Psyc 220 spring 2005 - Dr. vom Saal

Psyc 220: Research Methods: Reading Guidelines for spring 2005
Walter vom Saal

Text: Graveter, F. J., & Forzano, L. B.(2003). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

This document contains reading guidelines for each chapter and also links to study questions for each chapter.

General guidelines: When pages are given, it means you are responsible for the major sections that begin on the first page named and end on the last page named. You are responsible for understanding all of the text within the pages assigned, including figures, charts, tables, illustrations, and boxes. It is most important that you know all headings, subheadings, italicized words, and boldface words in the pages assigned. For each of these, you should be able to define it, explain it, and give an example that demonstrates your understanding. Use the glossary in the back of the text to look up each work you are not familiar with to be sure you fully understand it. Remember that you are studying, which is more than just reading. When I say "read" certain pages below, it means to fully study them, which means to read for understanding and with the goal of being able to re-state in your own words all of what you read. This is a very large task, and you must be prepared to put much more time in that simply "reading" the material. The best way to study the text is to first skim the chapter for main ideas (no more than five minutes), then read it more carefully. Test yourself by giving a definition and example of each key term to a friend or study partner with the book closed. I strongly recommend that you create a set of index cards with key terms on one side, and a definition and example on the other side, and use these to study and test yourself.

I also may occasionally ask you to skim a section. See the separate note on skimming at the end of this document.

Readings for Chapter 1:

Try to get a sense of what this chapter is about and what its important points are before you begin. Skim the entire chapter before you begin. Look at the key words at the end of the chapter before you begin. Read the summary at the end of the chapter before you begin. Read (that is, study!) the entire chapter. I will want you to know all of the key words at the end of the chapter. You will NOT be asked to name the 10 steps of the research process: I will want you to have a sense of what the research process is, and to understand the steps involved, but you will not be asked to name the ten steps.

Study Questions for Chapter 1 are available.

Readings for Chapter 2:

Skim pages 32-38 and 52-55. These pages give guidelines for developing your own research project. You should skim these now, and be prepared to refer back to them when you begin developing your own research project later in the course. Study pages 38-39 and know the difference between primary and secondary sources. Read pp40-52 and Figure 2.7 on p53. You should know how to conduct a literature search, and be prepared to refer back to these pages when you are assigned to conduct a literature search.

Study Questions for Chapter 2 are available.

Readings from selected sections of Chapter 14:

These readings should also be done in the same week as Chapter 2. A primary goal for you as you do study this material is to be sure you fully understand and can fully explain what p<.05 means. Before you begin, be sure you can fill in the blanks: .05 = ___ out of 100 = ___ percent. Study pp375-382. Especially concentrate on pp378 and 380, sections #1 and #5, plus the section on pp380-381. (Note: if #2, #3, and #4 confuse you, skip them. If Type I errors and Type II errors confuse you, leave them aside for now, and ask about them in class. They are simpler than they may seem.)

Readings for Chapter 3:

Read all of this chapter. You can focus your reading on being sure you understand all the key words listed at the end of the chapter. Add these two phrases to the key words listed: voluntary participation, and peer review (read page 78 and also p462 on peer review). You will not be asked details in this chapter beyond fully understanding all of the key words.

Study Questions for Chapter 3 are available.

Readings for Chapter 4:

Note that the readings for Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 are all due in the same week.

Read pp 83 through 87. On p84, pay special attention to the example of exam grades. Ask yourself, "what might the exam grade REALLY be measuring? Try to come up with several possible answers to that question; we will discuss it in class. Also on p84, answer question (a) in the Learning Check, which we will also discuss in class.

Skim the material on pp88-91 carefully enough so that you can understand the summary statements about the six different kinds of validity on pp90-91, but you will not be asked to define those six kinds of validity. You DO need to understand them enough so that you really fully understand what "validity" means, and understand that the six kinds of validity summarized on pp90-91 indicate different ways of measuring validity. Read about reliability on p91-95. Know the three definitions on p.94, and understand the relationship between reliability and validity.

Learn the four kinds of scales of measurement on pp95-97.

Read pp97-102 to understand what is meant by self report, and also to understand the other terms in that section.

You may omit the material on pp102-111 except that you need to know the following terms: time sampling; archival research; single-blind; double-blind.

The following terms in this section will not appear on the departmental Core Concept Examination, but you should know them for GREs and graduate school, and they may appear on the final exam, so I will go over them briefly in class: ceiling effect; floor effect; demand characteristics; reactivity; experimenter bias.

You are responsible for the key words at the end of Ch.4 (p111) except you may OMIT construct, hypothetical construct, the six types of validity, and content analysis, and you should ADD nominal scale, ordinal scale, interval scale, ratio scale, and time sampling.

