a research question that contributes to the understanding of the concept.

  1. Conduct a literature search that includes critical analysis and synthesis of findings from multiple sources.

Explain the importance of a qualitative review, a meta-analysis, and a handbook.

Demonstrate the ability to use research databases (such as PsychInfo) to find scientific journal articles and other appropriate reference papers such as book chapters.

Select appropriate review or meta-analysis articles to be included in the literature review.

Select appropriate empirical studies to be included in the literature review.

Critique the problem definition, operationalization of variables, selection of participants, and consideration of threats to validity in the methodology of each empirical study.

Properly integrate the cited studies into a logical argument that leads to the hypothesis or research question.

  1. Critically evaluate published research.

Identify the components of an empirical study.

Explain what is meant by peer review and why it is important.

Explain how the literature review determines the conceptualization of the variables in the hypothesis or research question.

Explain the process of sampling and the concept of “population”.

Explain the process of moving from conceptualization to operationalization.

Formulate a testable hypothesis.

Explain reliability and why it is important

Explain reliability, random error, and bias.

Select a reliable measurement instrument.

Explain generalizability.

  1. Explain the influence culture, ethnicity, class, and gender may have in influencing the research process.

Explain the effect of culture, ethnicity, class, and gender on the researcher’s ability to generalize results.

Explain the effect of culture, ethnicity, class, and gender on the reliability and validity of psychological tests and measures.

  1. Construct a literature review leading to a testable hypothesis and design an experiment to test the hypothesis likely to produce interpretable results, if conducted.

Explain what is needed to give evidence of causality.

Explain the concepts of internal and external validity and identify threats to each.

Explain what is meant by construct validity.

Select the appropriate design to test the hypothesis or answer the question.

  1. Identify fundamental problems involved in research methods and of ethical ways of confronting these problems.

Explain the importance of identifying both the risks and benefits of a particular research design.

Explain the appropriate use of animals in experiments.

Explain the appropriate participation of humans in experiments.

Explain the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process and why it is important.

  1. Interpret the results of various statistical analyses.

Explain when each type of t-test should be used (independent samples, dependent samples, and one-sample).

Explain how t-tests and ANOVA are related and when it is appropriate to use ANOVA.

Explain the appropriate use of correlation, simple regression, and multiple regression.

Give examples of when MANOVA, discriminant function analysis, or logistic regression would be used.

Demonstrate the ability to evaluate the results of an exploratory factor analysis.

Demonstrate the ability to interpret confirmatory factor analysis (structural equation model) and its fit statistics.

  1. Write a research proposal in appropriate APA style and format.

Demonstrate writing the abstract for the research proposal.

Demonstrate writing the introduction for the research proposal and identify the components and purpose of each sub-section of the introduction.

Write a hypothesis or research question that logically flows from the literature review by identifying the issues unresolved by previous research in the topic area and adds to the understanding of the concept under investigation.

Write a methods section that explains how the sample will be selected, how variables are to be operationalized, how participants will be assigned to groups if applicable, and how nuisance variables will be controlled. Explain which statistical method you will use to test your hypothesis or hypotheses.

Outline the expected results of the proposed statistical analysis.

Evaluation and calendar:

Jan 13:Chapter 1, discussion, no assignment due

Jan 27:Chapter 2, Appendix C; Assignment 1 due

Assignment 1: Discussion
Discussion Question 1
The line between properly citing an author's works and plagiarism can be a fine line.
Discuss some of the steps you can take to make sure you provide credit without plagiarism.
Discussion Question 2
When using human participants in a study, it is important that you obtain an informed consent form.
What are the important elements of an informed consent form?
Why are these elements required as part of the informed consent form?
Discussion Question 3
The famous compliance studies by Stanley Milgram in 1964 tricked people into believing that they were inflicting an electrical shock on a person, which appeared to trigger a heart attack. This deception upset the participants to the extent that it led to a change in the rules for conducting psychological studies involving human participants. Currently, the use of deception must be disclosed at a debriefing and it must be justified in advance. In addition, the risk of harm to the person must be less than the benefit received by the society.
What justifies the use of deception in research?
What steps should be taken to conduct research only after gaining an approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?

Febr 10:Chapter 3, 4; Chapter summary due

Febr 24:Chapter 10; “

March 10:Chapter 5,6,8,9. “

March 24:Chapter 11-14 “

April 7:Chapter 15, Appendix A,B,D; Assignment 2 :Submit a complete research proposal in the APA style

April 24:Assignment 3: Final Project

Assignment 3: Final Project
Complete the Methods section. Explain the procedure you'll use to test your hypothesis or collect the data on your research question. If you are using human or animal subjects, explain how you'll protect your subjects from harm, and how any risk you'll take is adequately compensated by benefits. If you plan to use deception in your design, describe how you will debrief your subjects.
Submit a draft of your final paper in the APA style to include a cover page, abstract, and the Introduction, Methods, and References sections.

Summary of due dates: (No late work accepted: period)

Assignment 1: 1/27, worth five points

Chapter summaries: 2/10, 2/24, 3/10, 3/24, Each worth five points for a total of 20 points

(Summarize any one of the chapters assigned for the week in three pages.)

Research proposal: 4/7, worth 25 points

Final project: 4/24, worth 25 points

These assignments total 75 points. Attendance and participation is worth 25 points for a total of

100 points. (See below).

Grading Criteria

Grading Scale Grading requirements

A / 100 – 93
A- / 92 – 90
B+ / 89 – 88
B / 87 – 83
B- / 82 – 80
C+ / 79 – 78
C / 77 - 73
C- / 72 – 70
D+ / 69 – 68
D / 67 – 63
D- / 62 – 60
F / 59 and below
Attendance/participation / 25%
Discussion, chapter summaries / 25%
Research proposal / 25%
Final Project / 25%

Total 100%

Library

All resources in ArgosyUniversity’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords.

Library Resources: ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at

In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

TheArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity

ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

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