PSYC 2111 Psychological Science I: Statistics

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT:

Dr. Diane Sasnett-Martichuski

Email:  diane.martichuski@colorado.edu

ABOUT THE COURSE:

Students will demonstrate knowledge of basic statistical measures, including descriptive measures of central tendency, variability, and frequency and probability, and inferential measures of t-tests, analyses of variance, correlation, linear regression, and chi-square.  Students will also learn to use statistical software using the R program (it is free).

Your course content is entirely delivered online. The main course material, which is available on D2L, comprises lecture documents (lectures in written form with screen shots of my power point slides), weekly homework assignments, quizzes, and exams. In order to successfully complete this term-based course, you must keep up with the reading and all assignments in order to participate in optional extra credit online discussions and do well on quizzes and exams. This is not a self-paced course. All assignments, including quizzes, exams, and homework assignments, have specific deadlines and must be completed in order. If you have any questions about the reading or assignments, please contact me, Diane Sasnett-Martichuski, at diane.martichuski@colorado.edu. If you have questions about administrative policies, registration or dropping, or graduation or transcript deadlines, please contact the Continuing Education Program office at cewww@colorado.edu.

There is usually an on-site lab component to this course. Students will still do the work that is associated with the lab, but will do the work with tutorials online. One large component of this class is learning the R software. I will give you instructions for how to download this free software, and you will do several assignments where you have to generate printouts of datasets from the computer, and then interpret the printouts from what you have learned with the lecture documents.

Objectives:

Throughout this course, you will learn to:

• apply appropriate methods to describe, define, and illustrate data sets
• define probability and describe the underlying assumptions of random sampling
• read and interpret graphical and tabular data
• read and critically evaluate research methodologies in published research
• determine probabilities corresponding to specific sample means
• differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics
• apply the correct statistical test to draw a conclusion about a research hypothesis
• utilize Rand R studio software to analyze data and draw conclusions about hypotheses (you will need a personal computer on which to download these programs or access to a library, like CU Boulder, that has the programs already downloaded for use)
• explain the purpose of measuring effect size and power

Required Texts:

Gravetter, F.J., Wallnau, L.B., Forzano, L.B., & Witnauer, J.B. (2020). Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 10th Ed.

You also need an access card for their online Mindtap system, which is a requirement too. The Mindtap system includes an e-book, so if you are happy with everything being online, you can access everything from within Canvas. You should enter Mindtap from within Canvas so you will go directly to my class’s materials. If you have already taken the class and paid for materials once, contact the Cengage Customer Service team at 800-354-9706.

Grading (out of 710 points):

A course grade will be assigned to each student according to the student’s percentage of the total course points (710). Grades are assigned according to University standards (i.e., 93-100 = A, 90-92 = A-, 87-89 = B+, 83-86 = B, 80-82 = B-, etc.).

4 tests (3×100+1×200):           500

Quizzes:                                  100
Homework assignments:       110

Total:                                      710

(there are an additional 20 points available as extra credit for participating in occasional discussions)