Class will meet Tuesdays, 10 - 12 pm and 1:00 - 4:40 pm. 3050 Stevenson.

Course Goal:
Upon completing the course, students should be able to use and evaluate the basic (correlational) research designs most often used by psychologists and sociologists.

Course Objectives:

• Locate and use relevant databases, research, and theory to plan, conduct, and interpret results of a collaboratively designed mail survey.
• Formulate testable research hypotheses, based on operational definitions of variables.
• Collect, analyze, interpret, and report correlationall data to address a set of research questions and hypotheses.
• Interpret basic statistical conclusions.
• Distinguish between statistical significance and practical significance.
• Recognize that theoretical and sociocultural contexts as well as personal biases may shape research questions, design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Follow the APA Code of Ethics in the treatment of human participants in the design, data collection, interpretation, and reporting of psychological research.
• Exercise caution in predicting behavior based on limitations of single studies.
• Recognize the limitations of applying normative conclusions to individuals.
• Recognize that individual differences and sociocultural contexts may influence the applicability of research findings.
  

Textbook:
Aron, A., Aron, E.W. & Coups, E.J. (2006). Statistics For Psychology (4th Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ, US: Prentice Hall.

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Heather Smith, Ph.D.
Stevenson 3092c
664-2587
smithh@sonoma.edu

PDF Versions:
Annotated Bibliography
Sample Annotated
Research Paper
Advice for research paper
Lorna Catford's APA style summary
Diana Hacker's APA reference style summary

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