SYLLABUS

Psychology 310: Research and Writing in Psychology

Fall, 2019
Lectures: MW 10:00–10:53 Frey 102
Recitation sections: an additional, regularly scheduled, two sessions per week

Instructor
Christian Luhmann, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Cognitive Psychology
Office: Psychology B 250
Office Hours: TBD, or by appointment
Email: christian.luhmann@stonybrook.edu
Phone: 632-7086

Teaching Assistant:
Gabriella Imbriano
Office:
Office Hours:
Email: gabriella.imbriano@stonybrook.edu

Texts

Lecture portion: Smith, R. A., & Davis, S. F. (2012) The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting
Research in Psychology, (6th ed).

Recitation portion: Dunn, D. S. (2008). A Short Guide to Writing about Psychology (3rd ed). New York: Pearson
Longman.

Please note that these are relatively new editions, previous versions may be out of date. Please do not ask if it is ok to
use older editions of the texts (or international edition, etc.). I cannot recommend alternate editions, because I do not
know what differences may exist between different editions. If you choose to use an edition other than those listed above,
you do so at your own risk. You will be held responsible for the content in the editions listed above.

Course Description

This course is designed to provide an introductory overview of the conceptual and practical aspects of conducting
research in psychology. You will be encouraged to think critically about the conclusions of psychological research and the
methods used to reach them. In addition to lectures, you will participate in a small section led by a graduate instructor.
During these recitation sections you will learn how to write and present a research proposal according to the standards
and styles expected of research psychologists. The final paper (your research proposal) may be used to fulfill your upper-
division writing requirement.

Pre-Requisites

(1) PSY 103 or 104 and (2) PSY 201, 203, or AMS 102

Class Format

The course consists of two integrated parts: (1) large-group lectures on research methodology and (2) small-group
recitation sections serving as scientific writing workshops where you will have the opportunity for more individualized
instruction and feedback.

1. I will give two lectures per week supported by readings from The Psychologist as Detective. Regular, prompt
attendance is necessary to earn full course credit.
2. Graduate instructors will lead “recitation sections”. The recitation sections will be devoted to (a) learning how to
effectively use and access library resources, (b) formulating innovative and important research questions, (c)
designing and describing an appropriate study to test these questions, and (d) drafting, writing, and presenting an
original research paper. You will participate in workshops, peer-review, and one-on-one meetings with your recitation
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 instructor covering the technical aspects of writing each section of the research paper. You will receive feedback from
both peers and your instructor on each component of your paper. One week will be devoted to short presentations
where rough ideas for your research proposal are presented. One week near the end of the semester will be devoted
to presenting your final Research Proposal. The text, A Short Guide to Writing about Psychology, will be a
primary resource for the writing portion of this course.

Course documents and important announcements will be posted on the Blackboard site for the class. Lecture
slides will be available on-line before class, if possible. These are not meant as a substitute for class attendance but to
assist students who do come to class to follow along with lectures. I recommend that you print the slides in a “notes”
format with 3 slides per page and add your own notes during lecture. Due to time constraints, student questions, and last-
minute changes, material discussed in class may deviate somewhat from the posted slides. Lecture notes will be posted
shortly after class. Again, making these available is meant as a supplement to your own note-taking during lectures and
to assist students with occasional, legitimate absences.

Evaluation

Lecture Portion
Best 2 of 3 exam grades 60 pts.
Final Exam 35 pts.
Research participation (5 credits) 5 pts.
100 pts.

Recitation Portion
Final recitation grade (see your recitation syllabus for grading details) 100 pts.

In addition, everyone gets 2 extra “bonus points”. These are free points that simply get added to your total. The only way
you can lose these points is by not reading the syllabus. See below for further information.

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Your total grade is out of 200 points: 100 for the lecture portion and 100 for the recitation portion of the course.
See the syllabus for your recitation section for the evaluation breakdown for the recitation portion of the course.
Grades will be assigned according to the following scale.
200-186 points (~100-93%) =A
185-180 points (~92-90%) = A-
179-174 points (~89-87%) = B+
173-168 points (~86-84%) =B
167-160 points (~83-80%) = B-
159-154 points (~79-77%) = C+
153-148 points (~76-74%) =C
147-140 points (~73-70%) = C-
139-134 points (~69-67%) = D+
133-120 points (~66-60%) =D
119 (~59%) or less =F

Exam format: Each exam will consist of multiple-choice questions (approximately 40 of them). The content will include
material both from lectures and the assigned chapters in the text, The Psychologist as Detective. Exams 1, 2, and 3 will
be non-cumulative, covering only material presented since the previous exam. The final exam will be cumulative,
covering material from the entire course.

