Instructor: Dr. Daniel Arkkelin	Office: DMH 219
Office Hours: 1:15 - 2:45 p.m. T, R	Phone: 219.464.5441
HomePage: www.valpo.edu/home/faculty/darkkeli	e-mail: Daniel.Arkkelin@valpo.edu

Research Methods
TEAM RESEARCH PROPOSAL (100 pts.)
DUE: Thursday, 12/13
NOTE: MUST BE TYPED ON A WORD PROCESSOR!

Grading Policies

Since most psychological research is conducted collaboratively by groups of researchers, this will be the case in this course. Students have been divided into work group "research teams" to develop an original research proposal. Groups will receive a "collective" grade on assignments and the final proposal (i.e., each group member will receive the same scores) to be submitted on the dates indicated on the schedule. Note that the above assumes equal contributions by each group member, and YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BE A RESPONSIBLE GROUP MEMBER, meaning that each member will assume individual responsibility for completing course assignments and developing/writing the group research proposal! Specifically, although each group will submit a single, "Team Paper" copy of the required assignments/proposal (which must be typed on a word processor), EACH GROUP MEMBER MUST INDEPENDENTLY WRITE AND SUBMIT DRAFTS to be compiled into the final group product. To insure equity regarding the relative contributions of individual group members, 100 ADDITIONAL COURSE PARTICIPATION POINTS WILL DETERMINED BY INSTRUCTOR AND WORK GROUP PEER REVIEW (see "Peer Evaluation Form"). The V.U. HONOR CODE applies to individuals' contributions to group assignments as well as to the group members' peer evaluations of one another.

Procedures

Each team will work together in consultation with the instructor to develop an original research proposal typed in proper APA format (See Chapter 14 in the text for guidelines) based on a review of the available psychological literature on a topic of shared professional interest to the team members. Teams will conduct literature searches for scientific research on the chosen topic, will apply course concepts in critically evaluating this research, and in consultation with the instructor, will develop a testable hypothesis derived from and supported by this research. Teams will propose a research methodology (including measurement instruments, operational definitions of variables, and appropriate statistical analyses) to test this hypothesis. Teams will generate "hypothetical results" (not the actual raw data, but the output of statistical analyses if such analyses were conducted). Teams will interpret these results in light of the hypotheses and literature review. Finally, Teams will work together to submit the final research proposal in the form of a research manuscript written in APA format (due the last day of class, Thursday, December 13).

This final written proposal is worth 100 points, but teams will complete three assignments leading up to this proposal, worth a total of 100 additional points. Assignment 1 (worth 20 points) will get teams started on finding several articles on a topic, which teams will summarize and relate to their potential topic. Assignment 2 (worth 40 points) will involve obtaining and summarizing several more articles and developing a testable hypothesis based on the literature review, along with a tentative methodology and analyses to be employed. Assignment 3 (worth 40 points) will further develop the hypothesis and methodology, and teams will generate the hypothetical results and submit a "rough draft" of the final research proposal. The instructor will provide feedback on each assignment and will meet with research teams to assist them in completing this project, and teams will be expected to incorporate this feedback in the final Team Paper to be submitted.

A Word of Encouragement

Learning to conduct good research can be an exciting and rewarding process that results in extremely valuable skills. I sincerely hope that you will "catch the fever" and even have fun in the process! I hope that you will develop a "sense of project" as this proposal evolves. Many previous students in this course have gone on after this course to complete the proposed study as an Independent Research project, and some have even coauthored professional papers with supervising instructors that have emerged from the original proposal. At the beginning, developing an original research proposal can seem like a rather daunting challenge, but I assure you that I will do all that I can to assist you in this process, and I want to reassure you that this is certainly within your abilities. Finally, I can guarantee you that you will learn a great deal, and will develop skills that will serve you extremely well in either the job market or in getting admitted to graduate school. I am confident that you can do it, and I will work hard to help you accomplish these goals.

On the other hand, these outcomes can only be achieved via a commitment to do a lot of work and a willingness to endure some measure of frustration. This will not be an easy course, but if you are willing to contribute the time and effort, I believe that you will find this to be one of the most valuable experiences of your academic career. Do not hesitate to talk to me if you feel overwhelmed, confused, anxious, or just curious--I can't help if you don't ask!

COURSE SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

Below is a day-by-day brief outline of the course. You can click the links in this table to get quick access to the day's lecture outline/supplemental homework exercises/assignment instructions for a given day. Greater detail regarding each of these links can be found by clicking the "Outline" link in the navigation bar on the left of the Prometheus course site.

