Handbook for Adjunct Faculty
Department of Psychology
University of San Diego
Welcome!
Welcome to USD’s Department of Psychology. We are pleased that you will be working
with us for the next several months. We take pride in our commitment to high-quality
teaching, and we feel that the personal attention given our students is one of the strengths
of our Department and of the University. We want you to be as fully engaged as possible
with your students and faculty colleagues. We hope that your association with us will be
a rewarding one.
Psychological Science at USD
We define psychology as the scientific study of human and animal behavior. The
objective of USD's psychology program is to advance the student's understanding of
psychology as a science, a profession, and a means of promoting human and animal
welfare. The major is designed to help students prepare for admission into graduate or
professional school in psychology and related areas, and to provide a background for
other career possibilities. The major may be used as a foundation for entry into fields
such as the ministry, primary and secondary education, social work, probation, law,
medicine, business and personnel work.
Department of Psychology faculty offices and labs are located on the first floor of Serra
Hall. The department office is in SH 154.
Human Resources
The Human Resources Department, located in Maher Hall 101, requires the completion
of the Confidential Employee Data, W-4 Withholding, and I-9 forms at least three weeks
prior to receiving your first paycheck. If you are new to USD, you will need to have a
copy of your contract before you can begin the process. You also need to bring either
your passport or your driver's license and social security card with you. Once the forms
are completed, you will be issued an identification number which you will take to
Campus Card Services in the One Stop Services in the University Center 126. Campus
Card Services will then issue you an ID card and Parking Permit. Contact our Executive
Assistant for help in guiding you through our systems.
On-Line Resources
The primary portal for faculty, staff, and students to on-line resources at USD is at
http://my.sandiego.edu. You will need a USD username and password to access the site.
Once there, you can use the navigation tabs at the top of the main page to locate
information. The Teach/Advise and Employee tabs may be particularly useful. The
Academic Resources tab will lead you to a link to the Undergraduate Bulletin, and by
following links there, you can access the psychology pages where the requirements for
the major and minor can be found along with psychology course descriptions. The
University’s public web site is at http://www.sandiego.edu.
Grading Standards and Expectations
USD’s grading standards are as follows: A, superior; B, very good; C, average; D
inferior; F, failure (2008-2010 Undergraduate Bulletin, p 64). While the Department does
not require a specific grade distribution, it does expect instructors to use appropriately
rigorous standards and that the average grade in psychology classes should normally be
C. The A should be reserved for truly superior performance. Because of the liberal
withdrawal policy, few F’s are actually recorded, but faculty should not hesitate to record
low grades when they are appropriate.
In the case of a grade dispute, the faculty member is presumed to be correct. If the
dispute cannot be resolved by the instructor and student, and after consultation with the
department Chair, a formal grade grievance procedure is available to the student (20082010 Undergraduate Bulletin, p 19).
Integrity of Scholarship
Instructors are expected to be familiar with and to enforce the University’s policies on
integrity of scholarship (2008-2010 Undergraduate Bulletin, p 61).
Attendance
Regular and prompt attendance at class is expected of our students. Each instructor can
establish and publish attendance requirements and penalties, if any, in the course
syllabus.
Instructors are expected to meet with their classes in the place and at the times stated in
the University’s schedule, including the final exam meeting. Any change in the final
examination time must be approved in writing by the Department Chair and the Dean of
the College of Arts and Sciences. Should it be necessary to cancel a class meeting, the
instructor should tell students in advance if possible. If it is not possible, then the
instructor should contact the department’s Executive Assistant, Jan Fain, so that a notice
can be posted in the classroom.
Offices and Office Hours
Adjunct faculty offices are assigned by the Department’s Executive Assistant. Your
office hours should be posted on your office door and in your course syllabus. Typically,
part-time faculty list about one hour of office hours per course credit (units) per week.
Please be specific about your office hours and avoid statements like "by appointment."
Notify the department’s Executive Assistant, Jan Fain, if you are rescheduling office
hours in a given week.
Bookstore and Printing
Check with the bookstore before the semester starts to make sure your texts are indeed
available. If you wish to use substantial quantities of handouts, have them duplicated by
the print shop and sold through the bookstore (departmental budgets are not large enough
to typically handle large numbers of handouts). Note that it takes several weeks to secure
copyright permissions for most handouts.