No early or make-up exams will be given. If you miss an exam, you will be assigned a score of 0 and this will be the
score you drop. If you miss two exams, one will be dropped and one of the 0 scores will be counted toward your grade. If
you miss an exam due to a legitimate personal or medical emergency, please bring a written explanation, or a
physician’s documentation in the case of medical illness, with you to the next class. Although you will still receive a 0 on
this exam, I will keep this documentation on file, and may use it to make adjustments in your final grade, but only in the
case of marginal grade decisions.

Going over old exams: You may, at any time, ask to review the most recent exam. That is, you may you may review
Exam 1 only until Exam 2 is given and you may review Exam 2 only until Exam 3 is given. This unfortunate policy has
been put in place to prevent hordes of students showing up in the last week of class asking to see all three exams. It
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takes a surprisingly large amount of time to find individual student’s exams/answer sheets in a stack of 220+. To review
the most recent exam, please make an appointment to see the teaching assistant or attend the scheduled during office
hours. The TA will always have the exams. Do not ask the professor if you can see old exams.

Research participation: Five (5) credits worth of research participation is a required part of your grade. Instructions for
research participation can be found on Blackboard. Please do not contact me or the TA about issues regarding sona-
systems. Instead, you should contact the subject pool coordinator (her contact information is available in the handouts on
Blackboard). She will be able to help you. We will not.

Email contact: Neither the instructor nor the TA will respond to emails that do not include: your full name, the course you
are writing about, who you are trying to contact, and your student ID number. Greetings and salutations are also
encouraged, as they are good manners. When u write like ur txting i get mad, grrr :(

What to do about poor grades: Every semester I have receive some variant of the following comment: “I did not do as
well on the exam/in this course as I expected”, or, “My grade did not reflect the effort I put in.” This is invariably followed
by the question: “Is there anything I can do?” First, we grade you based on your performance, not effort. For better or
worse, there are no points awarded for trying hard. As for what you can do, you should review your exams and discuss
where you lost points with the TA. In addition, you should regularly utilize the TA’s office hours. Talk to us about how you
are studying, and come to office hours to clarify material that is confusing. Do not wait until after the 2nd or 3rd exam! The
answer to, “Is there anything I can do” asked at the end of the semester is, unfortunately, no. At that point, the list of
things you “can do” has shrunk to nothing (except maybe studying hard for the final exam).

The “bonus points”: Every semester we repeatedly receive questions that are already answered on the syllabus. To
deter such questions, we have given everyone 2 bonus points that will be added to their final totals automatically. To
retain these points, do not email me or the TAs questions that are answered on the syllabus—the most updated version of
the syllabus will always be available on Blackboard. To be clear, everyone starts with the bonus points, and if/when you
email any of us a question that is answered on the syllabus, you lose them. We will, of course, answer your questions, but
we will simply quote the relevant part(s) of the syllabus (and let you know that you have lost your bonus points). Save us
the time (and save yourself the points) by simply reading the syllabus (it’s long, but very informative!).

Appeals Policies

1. The instructor and TA's would be happy to meet with you in office hours to discuss better ways to perform at your best
on exams and other assignments.

2. We would be happy to correct an error in our grading. If you believe we have committed an error, please describe our
error in writing and submit it to the instructor. This appeal will be taken in to account at the time of final grade assignment,
but the ultimate decision to change a grade rests upon the instructor.

3. Grades are not negotiable. It is not "worth a shot". See above about asking “what can I do?” about your grade.

4. We will not discuss grades outside of office hours. Do not approach us in the classroom or anywhere else to discuss
your grade on an exam or assignment.

5. Extenuating Circumstances: If you have a major unexpected event that may negatively impact on your class
performance or any other concerns that you feel put you at a disadvantage, please inform me immediately and in
writing. I cannot make any promises about compensation in advance; I simply keep these on file and consult them when
computing grades at the end of the semester (which is why it must be in writing). Coming to me at the end of the
semester about past issues that have hindered performance is not acceptable.

