STATISTICS in the Behavioral Sciences

 

Psych 210 - Fall 2004 – 102 Hyland - 12:00-12:50

Galen Baril   203 AMH   941-4270  Office Hours: M-W 1:00, T-Th 2:30

 

TEXT: Baril, G. L. (2004).  Basic statistics in the behavioral sciences.  Psychology Department, Univ. of Scranton.

 

COURSE GOALS:  To provide a basic understanding of & ability to use both descriptive & inferential statistical concepts & procedures.

 

COMPUTER USE:  To facilitate both an understanding of statistical principles and "real world" applications of statistics, SPSS for the PC will be used.

 

QUIZZES:  There will be a quiz every week (except as announced) based mainly on the Practice Problems at the end of the assigned chapter(s) & the use & interpretation of SPSS.  Quizzes will be composed of computational & short answer items, can be cumulative (as announced), & count 21% of course grade.  There will be 3 composite quiz grades, each based on the total of 4-5 quizzes.  Unless special arrangements are made, a missed quiz is assigned the lowest score on that quiz received in the class (or 30% of the highest score, whichever in lower).

 

MID-TERM EXAMS:  There will be three mid-term exams counting a total of 39% of the course grade.  The format will be the same as the quizzes.

 

FINAL EXAM:  There will be a final exam covering all of the material.  It will count 40% of the grade and have the same format as the quizzes & exams.

 

GRADING:  Each of the quiz and exam grades will be determined by the highest score in the class (or 90% of the maximum possible score, whichever is higher) which receives a grade point score of 4.66.  30% of the highest (or 90%) score identifies the 0 point.  Every other score between these two values is calculated by interpolation.  The University's grade point system is:  A (4.00)(4.00-4.66 here), A- (3.67-3.99), B+ (3.33-3.66), B (3.00-3.32), B- (2.67-2.99), C+ (2.33-2.66), C (2.00-2.32), C- (1.67-1.99), D+ (1.33-1.66), D (1.00-1.32), F (0-.99).

 

CUT POLICY:  Unless excused, each time part of a class is missed, the overall grade will be reduced by .1.

 

HONESTY:"Integrity in intellectual activity is an indispensable prerequisite for membership in any academic community."

 

ONLINE COURSE EVALUATIONS:  This is one of a handful of classes that will be testing a new online course evaluation system for the University.  Since it is critical to identify any problems with this new process, every student in this class is expected to complete these end-of-semester course evaluations.  Further information will be provided in class and via e-mails from the University.

 

WEEK                                                 TOPIC                                                 ASSIGNMENT

 

Aug      30              Introduction, Frequency Distributions & SPSS                    Ch   1 & Ch  2

Sept       6(-M)       Central Tendency & Variability                                           Ch   3 & Ch  4

            13              Relationships                                                                      Ch   5

            20              Prediction                                                                           Ch   6

            27              EXAM;  Probability                                                            Ch   7

Oct        4              Probability Distributions                                                      Ch   8

            11              The Normal Distribution                                                      Ch   9

            18(-M)       z-scores;  Null Hypothesis Testing                                       Ch 10

            25              Null Hypothesis Testing continued 

Nov       1              EXAM;  t-Test for 1 Sample & 2 Sets of Scores                p. 61-65          

              8              Two-Sample t-Test with Equal & Unequal Variances          p. 65-68, 74                

            15              Confidence Intervals                                                           Ch 12

            22(-W,F)   Effect Size & Power                                                           Ch 13

            29              Chi Square;  EXAM                                                           Ch 15

Dec        6              Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)                                         Ch 14

            14(-W,F)   Review