Course Guidelines
Instructors select their own textbooks and teaching materials. Guidelines for those
teaching Psyc 101 - Introductory Psychology, Psyc 130 - Research Methods, and Psyc
160 - Statistics are given below. Sample syllabi for these and other courses can be
obtained from the department’s Executive Assistant, Jan Fain.
FERPA Tutorial
All faculty and staff, as well as any other agents of the university who request access to
student academic records, must complete the FERPA tutorial before access is granted.
Access to student records, including the academic records database, will be denied until
the tutorial has been completed and the form submitted.
The tutorial is intended to insure that anyone accessing student records understands the
obligations under FERPA for proper use and protection of those records. All questions in
the tutorial are supported by information found in this website. Before you begin the
tutorial, you should review the Web site contents.
Your full name and your USD e-mail account name and password are required for login.
When you have successfully completed the tutorial, that information will be registered in
a central database. This is your "electronic signature" acknowledging that you
understand your obligations under FERPA for the proper access and release of
student education record information. There is a also a form at the end of the tutorial
which you may print, sign, and date if you wish to keep a personal record.
There are 20 questions in the tutorial which will take approximately 10-15 minutes to
complete. To begin the tutorial, click below.
Begin FERPA Tutorial
Department of Psychology Faculty and Staff
Dr. Rachel Blaser, Assistant Professor, completed a B.A. at Reed College in 2001, and an M.A.
and Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2003 and 2006. Her core courses include Animal
Behavior and Learning. She is interested in comparative behavior, learning, and cognition, and her
research focuses on vertebrate and invertebrate learning. Current research includes classical conditioning
(including drug conditioning), perceptual learning, and spatial navigation in a variety of species.
Office: SH120, x7736
E-mail: rblaser@sandiego.edu
Ms. Jan Fain, Executive Assistant, joined the Psychology Department in 1990.
Office: SH154A x4511
E-mail: jfain@sandiego.edu
Dr. Veronica V. Galván, Assistant Professor, earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from
the University of Texas at Austin, and her Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from the University of
California, Irvine. While at UC, Irvine, she was a part of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and
Memory. Her main research interests are memory and some of the factors that may enhance or impair it,
such as attention and stress. She has taught a variety of classes at USD, including Research Methods,
Cognitive Psychology, Human Memory, and Biological Psychology, and an independent study class that
visits various scientists and their labs in Irvine and San Diego.
Office: SH118 x7739
E-mail: vgalvan@sandiego.edu
Dr. Michael Ichiyama, Associate Professor, received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the
University of Cincinnati in 1989. He was a research fellow with the Alcohol Research Center in the
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan prior to coming to USD. His research interests
include alcohol abuse among college students, social influences on the self-concept, and ethnic identify
formation. Dr. Ichiyama is a licensed psychologist in California and serves as chair of the state-wide
Diversity Initiative of the California Psychological Association. In addition to his current appointment in
the Department of Psychology, he is also an affiliated faculty member with the Ethnic Studies Program at
USD and adjunct faculty with the USD Counseling Center.
Office: SH114 x4164
E-mail: ichiyama@sandiego.edu
Dr. Ken Keith, Professor completed a B.A. at Northwest Missouri State College, an M.S. at Kansas
State College of Pittsburg, and the Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He teaches Introductory
Psychology, Cross-Cultural Psychology, Human Behavior Analysis, and upper-division research methods.
His research interests include cross-cultural psychology, quality of life, and the teaching of psychology. He
has studied quality of life of older people, people with intellectual disabilities, and people with Type A
behavior, among others. His written work on these topics includes numerous professional and scientific
articles, book chapters, and books, including Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Quality of Life. Dr. Keith's
cross-cultural interests have led him to conduct research in several countries and to teaching assignments in
Japan and Mexico. Dr. Keith is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of
numerous other professional groups, including the Western Psychological Association, American
Association on Mental Retardation, and the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Office: SH158 x2969
E-mail: kkeith@sandiego.edu
Dr. Anne M. Koenig, Assistant Professor, earned a B.S. in psychology at Iowa State University
in 2001, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology at Northwestern University in 2003 and 2007. Her core
courses include Social Psychology, the Social Psychology Research Methods Lab, Introductory
Psychology, and Psychology of Gender. Her broad research interests are in the areas of gender issues and
stereotyping and prejudice, and her current research is focuses on issues relating to stereotype content, role
congruity theory of prejudice, and the ideologies of sex differences. She is a member of the Society for
Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for the Psychology of Women, the Society for the Teaching
of Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Western Psychological Association.