University Policies

Responsibilities in the Classroom (as per University policy)

Students are expected to:
• attend class regularly unless other arrangements are made
• arrive for class on time and leave the classroom only at the end of class
• engage in class discussions and activities when appropriate
• exhibit classroom behavior that is not disruptive of the learning environment
• secure in a closed container (and not, for example, wear on a belt or around the neck) and turn off (and not, for
example, simply set to vibration mode) electronic communication devices, including cellular phones, beepers,
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 speakers, and headphones during an examination

Course Responsibilities (as per University policy)

Students are expected to:
• observe the requirements for the course and consult with the instructor if prerequisites are lacking
• obtain and understand the course syllabus
• keep up with the coursework and take all scheduled examinations
• address any conflicts in syllabus and exam scheduling with the instructor as soon as possible
• review all graded material and seek help if necessary
• as soon as possible notify the instructor of any disabilities that might interfere with completion of course work
• fairly and thoughtfully complete the course evaluation form

Special needs: We would like to enable everyone to participate fully in the course. If you have a physical, psychological,
medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services at (631) 632-
6748 or http://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/dss/. They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and
appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation are encouraged to discuss their needs with their
professors and Disability Support Services. For procedures and information go to the following website:
http://www.sunysb.edu/ehs/fire/disabilities.shtml

Athletes who will need accommodation for exams occurring while they are on the road or who may miss lectures or
recitations due to absences from class, please also see me during the first 2 weeks of the semester with documentation of
their status as athletes and their playing schedule.

Academic dishonesty. Any form of academic dishonesty will be treated as a serious matter and will be reported to the
appropriate college judiciary committee. This consists of any act that is designed to obtain fraudulently, either for oneself
or for someone else, academic credit, grades, or other recognition that is not properly earned or that adversely affects
another’s grade, including, but not limited to, cheating or plagiarizing. We reserve the right to take measures to prevent
cheating during exams, as outlined in university policies, such as restricting access to electronic devices and bags, and
requesting that you remove hats or other items, show ID to identify yourself, and not remove exam materials from the
classroom. Students will not be permitted to leave the exam room prior to 20 minutes into the period and those arriving
20 minutes late will not be admitted to any exam. Because the correct way to cite sources when writing is explicitly
taught in this course, you are expected to clearly understand how not to commit plagiarism, and lapses will be
treated seriously. Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all
submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Any suspected instance of academic
dishonesty will be reported to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity,
including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at
http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/

Withdrawal. Please make note of the last day to withdraw from courses this semester (information provided by the
Registrar: stonybrook.edu/commcms/registrar/calendars). This is the last time students not performing well/dealing with
unexpected crises/etc. have any flexibility. After this date, there is little we can do.

THESE POLICIES ARE IN PLACE TO ENSURE FAIRNESS. SPECIFICALLY, WE MUST ENSURE THAT NO
STUDENT RECEIVES SPECIAL CONSIDERATION IN DETERMINING THEIR GRADES.

Class Schedule on Next Page

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 Schedule
Date Topic Reading
August 26 M Course Introduction and The Science of Psychology 5
28 W Research Ideas, Critiquing Research, and Hypotheses 1&2
September 2 M Research Ideas, Critiquing Research and Hypotheses (cont’d)
4 W The Basics of Experimentation I 6
9 M The Basics of Experimentation I (cont’d)
11 W The Basics of Experimentation II 7
16 M The Basics of Experimentation II (cont’d)
18 W Exam 1
23 M Validity and Critiquing Experimental Research 8
25 W Validity and Critiquing Experimental Research (cont’d)
30 M Using Statistics to Answer Questions 9
October 2 W Using Statistics to Answer Questions (cont’d)
7 M Experiments with Two Groups 10
9 W Experiments with Two Groups (cont’d)
14 M No Class – Fall Break
16 W Exam 2
21 M Experiments with More Than Two Groups 11
23 W Experiments with More Than Two Groups (cont’d)
28 M Experiments with Multiple Independent Variables 12
30 W Experiments with Multiple Independent Variables (cont’d)
November 4 M Nonexperimental Methods I 3
6 W Nonexperimental Methods II 4
11 M Nonexperimental Methods II (cont’d)
13 W Exam 3
18 M Alternative Research Designs 13
20 W Ethics in Psychological Research 2
25 M Ethics in Psychological Research (cont’d)
27 W No Class – Thanksgiving Break
December 2 M Writing and Assembling an APA-Format Research Report 14
4 W Final Exam “Review”
9 M ??
18 W Final Exam – 2:15-5:00 PM, Location TBA