Advanced Social Psychology
Professor: Dr. Travis Langley
Required textbooks:
collection of readings, ed. by Lesko
Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association
Social
Psychology (6th ed.) by Aronson, Wilson, & Akert
OVERVIEW:
This course is designed to provide an overview of the scientific study of how people interact. Topics of discussion include research methods, ethical principles, deception, attitudes, and many aspects of social behavior.
SCHEDULE
UNIT 1 EXAM: Tuesday, February 13
Chapter 1
p. 102, 211
Articles 19, 20, 27, 32, 38
UNIT 2 EXAM: Tuesday, March 13
Chapter 8
p. 32, 135
Articles 5, 35, 41
UNIT 3 EXAM: Tuesday, April 17
Articles 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 26, 33, 34
FINAL EXAM: Refer to semester schedule.
Attendance will not be taken on "Dead Days," and the final will be held as officially scheduled. Refer to official schedule for last day to drop with grade of W. After that date, the professor absolutely will not assign you a grade of WP if you're failing.
EXAMS
Each unit will conclude with a 40-item multiple choice exam covering lecture notes, assigned readings, and class discussion. Bring number 2 pencils for every test. If you have trouble erasing mistakes completely, bring Liquid Paper or similar correction fluid to cover your erasures, or simply ask the professor for a clean answer sheet. Any answer marked wrong due to an incomplete erasure is simply wrong.
On every test, put your name and ID number on the front of the answer sheet and on the back of your test. Follow instructions to put your test and answer sheet face down and in the right stack; otherwise the Scantron machine might grade the back of your answer sheet or grade it according to the wrong answer key.
ONE test score will be dropped: either your lowest test score (even if it's the final) or one missing test score. Although the cumulative final will have twice as many questions, it will weigh the same as any other test. There will be NO makeup tests. There's no such thing as a perfectly fair makeup test, so that's why your professor simply drops a test instead.
Writing Across the Curriculum: At least one question on every test will require a written answer. The last question on every test will be, "What else did you learn from the current course material that was not otherwise covered by this test?" For that question, you will need to explain concepts, making certain that you are not simply copying the wording as it appears in the book. Convince me you understand. There will be a few other essay questions to assess your understanding of material.
GRADING
Test
questions range in difficulty to get an accurate idea of exactly how much you
know and understand about the course material. I do not feel it is right to establish a
curve based on the highest grade in the class, in which case only
A 35.1 -->
B 30.1 - 35.0
C 25.1 - 30.0
D 20.1 - 25.0
F <-- 20.0
Your professor reserves the right to assign other values for these grade cutoffs. The professor also reserves the right to subtract any number of points from the grade of someone who disrupts class, or to assign a course grade of F to someone caught cheating. Anyone caught cheating will also be referred for University disciplinary measures.
Keep track of your own grades for each test. If you want to keep up with your grades, write down your numerical scores along the way. If you are not in class on the day when a test is returned graded, you can learn the score on that test when the next test is returned graded.
The professor reserves the right to drop any student for a pattern of profound absenteeism. The professor does take roll whenever he thinks of it, so that if someone has a borderline grade at the end of the term, attendance might be taken into consideration.
GROUP PROJECTS
In groups of about five, you will all conduct two group research projects. One will be one-third of your group research grade; the other will be two-thirds. You will inform the professor which one you're putting more work into, which will therefore be the one that counts for two-thirds of this grade. These projects will be planned in class, with input from everyone. The group will decide how to divide the labor for data collection, analysis, and write-up.
INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS
You will also individually conduct an experiment of your own. This is a departmental requirement for all students taking these advanced Experimental Psychology courses to complete their two-semester capstone experience in psychology. This will weigh the same as two tests.
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
It is also a departmental requirement that you must make
a formal research presentation to get credit for this course. You will not be graded on your presentation,
but you will receive an Incomplete for the class if you don't do it (or if you
do such a quick and horrible job of it that it just doesn't deserve to
count). The Arkansas Undergraduate
Research Conference will be held here at
OTHER STUFF
You will also get credit for doing whatever else Dr. Langley requires you to do as part of this course, and for doing it on time, or negative credit for not doing it. The scale for this stuff will be proportional to the scale for everything else. Much of the Other Stuff will be aimed at helping you get ready to do your projects.
GRADE TOTAL
4 tests (3 plus final minus dropped one) 1 group projects grade (1/3 one plus 2/3 other)
2 X individual project grade project grade plus: other stuff
ETHICAL CONDUCT
The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct make it very clear that if you think you deserve a degree in psychology, you need to be ethical, honest in your research.
from Ethical Standard 6.21-a Reporting of Results
Psychologists do not fabricate data or
falsify results.
Making up false data, altering data, selectively discarding data that doesn't support your hypothesis, making up fake references or citations, claiming to have done something in your procedure that you did not do, or failing to mention events that may seriously change the interpretation of your results -- these are all unethical practices. If you make up false data or claim to do research work you did not do, Dr. Langley will be your enemy. He will pursue the harshest possible punishment. When you apply for jobs or admission to graduate school, it will look very strange if you do not have a letter of recommendation from the professor who taught the class in which you got your research experience.
One "little" lie taints science as a whole. You would be doing yourself a disservice by robbing yourself of the full educational experience derived from conducting the research, and you would on some level always feel less confident about your own abilities. On a larger scale, you would be cheating everyone who ever hears about your research. Perhaps one student who hears about your research (at a formal presentation, by reading your paper at some point in the future, or from Dr. Langley mentioning it to them in class) gets inspired and develops their own research idea based on what they heard from you. You would be setting them up for failure and disappointment, through no fault of their own.
Do not feel you have to obtain significant results in your research. If you plan your study well and conduct it correctly, it's not your fault if reality simply doesn't work in a way that neatly fits an experimental hypothesis.