Office: SH162 x4046
E-mail: akoenig@sandiego.edu
Dr. Patricia Kowalski, Associate Professor, graduated with a B.A. in psychology from San
Diego State University in 1977, an M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University,
Fullerton in 1981, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Denver in 1985. After
completing her Ph.D., she was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health grant to study student
motivation in the Graduate School of Education at UCLA. She has taught at USD since 1989 and is also
advisor to Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology. Her research interests are in the area of student
motivation to learn, including student attitudes toward learning and factors influencing student learning.
Each year, students accompany Dr. Kowalski to the Western Psychological Association convention, the
American Educational Research Association conference, or the Society for Child Development conference.
Office: SH110 x4003
E-mail: kowalski@sandiego.edu
Dr. Kristen McCabe, Associate Professor, received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from
Wayne State University in 1996, with a specialty in child and adolescent psychology. She currently teaches
Psychological Assessment and Behavior Disorders of Childhood at USD and is the faculty advisor to the
Psychology Club. Her research interests focus on cultural factors that affect treatment access and outcomes
for children; developing culturally responsive treatments for children; and psychosocial risk and protective
factors for child psychopathology. She currently has a career development award from the National
Institute of Mental Health that focuses on adapting psychosocial treatments for Mexican-Americans. She
conducts much of her research in affiliation with the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center
(CASRC) at Children's Hospital, San Diego.
Office: SH154D x4001
E-mail: kmccabe@sandiego.edu
Dr. Adriana Molitor, Associate Professor, received her baccalaureate degree from the
University of California at Riverside in 1989 with a double major in psychology and human development.
She earned her doctorate in developmental psychology from Duke University in 1996, and completed a
post-doctoral research position at the Yale University Child Study Center in 1998. Before joining the
faculty at USD, she served as an Assistant Professor in the psychology department at Mount St. Mary's
College in Los Angeles. Dr. Molitor's teaching interests include introductory psychology, child and
adolescent development, adulthood and aging, social development, and developmental research methods.
Her research interests center around the social and emotional development of children. The themes of her
research include the dynamics of mother-child interactions, the impact of these interactions on emotional
and social behavior, the problems encountered by at-risk children, and the role of culture in structuring
developmental goals and mother-child exchanges.
Office: SH126 x4747
Email: amolitor@sandiego.edu
Dr. Dan Moriarty, Professor is Chair of the Psychology Department. He is Professor of
Comparative Biological Psychology and has been a member of the USD Department of Psychology since
1973. He completed a B.A. in psychology at Louisiana State University in New Orleans (now the
University of New Orleans), and the M.S. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Tulane University. His
interests are in the areas of animal behavior and learning, and he teaches courses in those areas and in
Research Methods, Statistics, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavioral Genetics. As a director and animal
behaviorist at the California Wolf Center, Dr. Moriarty is involved in research with, and management and
breeding of, captive wolves, including the highly endangered Mexican Gray Wolf. His research has
included studies of predator defense behavior, irrelevant drive effects, partial reinforcement and reward
contrast effects, and conditioned taste aversion.
Office: SH105 x4004
E-mail: moriarty@sandiego.edu
Home Web Page: http://home.sandiego.edu/~moriarty/
Dr. Sandra Sgoutas-Emch, Professor, teaches courses in the biological psychology and health
psychology areas. Her core courses include Biopsychology and Health Psychology. She also teaches a
number of related courses including Health Psychology of Women and Ethnic Groups, Psychology of
Stress, Brain, Behavior and Immunity, as well as Research Methods in both Bio and Health Psychology.
Dr. Sgoutas-Emch received her bachelor's degree in psychology at Emory University and her Masters and
Ph.D. in biological psychology at the University of Georgia. She completed a NIH postdoctoral training
program at The Ohio State University in the field of psychoneuroimmunology before coming to USD. Her
main research interests are reactions to stress, women's health issues, predictors of medical health practices,
and studying variables that predict performance in the classroom.
Office: SH112 x4005
E-mail: emch@sandiego.edu
Dr. Annette Taylor, Professor, received the Ph.D. in general experimental psychology in 1987
from the University of Southern California. Her specialty area was information processing cognitive
psychology. She later completed a three-year postdoctoral training program at the Andrus Gerontology
Center in Los Angeles, where she studied cognitive aging. She has been a member of the USD faculty since
1990. Her research interests encompass teaching-related issues, including academic integrity and
misconceptions about psychology.
