PSYCHOLOGY 200



Statistical Methods in Psychological Research



Winter, 1997











Dr. Mary Allen, DDH-D117



MWF:  8:25-10:55AM, DDH-E106	



Office Hours:  MW 11-noon and by appointment



Phone:  664-2366 (Psychology), 664-3336 (Teaching and Learning Center)







COURSE OBJECTIVES:







1. To acquaint students with statistical techniques commonly used in psychological research.







2. To give students both a theoretical understanding of when each method is appropriately used, as well as computational competence in each technique.







3. To demonstrate the usefulness and shortcomings of statistical techniques in the design and evaluation of psychological experiments.







4. To acquaint students with common misconceptions about the use of statistics in psychology.







5. To give students a good general background in quantitative methods and the philosophy of science that will allow them to take further courses in these areas.







REQUIRED TEXT:  Howell, D. C. (1994).  Fundamental Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences.  Boston:  PWS-Kent Publishing Co.







ASSIGNMENTS:







Problem sets will be assigned approximately once a week and must be turned in by the assigned  deadline.  No late papers will be accepted.  Papers will be graded as "+" (virtually perfect), "/" (acceptable, but some minor problems), or "-" (not acceptable; has at least one major problem).







Four midterms will cover the four basic parts of this course:  Descriptive Statistics, Correlation and Regression, Introduction to Hypothesis Testing, and Hypothesis Testing.







The final exam will be cumulative; that is, it will cover material from the whole quarter.







GRADING:







The best three midterm grades and the final will each count one-fourth of your course grade.  Grades will be based on your average percentage correct, as follows:







	A	92-100	A-	90-91	B+	88-89	B	82-87	B-	80-81



	C+	77-	79	C	68-76	C-	65-67	D+	63-64	D	52-62



	D-	50-	51	F	0-49







Outstanding or very deficient homework performance will lead to increasing or decreasing your grade between adjacent grading categories, e.g.  from a B+ to an A-.







In general, make-up exams will not be allowed, except under very unusual circumstances which are discussed with me before the exam is administered.







APPROXIMATE  COURSE  SCHEDULE:







Part I - Descriptive Statistics







Jan.	  6	Mathematics Review	Appendix A



	  8	Introduction to Statistics	Chapters 1, 2



	10, 13	Frequency Distributions, Percentiles	Chapter  3



	15	Central Tendency, Variability	Chapters 4, 5



	17	Review



	20	Holiday	



	22	First Midterm







Part II - Normal Curve, Correlation and Regression







Jan.	24	Normal Curve, Standard Scores	Chapter  6



	27, 29, 31	Correlation and Regression	Chapters 9, 10



Feb.	  3	Review



	  5	Second Midterm







Part III - Introduction to Hypothesis Testing







Feb.	  7, 10	Introduction, Z-tests	Chapters  8, 12



	12, 14	t-tests	Chapters 12-14



	17, 19	Power	Chapter 15



	21	Review



	24	Third Midterm







Part IV - Hypothesis Testing







Feb.	26, 28	ANOVA	Chapters 16-18



March	  3	Chi-Square Tests	Chapter 19



	  5, 7	Nonparametric Methods	Chapter 20



March	 10	Review



	 12	Fourth Midterm







Part V - Statistical Analysis







March 	14	Statistical Analysis and Research Design	Chapter 21



	17	Course Review



	19	Final Exam  8:00 - 10:30AM







OTHER  IMPORTANT  DEADLINES:







Jan.	27	Last day to withdraw without a W being recorded.







Feb.	24	Last day to withdraw for a serious and compelling reason.