Study Questions for Chapter 4 are available.

Readings for Chapter 5:

In this chapter, you are responsible only for pp115-118 and the concept of convenience sampling on p125. You should know the first seven key words on p128.

Study Questions for Chapter 5 are available.

Readings for Chapter 6:

Read pp 131-142 and know all the material on those pages. On p132, know what the term "true experiment" means, and add it to the list of key words for the chapter. On p133, for #1,2,3,4, understand how the concepts of Independent Variable, Dependent Variable, and Control Group relate to the terms listed. On p134, note that age and sex (gender) are often the variables examined in quasi-experimental research strategies (age is mentioned in the text; sex isn't, but you shouyld add it). On p136, distinguish between validity of a measurement (p87) and validity of a research study (p136). On p138, be prepared to discuss the example on the top half of the page in class. Also be sure you understand that the terms "internal validity," "alternative explanation," and "confounding variable" are all talking about essentially the same thing. On p142, understand that the text is using IV = treatments, DV = scores.

Read pp 142-153 BUT you do not need to know every one of the concepts defined on these pages. You should read these pages enough to understand the heading of each section and to understand the basic concepts. You should be able to fully understand the material in Table 6-2 on p145, and Table 6-4 on p153. After reading this section, you should be able to answer the following: What is internal validity? What are some of the possible threats to internal validity? Give an example. What is external validity? What are some of the possible threats to external validity? Give an example.

Omit bottom of p153-159.

Know the following key words: those listed on p159 from "descriptive research strategy" through "confounding variable" (omit the rest of the list), plus "true experiment," "independent variable," "and dependent variable."

In the exercises on pp159-160, do (and be prepared to discuss) #2a,b,c,d and #4.

Study Questions for Chapter 6 are available.

Readings for Chapter 7:

Chapters 7 and 8 contain many of the central concepts of this course. Read the assigned material in these chapters carefully and be sure you fully understand it.

Read all of Chapter 7. On p162, be sure you fully understand what is meant by the first sentence of the second paragraph. On p163, be sure you understand the box in the margin. On pages 165-166, read enough to undrstand the three types of observation described, and be able to give one example of each from the text. On p.167, understand Table 7.1 at the top of the page AND be sure to ADD to the table the last sentence on page 167, which is very important. On p168, be sure you understand the box in the margin. Notice the word demographic on the bottom of the page; add this word to the key words at the end of the chapter.

The material on p169 on constructing a survery can be skimmed; you will not be tested on this, but you might want to refer to this section if you are conducting a survey for one of your research studies.

The material on pp170-172 does not adequately emphasize the importance of obtaining a representative (unbiased) sample, or how difficult it is to do that. Refer to lecture material on that subject.

You also should add the three problems with survey research that were discussed in the lecture to Table 7.2 on p174.

On page 181, you may omit the terms predictor variable and criterion variable. We will not use those terms in this class.

You should know all the key words for Chapter 7 except predictor variable and criterion variable, PLUS demographic, third-variable problem, and directionality problem.

Study Questions for Chapter 7 are available.

Readings from selected sections of Chapter 14.

These readings should be done the same week as Chapter 7. They directly relate to the discussion of the correlational research strategy at the end of Chapter 7. Read from the bottom of p370 to the top of p375 in Chapter 14. When you are done, you should know all of the following things: what a scatter plot is (all four plots in Figure 14.9 on p374 are scatterplots); how to create a scatterplot; what are the possible values of the Pearson correlation coefficient r; the difference between the strength of a correlation and the direction of a correlation; how to know what correlations are represented by scatterplots such as those in Figure 14.9. We will go over this in class. When we are done, you will be responsible for knowing how to tell what correlations are associated with what scatterplots in examples such as those shown in Figure 14.9.

Study Questions for Chapter 14 (pp370-375 on scatterplots and correlations) are available.

Readings for Chapter 8:

Read all of this chapter EXCEPT you may omit the concepts of outcome research vs process research on p204, and you may omit the concepts of mundane realism and experimental realism on p207.

On p192, be sure you know the definition at the top of the page. On the 6th line from the bottom, change "determine" to "control" to avoid confusion. On p194, understand the distinction between the number of variables examined and the number of levels of a variable.

Before reading pp195-198, re-read p141 on extraneous variables and confounding variables. That section is clear and contains the definitions we will use. The paragraph labeled #1 on p197 could possibly be confusing, so to avoid confusion, simply cross out that paragraph in your text and ignore it.

Understand Table 8.1 on p202, which is a good check to be sure you understand what confounding is and some ways it can be prevented.

