Fall, 2010
Experiential Learning of Psychological Research Component of General
Psychology
This document is an official
part of your course syllabus
RATIONALE BEHIND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: Psychology is a science. The principles you learn from your textbooks and in your psychology lectures were derived from scientific research studies. To enhance your understanding of the research process in psychology, you are required to satisfy a research component as a part of your psychology course.
REQUIREMENTS: You are required to earn 4 experiential learning credits (it will count for
10% toward the course grade). You
may earn your credits by combining the following activities: 1) volunteering to
serve as a research participant in a study being conducted by York College
psychology students or faculty (all web-posted studies will have been
approved by the York College Institutional Review Board as being ethically
sound), 2) completing written research summaries of published articles from
approved psychology journals, or 3) proposing an equivalent alternative. If
you are repeating this class to improve your GPA, you must complete the
experiential learning credits; no credit will be transferred from the previous
semester.
Credits for research
participation: Credits for research
participation are determined by the amount of time and effort you spend, not on
the particular outcome of your participation in a study. You may NOT
receive credit if you do not follow the experimenter’s instructions, are
disruptive, and are disrespectful to other participants or the experimenter during
the study session. Credits for any study will be determined in
advance by the researcher and will be posted online at http://ycp.sona-systems.com.
Credits for written research
summaries: One credit will be earned
for each satisfactory article summary you complete. Instructions for the written summaries are
provided later in this document. Please
Note: All research summaries must be submitted by email to pchang2@ycp.edu
by 5 pm Friday, 11/19/ 2010 to
be considered for credits.
Credits for equivalent alternatives: Credits and deadline for any alternative to the studies or summaries will be determined in advance when your alternative is approved. All alternatives must be approved in advance by Dr. Chang (pchang2@ycp.edu) by Monday, 10/11/ 2010.
Failure to complete requirements: Failure to meet the research requirements fully and on time will result in a 2.5 point drop per experiential credit in your final course grade, which could total up to 10 points if you do not complete any of the requirements (e.g. from a B to a C). Please be mindful about this part of your course requirement.
Resolving Discrepancies: If, for some reason, there is a
discrepancy between the number of credits that appeared at http://ycp.sona-systems.com
and the number of credits that you believe you earned, please contact Dr. Chang
by email at pchang2@ycp.edu to resolve
this difference within two weeks of submission of research summaries. Please note
that any discrepancies must be resolved by
Monday, 12/13/2010.
SUMMARY DUE DATES:
|
Approval of equivalent alternatives, if you choose to do at least one |
Monday, 10/11/10 |
|
Submission of any research summaries |
Friday, 11/19/10 |
|
Completion of any research studies for participation credits |
Monday, 12/06/10 |
|
Resolution of any discrepancies of your experiential learning credit at http://ycp.sona-systems.com |
Monday. 12/13/10 |
In order to be eligible for participation in the research
studies you must be at least 18 years old.
If you are not 18 years old, you must obtain a parental consent form and
have your parents sign it (please email Dr. Chang at pchang2@ycp.edu for this form) then return
the form to him at LS308 so you can participate in the experimental sessions.
A. Starting by getting an Experiential Learning Account
1) We are using the web-based ycp.sona-system to manage the usage of the participant pool. You will need to create your user ID (because the system does not allow duplication of User ID, it is strongly suggested that you use the prefix of your assigned YCP email address as user ID, for example, for john Smith who has email address jsmith29@ycp.edu, he would use jsmith29 as User ID).
2) Go to the YCP Psychology Research Participation System website: http://ycp.sona-systems.com
3) Beneath the “New Participant” heading, click on “Request an Account Here”
4) Enter your (First and Last) Name, select your class #, User ID, and email address which you use on regular basis (please type in the correct email address; otherwise you will not receive the password to use the ycp.sona-systems).
5) Your User ID and new password (randomly generated) will be sent to the email address you listed.
6) Retrieve your password along with your User ID to log in to http://ycp.sona-systems.com. You can change your password with an easier remembered one or class selection (if you had selected a wrong one) by clicking the “My Profile” icon.
B. Signing-up for
studies
1) Log on http://ycp.sona-systems.com by using your User ID and password.
2) Click on the icon “STUDY SIGN-UP” to browse the list of studies currently available for participation (Please note: there will be very few studies by late September, a large increase by early/mid October, and a large decrease by the mid November. There may be NO studies available toward the end of the semester, in which case you will need to complete the research summaries — see due dates above).
3) Click on a study of your interest. Read the description of the study, amount of participation credit which it will grant (usually corresponding to required duration of time), and any information concerning participation restrictions (for examples, some studies may require participant to be male or female, left handed, have a certain relationship status, and etc.).
4) If you met these requirements, click on “View Timeslots” to see a list of timeslots available for this study. Choose a timeslot that is convenient for you to attend, and click “Sign Up”. If you do NOT find a time convenient to you, DO NOT email or otherwise contact the experimenter requesting another time. The experiment may be completed already—or the experimenter may not be able to run any additional sessions. Select ONLY from what is available in the system.
5) You will receive an email confirmation listing the date, time, and place for the study from the Sona-System, and you are now signed up for the study. You could also check your appointment by click on the “My Schedule/Credits” icon at any time.
6) Very Important!!! Please DO NOT sign up for a study more than once, unless the study description explicitly says you may do so. If this should occur, you will receive a “No-Show” penalty (see below for details).
7) If you find that you need to cancel your participation because of unforeseen circumstances, you may cancel your appointment 24 hrs prior to the sign-up study session. Go to the http://ycp.sona-systems.com, clicking on “My Schedule/credits”, instruction will follow. Very Important!!! To avoid a “No-Show” penalty” you must change your appointment in the http://ycp.sona-systems.com at least 24 hrs before your sign-up study session to begin, otherwise, you will be penalized.
8) If emergency should occur (car accident, hospitalization or death of immediate family member) that prevent you from showing up for signed up study session, you must email Dr. Chang at pchang2@ycp.edu within 72 hrs of the emergency to avoid “No-Show” penalty, and provide creditable evidence for your absence. A penalty may be displayed temporarily on your account until your excuse is approved.
C. Showing up and
participating in the studies for which you have sign up
1) If you sign up to participate in a study, please show up on time at the right place, and be prepared to stay for the posted length of time. The experimenter will greet you and given you a brief description and requirements of the study (including the informed consent process which you will learn in class). Most if not all studies conducted at YCP present little or no risk to the participant. If you find it is reasonable, you would sign the provided Informed Consent Form. However, it does not mean you sign away your rights. If you feel the experimenter is asking you to do things that violate your principles or otherwise make you uncomfortable during study session, it is your right to stop the session without any penalty (you will receive credit only for the time you invested).
2) If you
are late, even by a few minutes, the study may have already begun and you may
not be permitted to enter the ongoing experimental session. If
this should occur, you will receive a “No-Show” penalty.
3) If you
show up at the right place and the scheduled time, but the experimenter is not
there, please wait at least 10 minutes.
If there are computers in the room please double check your
schedules. If the experimenter still did
not show up after 10 minutes, email Dr. Chang at pchang2@ycp.edu at once. In the
case your experimenter failed to show up, you will receive research
participation credit for the study.
D. Checking the
status of your earned experiential learning credits
1) You may check your research credits by logging onto the http://ycp.sona-systems.com and clicking the “My Schedule/credits” icon.
2) If your record does not reflect the earned credits changes 72 hrs (3 days) after your participation for any study session or 10 days after your submitted journal article summary, please email Dr. Chang at pchang2@ycp.edu .
“NO SHOW” Penalty: You
may be given a “NO SHOW” penalty if you 1) failed to show up for your
sign-up study sessions, 2) showed up late (some studies involve many
participants, all of whom will have to wait if you are late), 3) sign up for
the same study more than once.
For each “NO SHOW”, you
will be required to: 1) Make up the same amount of credit. AND 2) Earn an additional amount of credit
equal to the credit you lost by participating in another research study (not
necessarily the one for which you had a no-show), or by completing a
satisfactory research article summary or equivalent alternative.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUMMARY OF JOURNAL ARTICLE
WARNING!!! Do not plagiarize your research
summaries. Each summary must be written
in your own words and substantially paraphrased. Plagiarism is a form of
cheating. If you are suspected of plagiarism, you will be confronted. If it is established that you plagiarized,
you will face the standard penalty that is in the College Catalog: Academic
dishonesty will not be tolerated at
A. Starting by
getting an Experiential Learning Account:
You must obtain an Experiential Learning Account with the ycp.sona-system (see above for details); even you intend to acquire all of the required credit by writing summaries of journal articles.
B. Selecting
journal article(s):
1) Select an article or articles from scholarly journals in psychology published in the current year (2010). Articles should be empirical/primary and refereed/peer reviewed. An empirical/primary article should present original research, conducted by the author(s). The articles should contain all the information necessary for a reader to replicate the research (e.g. how many participants were used, the materials or apparatus used, the statistical analysis) so that the study’s scientific merit can be judged by the reader. A refereed/peer reviewed article means that the article has been subjected to a review by experts in the field who have found it to be (mostly) free of false or misleading information and found the authors to have used appropriate methodological and statistical techniques, and to have drawn reasonable conclusions from the data. The following are journals are acceptable sources containing research articles for your article summary and they are held in our library:
*American Journal of Psychology, *Behavior Therapy, *Child Development, *Cognitive Psychology, *Developmental Psychology, *Educational Psychology, *Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Animal Behavior, *Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, *Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, *Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Counseling Psychology, *Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, *Journal of Experimental Psychology, *Journal of Personality, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, *Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, *Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, *Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory/Learning, Memory, and Cognition, *Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, *Journal of Psychology, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, *Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Journal of Social Relationships, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, Memory and Cognition, Perception and Psychophysics, Perceptual and Motor Skills, and *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Professional Psychology, *Social Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Health Psychology * Journal of Personality Assessment
2) The article(s) should not be a review article, a book, a web based (media, magazine, or unpublished) report, or an article from popular magazines, for example, articles in Psychology Today is not allowed.
3) Given the multidisciplinary nature of psychology other journal articles may be acceptable. Please get permission in advance from Dr. Chang (pchang2@ycp.edu) for any journal not listed above.
All summaries must be
word-processed and conform to good English usage. Do NOT plagiarize (see above warning
section). Each summary should be 2-4
double-spaced pages (not including the cover page) and should
include the following: 2-7 must be subtitled.
1) A cover page to include your name, your Sona-System User ID, your email address, the course for which you will get credit (for example, PSY100.11), the day/time for the course, the course instructor’s name, the author(s), date, title of article, journal name, volume, pages. Very Important!!! We need this information in order to record credits.
2) Hypotheses of the study: You should be very precise here. In other words, what basic question(s) were
the investigators trying to answer? Or
why was the study being done? Some articles may have different studies
within the articles, if so; specify the hypotheses for each study.
3) Design (main method) of the study: Again,
you should be very precise here. Was it a case
(descriptive) study, correlational, quasi-experimental, or experimental study? Some articles may have different studies
within the articles, if so; specify the method used for each study.
4) Variables used in the study: If it is a descriptive or
correlational study, list and define the variables. If it is a quasi-experimental or experimental
study, what were the independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s)? How was the independent variable
manipulated? How was the dependent
variable measured? Bear in mind, participants or animals are not variables,
they are subjects/participants of the study. Some articles
may have different studies within the articles, if so; specify the variables
for each study
5) Participants (subjects) and Procedures of
the study: Describe the research
participants (people) or research subjects (animal) and what task did the
participants (subjects) perform, or what tests did they take, or what
characteristic were observed or measured? Some articles may have different
studies within the articles, if so; specify the subjects and procedures for
each study
6) Results of the study: What are the main result(s) of the study, again, be very precise here. Do the findings of the study support the author(s) hypotheses? Why so?
7) The writer’s (your own) rational articulation of the implications/applications of the study to a particular subject in your textbook: use one or two paragraph to articulate how the results of the study are important to a particular subject matter in your textbook (specify the chapter and page #). For examples, do they change the way other studies are interpreted, do they support one theory over another.
D. Submitting the summaries
When you have completed a
research summary, email it to Dr. Chang at pchang2@ycp.edu. All article
summaries must be submitted by 5 pm Friday, November 19, 2010 to be considered for credits (no exception or extension
will be granted because you have almost the entire semester to complete the
required credits). It can be
a very meaningful learning experience by writing article summaries if you have
mastered the material described in chapter 2 of your textbook. Any article
summary submitted by November 5 may be subject to revision (if requested by the
writer) for full credit.
E. Checking the status of your earned
experiential learning credits by writing article summaries
1) You may check your experimental learning credits for article summaries by logging on http://ycp.sona-systems.com and clicking the “My Schedule/credits” icon (see above for details).
2) You may receive a 0.1, 0.5, or 1credit for each article summary based on the criteria described below:
a) 1 credit: Follow the instructions described above, for example, it must be clearly sectioned and free (or largely free) of errors of your judgments/descriptions of the research article.
b) 0.5 credit: Follow the instructions described above; and some (2 out of 7 sections described above) errors/descriptions/judgments.
c) 0.1 credit: Ignore the
instructions described above or grossly errors in 3 or more of the sections
described above.
3) Resolving Discrepancies of your expected credits and those recorded at http://ycp.sona-systems.com no later than December13, 2010. As stated above, writing article summaries can be a meaningful learning experience. Any article summary submitted by November 5, 2010 can be subject to revision (if requested by the writer) for full credit. So, please be mindful about this process. Mere submission of article summaries does not necessarily mean that you will receive full credit. Copies of your article summaries will be at Dr. Chang’s office (LS308) for your review