Week	(Session)Dates	Assignments	Topics (Location)
1	(1) T, 8/28	Ch 1	"Calm Down, You Can Do It!" (APB 34)
	(2) R, 8/30	Ch 1 HW; Ch 2	Beginning Psychological Research (OL)
I. BASES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
2	(3) T, 9/4	Ch 2	Explanation in Scientific Psychology (APB 34)
	(4) R, 9/6	Library Outing	The Literature Search (Library Classroom B)
3	(5) T, 9/11	Ch 2 HW; Ch 7	Exploring the Literature in Psychology (OL)
	(6) R, 9/13	Ch 14	Writing Research Proposals (OL)
4	(7) T, 9/18	TEAM MEETINGS	(Student Lounge, DMH)
	(8) R, 9/20	Ch 8	Measurement: Reliability & Validity (OL)
5	(9) T, 9/25	Ch 8 HW	ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE!! (OL)
	(10) R, 9/27	EXAM 1; Ch 3	Fear! Observation & Descriptive Research (OL)
II. EXPERIMENTATION IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
6	(11) T, 10/2	Ch 4	Relational Research (OL)
	(12) R, 10/4	Ch3HW;Ch4HW;Ch 5	Basics of Experimentation (OL)
7	(13) T, 10/9	Ch 5 HW; Ch 9	Between/Within-Ss Experimental Designs (OL)
	(14) R, 10/11	TEAM MEETINGS	(Student Lounge, DMH)
8	(15) T, 10/16	Ch 9 HW	(OL)
	(16) R, 10/18	FALL BREAK!!	Relief!
9	(17) T, 10/23	Exam 2 Review; Evals.	ASSIGNMENT 2DUE!! (APB 34)
	(18) R, 10/25	EXAM 2; Ch 10	Trepidation! Complex Designs (OL)
10	(19) T, 10/30	Ch10	Factorial Between/Within Designs (APB 34)
	(20) R, 11/1	Ch 10; Ch 11	Small-N Experiments (OL)
III. ALTERNATE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS
11	(21) T, 11/6	Ch 10 HW; Ch 11	(APB 34)
	(22) R, 11/8	TEAM MEETINGS	(Student Lounge, DMH)
12	(23) T,11/13	Ch 11 HW; Ch 12	Quasi-Experimental Designs (OL)
	(24) R, 11/15	TEAM MEETINGS	ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE!! (OL)
			Thanksgiving Break!! (11/17 - 11/25)
13	(25) T, 11/27	Ch 12 HW; Ch 13; Ch 6	Interpreting Research Patterns & Research Ethics (OL)
	(26) R, 11/29	Ch 13 HW; Ch 6 HW	(OL)
IV. COMPLETING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
14	(27) T, 12/4	EXAM 3	Loathing! (OL)
	(28) R, 12/6	CLASS MEETING	(APB 34)
15	(29) T, 12/11	Team Presentations	(APB 34)
	(30) R, 12/13	Team Presentations	Final Draft Of Research Proposal Due!! (APB 34)
16		NO FINAL EXAM!	Joy!

Research Methods
ASSIGNMENT 1 (20 pts.)
DUE: Tuesday, 9/25
NOTE: MUST BE TYPED ON A WORD PROCESSOR!

Use the Psychological Abstracts (and other potential sources discussed in class and your readings) to conduct your initial search for research articles related to your area of interest. Begin with articles in journals from this year and work your way back at least five years. At first be open to any abstracts potentially dealing with your topic area, look them up and scan them, noting the bibliographic information of those abstracts that seem closest to your interests. Then be more selective, reading carefully only those abstracts (and in some cases, the articles themselves) which deal specifically with the question or variable(s) of interest.

You should work together as a team to select 5/6 articles (i.e., one for each team member) that relate to one another. Then each team member will be responsible for obtaining a copy of one abstract and posting it on the Team Discussion Site. Take notes on these abstracts and each team member should prepare a summary of his/her article (see guidelines below) and post that on the Discussion Site. Team members should read and edit each other's summaries and discuss them as a group either on the Team Discussion or Team Chat pages. The team will work together to prepare a composite answer the following questions:

1. What is the general topic area you investigated?

2. What is the specific research question investigated?

3. What keywords did you employ in your search?

Attach summaries of five/six articles (one prepared by each team member) related to your area of interest, and for each of the articles, indicate the following:

a. Name of team member preparing summary, and the complete bibliographic reference (in proper APA format) of the article

b. The research methodology employed (i.e., was this a survey, a correlational study, an experiment?)

c. Hypotheses/research questions investigated

d. Independent/Dependent variables (or measured variables)

e. Operational Definitions

f. Major findings/conclusions/interpretations

g. How the study relates to your topic area

NOTE!!! Each group member should contribute equally to locating these articles and preparing the above summaries for the final group assignment to be submitted (i.e., HONOR CODE APPLIES!!).

Research Methods
ASSIGNMENT 2 (40 pts.)
DUE: Tuesday, 10/23
NOTE: MUST BE TYPED ON A WORD PROCESSOR!

Carefully read the literature you cited in Assignment 1. Be critical, looking out for measurement issues, problems with operational definitions, and potential uncontrolled extraneous variables. Narrow your focus to one particular variable and screen out any studies not dealing with that variable. Search for other studies which have related other variables to your variable of interest. Make every effort to select articles that all have some variable or variables in common. You may use the 5 - 6 articles cited in Assignment 1, but don't feel "wed" to these--you should discard earlier articles that are less relevant to your proposal in favor of recent articles that may be more on target (i.e., I will be assessing the "quality" of your literature review--how well the articles interrelate and are brought to bear on your hypotheses--as much as sheer "quantity').

