Psychology 2111
Psychology 211: Advanced Research Methods in Psychology
Fall 2017Tues, Thurs 5-6:30pm Goldfarb Library 230
Prof: Leslie Zebrowitz, Lemberg 104, X 63263TAs: Sarah Lupis, Brown 117
e-mail: email:
Office hours: Thurs. 10-12 or by appointment Office hours: TBA
Email:
Office hours:
Learning Goals:
The goal of this graduate-level course is to review and extend coverage of the essential elements of controlled empirical research in psychology. You will learn how to systematically review the research literature, to reduce general conceptual questions to concrete, answerable form, and to use observational methods, survey methods, and experimental methods to answer research questions. The course will also provide brief overviews of specialized research methods, such as EEG, among others. In addition, you will learn the ethical guidelines that must be followed in scientific research in general and in research with human subjects in particular. Finally, you will gain the skills needed to clearly communicate in writing the purpose, methods, results, and implications of research in a format suitable for submission to psychology journals and to provide useful critiques of others’ research reports.
Credit Hours:
Success in this 4 credit hour graduate-level course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 12 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, preparation for class discussions, work on research projects, preparation for exams, etc.)
Academic integrity:
Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis University. Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person – be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner – without proper acknowledgement of that source. This means that you must use author citations, endnotes, and, where appropriate, quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another student.
Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section Three of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, or in suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification.
Special needs:
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
BOOKS AND READINGS:
Martin, D.W. (2008). Doing Psychology Experiments. (7th edition). Belmont, CA: Thompson-Wadsworth.
Verdugo, E.D. (1998). Practical Problems in Research Methods: A Casebook with Questions for Discussion. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (2010). (6th edition). Washington, D.C.: APA
Sales, B.D., & Folkman, S. (2000). Ethics in Research with Human Participants. Washington, D.C.: APA.
Pyrczak, F. Evaluating Research in Academic Journals. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing. Recommended
Other assigned readings are available on Latte.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
As described below, there will be a mid-term examination, three small research projects, an independent final research project, and several assignments that are building blocks for the final research project. The mid-term exam will contribute 30% toward the final grade, the small research projects will contribute 30%, and the final project will contribute 30%. Class participation and informal assignments will contribute the final 10%.
Class Participation and Informal assignments: (10%)
Reading assignments for most classes will include selections from Verdugo's Casebook that illustrate practical problems in research. Each case is followed by a series of discussion questions. Although you are not expected to hand in written answers to these questions, you should come to class prepared to discuss them. The last 15-30 minutes of class will be devoted to discussing these cases.
Take Home Exam: (30%)
The exam will be distributed on November 2 and it will be due on November 9. Part I of the exam involves reading one or two short journal articles and answering questions about the methods with a focus on design, measurement, ethics, and conclusions (not statistics). Part II requires the critique of a manuscript in the form of a journal review. On Latte you will find an exhaustive list of questions to consider when evaluating a research article and 2 sample manuscript reviews.
Projects 1-3: Detailed instructions for these research projects are provided on Latte.
Project 1: Systematic observation of events in TV commercials.(10%). Due Sept 28:
Project 2: Survey Questionnaire (10%). Due Oct 26:
Project 3: Experimental Design and Manipulations(10%).Due Nov 16
Final Project: (30%) Due December 18 at noon.
Although this project is not due until the end of the semester, you will begin planning it early in the term. Several assignments (marked with * below) are scheduled throughout the semester to ensure that you are making appropriate progress. The project involves the design and implementation of an original study that can be a pilot study for a first-year research projectfor Ph.D students or a Masters thesis. If the project will serve as a pilot study, then your faculty advisor should be consulted in addition to the class instructor and TA, who also will be mentors.
MA students who are not planning to conduct empirical research for their MA project should work in teams on the design, data collection, and data analysis for the final project. However, you will be expected to each write your own final research report.
Other Assignment Due Dates (Instructions on Latte):
Sept 5Example of questionable science in the media and derogating science in media
Sept 7In class literature search
Sept 12Developing a research idea
Sept 14In class reliability computation
Sept 19*Hypotheses and bibliography for final project.
Self-report questionnaire (for class discussion)
Oct 3*Developing dependent variables for final project
Identifying threats to internal validity
Oct 10*Developing independent/predictor variables for final project
Evaluate abstracts for construct validity
Oct 17Ethics Training Certification
Evaluate abstracts for ethics debate
Oct.19*Using multiple research designs
Human subjects committee (IRB) proposal, consent form, and debriefing protocol.
Nov 21*Draft of final project Introduction and Method section. (Returned Nov 30).
Dec 5*Draft of final project Results section. (Returned Dec 11).
Dec 7*Poster presentations of final project. (See sample poster on Latte).
Note: October 20 is the final deadline to submit your IRB proposal to begin collecting data by November 20if your research is not eligible for expedited review. Turn-around time is faster for expedited review. See Categories of Review on Latte and here and discuss with me whether your research qualifies.
SYLLABUS
Date:Topic and Assignments:
Aug 31INTRODUCTION AND SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
Meltzoff, Ch. 1 2.
Michael Specter, Special to CNN. Michael Specter is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens our Lives."
Sept 5EXPERIMENTAL vs CORRELATIONAL METHODS
TEXT Ch. 1; Verdugo Cases 21, 22, 24.
Bring example of questionable science in the media and derogating science in media
Sept 7REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
TEXT Ch. 6 “How to find out what has been done”
Rosenthal, R., & DiMatteo, M.R. (2001) Meta-analysis: Recent developments in quantitative methods for literature reviews, 52, 59-82.
Adair, J.G., & Vohra, N. (2003). The explosion of knowledge, references, and citations. American Psychologist, 58, 15-23. (optional).
In class literature search
Sept 12GENERATING HYPOTHESES
TEXT Ch. 3 “How to get an experimental idea”
McGuire, W.J. (1997) Creative hypothesis generating in Psychology: Some useful heuristics. Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 1-30.
Winerman. Choosing your research methods wisely. American Psychologist
Developing a Research Idea
Sept 14DEFINING CONCEPTS and MEASUREMENT RELIABILITY
TEXT Ch 2 (pp. 25-28); Ch. 7 (pp. 136-137)
Melzhoff Ch. 2. Definition of terms (pp. 26-27)
Verdugo Cases 6, 11,14,15, 45
In class reliability computation
Sept 19MEASUREMENT: VALIDITY
TEXT Ch. 7 (pp. 139-147)
Meltzoff, ch. 7 pp. 106-126. Ch. 8. Change scores, pp 134-135.
Flake et al.(2017) Construct Validation in social and personality research. SPPS, 1-9.
Verdugo. Cases 7,9,32,46.
(When thinking about some of these cases look at the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in your course packet.)
Self-report questionnaire
Hypotheses and Bibliography for Final Project (hand in)
Sept 21No class
Sept 26OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS
TEXT Ch 7 (pp. 137-138)
Verdugo Case 44.
Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Rafaeli, E. (2003). Diary methods: Capturing Life as it is Lived, Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 579-616
Sept 28SURVEY RESEARCH METHODS
TEXT pp. 212- 223;Melzhoff, ch. 4 The Sample; Verdugo Cases 1-3, 35,36,48.
Krosnik, J.A. (1999) Survey Research. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 537-567.
Curran, (2016). Methods for the detection of carelessly invalid responses in survey data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 4-19.
Berinsky et al. (2016). Can we turn shirkers into workers? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 20-28.
Project 1: Coding events in TV commercials.
Oct 3 EXPERIMENTAL VALIDITY
(Brandeis Thurs)TEXT Ch. 2 (pp. 28-41);Ch. 4 (pp. 75-83);Melzhoff, pp. 43-48; Ch. 5; Ch. 6 pp. 94-99
Summary of Threats to Internal Validity
Verdugo Cases 33, 51, 52.
Identifying Threats to Internal Validity
Developing Dependent Variables for Final Project (hand in)
Oct 5No class
Oct 10THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE MANIPULATION
TEXT Ch 7 (pp 131-135); Melzhoff, Ch. 3. Pp. 31-39; 41-42. Ch. 7. Pp. 101-105.
Verdugo. Case 37.
Abstracts to be evaluated for construct validity concerns.
Developing Independent/Predictor Variables for Final Project (hand in)
Oct 11ONLINE BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH (Brandeis Thurs)
Skitka, L.J & Sargis, E.G. (2006). The internet as psychological laboratory. AnnualReview of Psychology, 5, 529–555.
Zhou,H. & Fishbach, A. (2016). The pitfalls of experimenting on the web: How unattended selective attrition leads to surprising (yet false) research conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111, 493-504.
Mason & Suri. A guide to conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
MTURK Instructions and Demo
Oct 12No class
Oct 17ETHICS
TEXT Ch. 4 “How to be fair with participants” (pp. 68-74 and 84-93); Ch 5 “How to be fair with science;”Meltzoff, Ch. 9.
Ethics in Research with Human Participants Chs. 2-6 (pp. 11-75).
Ross (2014).Do research ethics need updating for the digital age?American Psychologist,
Shweder & Nisbett (2017). Long-sought research deregulation is upon us. Don’t squander the moment. Chronicle of Higher Education. March 17, 2017.
Kaiser (2017). Some scientists hate NIH’s new definition of a clinical trial.
Verdugo. Cases 26, 28, 29.
Categories of Review for IRB applications (on Latte).
Evaluate Abstracts for Ethics Debate cont next page
Ethics Training Certification: forms:
Oct 19RESEARCH DESIGNS
TEXT Ch. 8 and Ch. 9; Melzhoff ch. 6 pp. 83-94
Using multiple research designs
Final Project Human Subjects Committee Proposal, consent form, debriefing(deadline for Nov 20 full committee review is Oct 20)
Oct 24WRITING A RESEARCH REPORT
TEXT Ch. 7 and Ch 13; Meltzoff, Ch. 8 pp. 142 bottom-145
Some guidelines for writing Introduction,. Methods, and Results sections.
Barber, L. K. A Survival Guide for Your First Review Process.
A useful overview of APA style can be found on the Internet at the following:
Oct 26PREPARING MANUSCRIPT FIGURES & EVALUATINGUNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
Cooper, M.L. (2009). Problems, Pitfalls, and Promise in the Peer-Review Process Commentary on Trafimow & Rice. Psychological Science, 4, 84-90.
Park, D.C. (2009). Publishing in the Psychological Sciences Enhancing Journal Impact While Decreasing Author Fatigue, Psychological Science, 4, 36-37.
Lepak, D. What is good reviewing? Academy of Management Review
2009, Vol. 34, No. 3, 375–381.
Meltzoff, pp. 138-142; 161-166; select two articles and prepare a critique to discuss in class BEFORE Reading Critique in Text
Project 2: The survey questionnaire
Oct 31 RESEARCH REPLICATION
Reis & Lee (2016). Promise, Peril, and Perspective: Addressing concerns about reproducibility in social-personality psychology. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 148-152.
Stroebe (2016). Are most published social psychological findings false? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 134-144.
Crandall & Sherman (2016). On the scientific superiority of conceptual replications for scientific progress. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 93-99.
Gelman, A. (2016),. Why does the replication crisis seem worse in psychology? Slate, Oct 3, 2016.
Oct 31-Nov 2FINAL PROJECT PLANNING MEETINGS
Take-home mid-term exam distributed Nov 2
Nov 7GUEST LECTURE: Paul Dizio and Jim Lackner: Methods for studying motor control –
Nov 9GUEST LECTURE: Jenny Gutsell: ERP Methods
Take-home exam due
Nov 14 - Nov 22 DATA COLLECTION FOR FINAL PROJECT
(IRB notification by Nov. 12)
Nov 14GUEST LECTURE: Hannah Snyder: assessing executive function
RESEARCH PREREGISTRATION
Gonzales (2015). The promise of preregistration in psychological research. Continued
Goldin-Meadow (2016). Why preregistration makes me nervous. APS Observer
Lindsay et al. (2016). Research preregistration 101
Nov 16GUEST LECTURE: Margie Lachman
DEVELOPMENTAL AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGNS
TEXT Ch. 10 (pp. 193-204)
Verdugo Cases 22,23,24,34,39,53.
Shadish & Cook (2009). The renaissance of field experimentation in evaluating interventions. Annual. Review of Psychology 60, 607–29
Project 3: Experimental Manipulations and Design DUE
Nov 21Final project Introduction and Method draft DUE
Nov 23No class – Thanksgiving
Nov 28GUEST LECTURE: Shantanu Jhadav: Methods for in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics –
Nov 30-Dec 5ANALYZE DATA (individual group meetings)
Nov 30Introduction and Methods section drafts returned
Dec 5Final project Results section draft DUE
Dec. 7POSTER SESSION FOR FINAL PROJECTS. See sample on Latte.
Dec 11Results section draft returned
Dec 18Final project duenoon