Office: SH160 x4006
E-mail: taylor@sandiego.edu
Dr. Jim Weyant, Professor, received his B.A. from Rider University, his M.A. from the University
of Dayton, and his Ph.D. from Florida State University. He teaches Introductory Psychology, Statistics,
Social Psychology, and Computer Analysis of Behavioral Science Data. His main professional interest is
the application of social psychology to a variety of issues, including charitable fund raising, integration of
schools, and the reduction of prejudice and negative stereotyping. He has written a book titled Applied
Social Psychology, which was published by Oxford University Press. His research has been published in
the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and a variety of other academic journals.
Office: SH154B x4007
E-mail: jweyant@sandiego.edu
Home Web Page: http://home.sandiego.edu/~jweyant
Dr. Jennifer Zwolinski, Assistant Professor earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an
emphasis in behavioral medicine from the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State
University Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. She has taught a number of courses at USD,
including Introductory Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Theories of Personality, Behavioral Disorders
of Childhood, Developmental Psychology, and Careers in Psychology. She conducts research with
children, examining child maltreatment and social development, and with young adults, studying
psychosocial factors associated with peer and romantic partner aggression and victimization. She also has a
private practice, conducting individual, couple, and family therapy. She is a member of the American
Psychological Association Division 2 (Teaching of Psychology), Society for Research in Child
Development, Western Psychological Association, and the San Diego Psychological Association.
Office: SH154C x4218
E-mail: jzwolinski@sandiego.edu
Guidelines for Instructors Teaching Psychology 101
Introductory Psychology
Research Participation Requirements and Alternatives
Students in all sections of Psychology 101 are required to serve as participants in
psychological studies or to complete alternative research summaries (see below). This
requirement serves two purposes. First, this experience provides students with direct
exposure to psychological research. The descriptions of psychological research that
appear in textbooks and scientific journals necessarily omit a great deal of information
about what research is like. Serving as a research participant should thus complement
what students learn in their psychology course by giving them a ''behind the scenes" look
at research. The second purpose of psychological research is the acquisition of
knowledge. A great deal of what we know about human behavior is based on studies
conducted at universities. Without research participants, we simply wouldn't know very
much about psychology.
Thus, instructors are expected to following the current guidelines of the Psychology
Department Participant Pool in creating their syllabus and advising students about this
requirement. Part of these requirements are that (a) the completion of research credits
will contribute to students final course grades and (b) students who fail to complete the
requirement, either by participating in the required number of research credits or by
completing satisfactory article summaries (see below), will receive a grade of incomplete
in the course.
At the beginning of the semester, instructors will receive a handout explaining the
Psychology Department Participant Pool which they should pass on to students. The
handout explains the requirements and informs students about how to sign-up for studies.
Instructors should also be aware that there they must offer a research participation
alternative, which they are required to grade. This alternative assignment of research
summaries is described on the handout as the following:
If you are under 18 years of age, if you do not wish to serve as a participant in
psychological research, if you cannot fit participation into your schedule, or if all
participation slots are filled before you complete your requirement, you may
fulfill the requirement by reading and summarizing research articles or your
instructor may also make other alternatives available to you. If you choose to do
article summaries, each summary you write will serve as the equivalent of one
research credit. You may combine written assignments with actual research
participation to reach the required number of credits.
How to find and summarize an empirical article.
A. Go to Copley Library Journal Stacks or Current Periodicals Section. Find
a peer reviewed journal in psychology (a librarian or your instructor can
help you with this).
B. Find and read an article of interest.
Write a one -page summary of the article that demonstrates you have read
it. Mention the problem, the procedure, and the results of the study you
summarize.
Please attach a Xeroxed copy of the abstract (i.e., author’s summary on
first page of article) to your summary.
C. Attach your summaries to the Research Participation Form and turn them
in to your professor by Friday, December 14th.
D. Research summaries will not be graded but given credit on a pass/fail
basis. To Pass you must give evidence that you found an authentic article
in a psychological journal, read the article, and made an effort to
summarize the article. Plagiarism, copying another’s words or ideas, will
result in a Fail.
If you have any questions about the Psychology Department Participant Pool
Requirements for Psych 101, please contact the Pool Coordinator (currently Dr. Patricia
Kowalski).
Course Content
We have broken coverage of topic areas in Introductory Psychology into four areas: those
topics we would like to always have covered; those that almost always to be covered;
those that should be covered but if running out of time, can be let go; and those that are
not necessary to cover at all but can be covered, time permitting.
CATEGORY 1: These are the topic areas that our faculty always cover over the course of
the semester-long course:
PSYCHOLOGY: THE SEARCH FOR UNDERSTANDING
· The Science of Psychology.
· Research Methods, Naturalistic Observation and Correlation.
· The Psychology Experiment.
· Critical Thinking and the Scientific Method in Psychology.
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR.
· Neurons
· Nervous System
· Cerebral Cortex and Lobes of the Brain.
· Subcortex
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION.
· Perceptual Constancies and Perceptual Organization.
CONDITIONING AND LEARNING.
· Learning and Classical Conditioning.
· Operant Conditioning.
· Punishment.
· Cognitive Learning and Imitation.
MEMORY.
· Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory.
· Forgetting.
PERSONALITY.
· Overview of Personality
· Trait Theories.
· Behavioral and Social Learning Theories.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS.
· Normality, Psychopathology
· Anxiety-Based Disorders.
· Psychosis, Delusional Disorders, and Schizophrenia.
· Mood Disorders.
THERAPIES.
· Behavior Therapy.
· Operant Therapies and Cognitive Therapies.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR.
· Groups, Social Influence, and Social Conformity.
· Obedience and Compliance.
· Attitudes and Persuasion.
CATEGORY 2: These are the topic areas that our faculty almost always cover over the
course of the semester-long course:
PSYCHOLOGY: THE SEARCH FOR UNDERSTANDING
· History and Major Perspectives.
· Psychologists and their Specialties.
· Clinical and Survey Methods
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
· Heredity and Environment.
· Social Development.
· Parental Influences.
· Cognitive Development.
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION.
· Sensory Systems and Vision.
· Depth Perception
· Perception and Objectivity
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
· Altered States and Sleep.
· Sleep Disturbances and Dreaming.
CONDITIONING AND LEARNING.
· Partial Reinforcement and Stimulus Control.
MEMORY.
· Memory Systems.
· Measuring Memory and Exceptional Memory.
· Improving Memory.
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION.
· Overview of Motivation.
PERSONALITY.
· Psychoanalytic Theory.
· Personality Assessment.
HEALTH, STRESS, AND COPING.
· Health Psychology.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS.
· Personality Disorders.
THERAPIES.
· Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR.
· Affiliation, Friendship, and Love.
· Prejudice and Intergroup Conflict.
· Aggression and Prosocial Behavior.
Taken together: categories 1 and 2 are those topic areas that you should plan to cover in
the semester-long course.
CATEGORY 3: These are the topic areas that our faculty tries to cover, but if time is
tight, these can be omitted:
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR.
· Endocrine System
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
· Language Development.
FROM BIRTH TO DEATH: LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT.
· Adolescence
· Adulthood and Aging.
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION.
· Hearing, Smell, and Taste.
· Somesthetic Senses, Adaptation, Attention, and Gating.
· Extrasensory Perception
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
· Hypnosis, Meditation, and Sensory Deprivation.
· Psychoactive Drugs.
COGNITION, INTELLIGENCE, AND CREATIVITY.
· Imagery, Concepts, and Language.
· Problem Solving and Artificial Intelligence.
· Intelligence.
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION.
· Hunger, Thirst, Pain, and Sex.
· Arousal, Achievement, and Growth.
· Emotion and Physiological Arousal.
· Emotional Expression and Theories of Emotion.
PERSONALITY.
· Humanistic Theories.
HEALTH, STRESS, AND COPING.
· Stress, Frustration, and Conflict.
· Defenses, Helplessness, and Depression.
· Stress and Health.
THERAPIES.
· Insight Therapies.
· Group Therapies, Helping Skills, and Medical Therapies.
CATEGORY 4: These are the topic areas that our faculty almost never cover over the
course of the semester-long course:
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
· The Neonate and Early Maturation.
FROM BIRTH TO DEATH: LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT.
· The Life Cycle.
· Problems of Childhood.
· Death and Dying.
COGNITION, INTELLIGENCE, AND CREATIVITY.
· Creative Thinking and Intuition.
GENDER AND SEXUALITY.