Create an "annotated bibliography" (i.e., the APA bibliographic reference citations along with summaries written in the format of those for Assignment 1) of at least 10- 12 articless (i.e., two article summaries completed by each team member) to be cited in your research proposal. The annotations should include a description of the research methodology/experimental design, independent variables (operational definitions and manipulations), and dependent variables (including how they were measured). You should also include the main hypotheses, results and conclusions. Finally, state how the study relates to your research hypotheses..

Each team member should post their summaries (written with Microsoft Word) in the team's file folders, and you all need to read and discuss one another's articles/summaries. In separate files, each member must indpendently compose answers to the following questions. :Then read and discuss each other's responses and incoroporate them into a composite "Team Paper" response to these requestions:

1. Summarize the main pattern of results of the annotated studies. Mention major theories, conflicting results and/or unresolved issues/questions. Show how your study will address these issues.

2. As clearly as possible, state the hypothesis you are developing. Relate this to the issues in question # 1 (e.g., how will your study test a theory,resolve conflicts or extend knowledge in the area?). Make sure to show how your predictions are related to the literature you have cited (i.e., each hypothesis must be derived from one or more of your cited studies).

3. State the general category of research design you are planning to propose (i.e., a field study, a correlational study, an experiment...). Specify what variables your are considering manipulating/measuring, as well as operational definitions of these variables.

4. What kind of data analyses will you be proposing? Be specific (e.g., Pearson r, t-test, anova, etc.).

Think of this as a "rough-rough draft" of your proposal in its present form. Again, it is expected that individual group members will contribute equally to the final bibliography submitted by the group, and each member will prepare and submit individual responses to the above questions to be combined into the final group submission (i.e., HONOR CODE APPLIES!!!).

Research Methods
ASSIGNMENT 3 (40 pts.)
DUE: Thursday, 11/15
NOTE: MUST BE TYPED ON A WORD PROCESSOR!

In Assignments 1 and 2 you searched the literature on a topic of interest, narrowed your search to specific variables, critically evaluated the results of several studies and tentatively developed a hypothesis, a methodology to test the hypothesis, and an appropriate data analysis to assess your results. The purpose of this assignment is to help you further develop your hypothesis and methods as well as to predict what the results of your study would be if it were carried out. Think of this assignment as your second "rough draft" of your proposal. Specifically, the assignment must be typed as a research proposal in APA format (See Chapter 14 in the text for guidelines). Each member must independent compose and post drafts of this assignment. Read and discuss each other's drafts and compose a composite "Team Paper" that incorporates these individual drafts. Address the following questions in preparing your drafts:

1. State the general topic area and purpose of your proposed study. Indicate the nature of the relationships among the relevant variables suggested by your literature review. Briefly ummarize the studies you cited in Assignment 2 (and/or other,different articles you may have found since then), showing how each one relates to the hypothesis you plan to propose. Compare/contrast their results, and indicate any limitations/problems with them. How will your study address these shortcomings?

2. State your hypothesis clearly and concisely. Specify the results you expect in the form of predictions. List the research evidence that led you to your hypothesis and supports your predicted results. --(Issues in #1 and #2 are essentially the Introduction section of your paper)-- This section should be approximately 3 - 4 pages, and will be given the most weight in my grading this assignment.

3. State clearly and specifically your proposed research design, including the independent and dependent variables you will employ to test this hypothesis. Include operational definitions of variables and describe the proposed measurement procedures in detail.

4. Describe the proposed participant population. How will they be assigned to treatment groups? Outline the procedures of your proposed study. Include a description of materials to be used (e.g., measurement instruments and how score will be calculated), and how independent variables will be manipulated, and how extraneous variables will be controlled. --(Issues in #3 and #4 are the basically the Methods section of your paper)-- This section should be about 2 - 3 pages, and will be given the second most weight in grading.

5. Specify the statistical analyses to be conducted on the data. Generate hypothetical results (including actual statistics, such as Pearson-r correlation values, F-values, tables of means or figures of interactions) that would support your hypothesis/predictions. That is, you are to create a Results section as it might look if you had actually conducted the study and obtained data which you analyzed and are "reporting" here. Create results that you would expect to occur of your hypotheses/predictions are accurate. Note that this does not mean that you have to generate "raw data" and compute the statistical analyses. All you are doing is "guestimating" what the results of these analyses would be, and "making up" some statistics that would support your hypotheses. This section should be 2 - 3 pages (including tables/figures), and will be given the third greatest weight.

6. State the conclusions you would draw from the above hypothetical results. Will they confirm/disconfirm existing theories/evidence? What important implications (either practical application or theory development) will your study have? Discuss limitations of your study and suggest future research that could address thes limitations or other "gaps" the literature you cited. This is your Discussion section. It should be 2 - 3 pages in length, and will be weighted less heavily than the other sections for this assignment.

7. Create a Reference section and Tables/Figures to complete your rough draft.

Again, each member is expected to prepare and submit an individual draft to be combined in to the final group rough draft to be submitted (HONOR CODE APPLIES!!!!).