The final three pages of the chapter discuss Simulations and Field Studies, and there can sometimes be confusion about what the difference is. The key distinction is in the second to last sentence before the chapter summary: in a field study, a real life situation is used, but in a simulation the situation is contrived (arranged by the experimenter), and even though it may be realistic in some respects, the subjects know it is an experiment.

You are responsible for all the key words listed at the end of this chapter plus the first five listed in exercise #1.

Study Questions for Chapter 8 are available.

Readings for Chapter 9:

We will read only portions of this chapter. Read pp215-220 plus Figure 9.4 on p221. Omit the text on pp221-223. Read the definitions on p223 and skim pages 224-225. You will NOT be responsible for defining the terms on these pages, but you ARE expected to be able to recognize the kinds of things that can be alternative explanations of results found when experiments are done with an initial test, an experimental treatment, and then a retest.

Omit from the bottom of p225 to the bottom of p230.

Read the bottom of p230-p233, omit all of page p234, and read all of p235-p236. Understand Table 9.1 at the bottom of p.235, and add the following to that table:

- A weakness of longitudinal research is that age is confounded with time of measurement.

- A weakness of cross-sectional research is that age is confounded with cohort.

From your reading, you should be able to explain what those two sentences mean. They will also be discussed in the lecture.

You are responsible for the first key word and the last 7 key words listed, plus the first four terms in Exercise #1, regression toward the mean, and participant attrition.

Study Questions for Chapter 9 are available.

Readings for Chapter 10:

You are responsible only for pages 241-242 in this chapter. Omit the rest of the chapter. Celebrate!

The only key word relevant here is the concept of between-subject designs. You must know the difference between between subject designs and within subject designs (Chapter 11).

Study Questions for Chapter 10 are available.

Readings for Chapter 11:

Read pp267- top of p276, plus the bottom half of p280. Omit the rest of the chapter.

You are responsible for the terms within-subjects design, history, maturation, participant attrition, statistical regression, regression toward the mean, and counterbalancing.

Study Questions for Chapter 11 are available.

Readings for Chapter 12:

Read p292-top of p305. Omit the remainder of this chapter except you must read the following: Try to understand the figures on pp307 and 309, which will be discussed in class. Read the first paragraph under "higher order factorial designs" on p.310. Read and try to understand Figure 12.9 on p.312. Read the Learning Check at the top of p313.

Although we will cover only a portion of this chapter, it is important material. The concepts of factorial designs, main effects, and interactions are required core concepts for this course. You are responsible for the first four key words listed at the end of the chapter. Also relevant here is the previous distinction between number of independent variables and levels of an independent variable.

Study Questions for Chapter 12 are available.

Readings for Chapter 13: we will omit this chapter.

Study Questions for Chapter 13: none.

Readings for Chapter 14: Portions of Chapter 14 have been covered previously. During the week when we review Chapter 14 separately, you are responsible for the following:

Pages 375-382, which we previously covered along with Chapter 2. Review this material and be sure you understand it.

Pages 370-375, which we previously covered along with Chapter 7. Review this material and be sure you understand it.

The following pages that we will cover for the first time now: middle of p.384 to top of 386. You should understand this material. Also skim the rest of page 386 through the top half of 389. Try to understand the colored titles in those pages, which I will expand on in class, but you do not need to understand the details within those pages.

No further material in this chapter is required for the course.

Study Questions for Chapter 14: to be added.

Readings for Chapter 15:

You should have been referring to this chapter on Writing ;a Research Report throughout the dourse, as you have been preparing your research reports. In the week when we formally review this chapter, you should begin by looking at the summary of sections of a research report that appears on p. 51. If you add Title and Abstract to the list on p. 51, you have a good overview of the contents of a research paper.

In addition to p. 51, you are responsible for pp. 399-417 in this chapter. You are responsible for all the key words listed at the end of the chapter, except for the last one, PLUS all the additional terms listed in Exercise #1.

Please make one modification to this chapter in your text. Cross out the first two sentences of the paragraph in the middle of page 417 that starts with the phrase"Figure captions." Contrary to what it says there, we will NOT put the figure captions on separate pages. Please type or neatly print the figure caption of each figure directly on the figure.

Study Questions for Chapter 15 are available.

THIS COMPLETES THE READING ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE COURSE.

A note on SKIMMING:

On occasion I will ask you to skim a section of the text. The skill of skimming a book or article is an excellent one for you to learn. Here are some suggestions about how to skim. Many authors make the first sentence of each paragraph - or at least many paragraphs - a topic sentence that presents the key idea of a paragraph. I suggest you try skimming this way: