Office: DDH/D115                                        Office Hours: 3:30-5:40 MW
Phone: 654-2371                                            e-mail: khartlep@csub.edu

Text:

Miller, Scott. Developmental Research Methods, Prentice Hall; Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1998.  (ISBN 0-13-398892-9).  The Psychology Department has copies available for a refundable deposit of $10.00.
 

Purpose of the course:

l. This course builds on previous coursework, relating statistics to experimental designs commonly used in child psychology.
2. We will survey methods used by developmental researchers, the logic behind their use of various designs, the advantages and disadvantages of each choice.
3. You will do library literature searches, collect and analyze data, and summarize results in class labs to get some feel for what it is like to do research.
4. You will write APA-style papers, using data collected in labs, to give you some practice writing as a "professional".
 

Schedule of Critical Dates:

September 23    In-class data pooling for the infant Labs.

September 25  Furlough Day

September 28    Visual Cliff Lab/ Conjugate Reinforcement Lab Write-up is due.

October  2    Last day to withdraw from classes without a "W" being recorded on the transcript.
            Withdrawals after this date will be permitted only for a "serious and compelling
            reason".  (Please see the CSUB Catalog for a definition of terms.)

October 9    In-class data pooling for correlation lab.

October  14   Correlation Lab write-up is due.

October 19   Furlough Day

October  28    In-class data pooling for conservation lab

October  30   Last day to withdraw from classes for "a serious and compelling reason".

November  2   Conservation Lab write-up is due.

November 6    Furlough Day

November 11   Veterans Day Holiday - No Class

November 16    In-class data pooling for Formal Thought lab

November 20   Formal Thought Lab write-up is due.
 

Course Requirements:

1. Four APA-Style lab write-ups. We will be collecting data in four labs. Each of you will be responsible for collecting data from some number of participants.  If you fail to collect your share of the data, and have it available in class on the day we pool the data, you will not receive credit for the lab write-up.  Data from the entire class will be pooled, on the dates assigned above, so that we can have a sufficient number of subjects for analysis. You will be asked to analyze and write up each of these labs in APA-style.  The first three lab write-ups will be partial APA papers.  The last lab will be a full APA paper.  Instructions for writing a full APA-style paper are provided in Miller (1998), Chapter 9, in the APA publication manual, and additional instructions will be provided in class. The literature review portion of this paper must have at least five journal article references on the same topic. The write-ups must be typed. Each will be worth 25% of your final grade.

3. Attendance. If you miss more than three classes, a percentage point will be taken off your final grade in the course for each additional class that is missed.
 

The final letter grade will be assigned according to the following scale:
 
 

Policy on "Incompletes": Only in rare and unusual circumstances will incompletes be given in this course. Since the labs are group efforts, they can not be completed by an individual after the course is over. However, the written work may be considered, if some family emergency prevents its timely completion. I will need to see some documentation of your emergency, i.e. a note from a doctor, a summons to court, a death notice, etc. You must request the incomplete by obtaining the forms from the records office, prior to the end of the quarter, filling them out as completely as possible, and bringing them to my office for permission and signature.

Policy on Academic Dishonesty: Any student caught in an act of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, will receive an "F" for the course, and their action will be reported in a letter to the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Please refer to the CSUB Catalog for the full details and definitions of what actions qualify under this policy.