· Sex, Gender, and Androgyny.
· Sexual Behavior and Sexual Orientation.
· Sexual Response, Attitudes, and Behavior.
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY.
· Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
· Environmental Psychology.
· The Psychology of Law and Sports.
OTHER (specify):
· Specify: classic studies
· Specify: careers in psychology
Guidelines for Instructors Teaching Psychology 130
Research Methods
The following reflect the common course goals and topics that have been approved by the
faculty in the psychology department at USD and should be covered in the lower division
research methods course. While some instructors may wish to go beyond these basics,
faculty teaching other courses can expect students to have been exposed to the following
concepts, and to have acquired the following understandings and skills:
Course Goals & Objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Understand the goals, methods, and limitations of science, and their implication
for psychology.
Understand the nature and role of theory and its relationship to hypotheses.
Be able to convert ideas and questions into testable hypotheses through
operationalizing concepts and developing the relationships between them.
Understand the basic research designs as they relate to questions and goals of
scientific psychology, including advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Be able to locate, read, and evaluate published research. This includes the reading
and critical analysis of research articles in an intelligent way such that students
will know whether there are serious flaws in a study, or its conclusions, or
whether the study appears valid and the conclusions flow from the method and
results.
Understand how a study is carried out, from initial idea through final manuscript
production in correct APA style, and be able to implement many of these steps.
7.
8.
9.
Be able to write a complete paper in APA style. This should be demonstrated by
writing at least one complete paper in APA style in the lower division research
methods course.
Understand the distinction between basic and applied research; understand the
applications of research to everyday life, including limits on such applications.
Understand the ethics of psychological research with both human and animal
subjects.
Common Topics:
I
II
Psychology & the Scientific Method
A.
Goals of Science
B.
Overview of Methods of Science
C.
The Nature and Role of Theory in Science
Scientific Evaluation & Communication:
A.
Ethical Issues
B.
Reliability & Validity
C.
APA Style
III
The Research Process
A.
Variables
B.
Conceptual & Operational Definitions
C.
Levels of Measurement
D.
Validity
1.
of measures
2.
of research studies
a.
internal
b.
external
E.
Reliability
IV
Non-Experimental Research
A.
Naturalistic Observation
B.
Surveys
1.
Interviews
2.
Questionnaires
C.
Case Study
D.
Archival Data
E.
Correlational Studies
Experimental Designs
A.
Between Subjects (Independent Groups) Designs
B.
Within Subjects (Repeated Measures) Designs
C.
Factorial Designs
D.
Single-Subject Designs
Quasi-Experimental Designs
Introduction to basic statistical concepts
A.
Descriptive statistics
V
VII
VIII
B.
Inferential statistics
Guidelines for Instructors Teaching Psychology 160
Statistics
The following reflect the common course goals and topics covered in the lower division
statistics course at USD. While some instructors may wish to go beyond these basics,
faculty teaching other courses can expect students to have been exposed to the majority
of the following concepts and to have been taught the following skills.
Course Goals and Objectives:
1.
Understand the role of research in psychology, and the value of statistics in
supporting this role.
2.
Know which type of statistic apply to which type of research design.
3.
Understand why statistical procedures are needed for the evaluation of data.
4.
Understand what a significant result is, and what it is not.
Common Topics:
I
The need for statistics
II
Descriptive Techniques
A.
Distributions and graphs
B.
Measures of Central Tendency
C.
Measures of Variablity
III
Hypothesis Testing
A.
Probability – normal distribution
B.
Sampling distributions
C.
Logic of hypothesis testing
1.
null hypothesis
2.
directional hypotheses
D.
Estimation and confidence intervals.
IV
Inferential Techniques: Testing Differences Between Two Groups
A.
z-test
B.
t-test
1.
independent samples
2.
related samples
V
Inferential Techniques: Testing Differences with More than Two Groups:
Analysis of variance
A.
Main effects
B.
Interactions
VI
Testing Correlational Hypotheses
A.
Correlational statistics
1.
descriptive and inferential uses
2.
Pearson’s r
B.
Regression analysis
VII
Nonparametric Tests
Guidelines for Researchers Using the Department’s
Participant Pool
Researcher using the Psychology Participant Pool must follow guidelines set out by the
University of San Diego, Institutional Review Board. IRB approval is required for use of
the pool.
Research participation is limited to students who are 18 years old and older unless the
researcher has IRB approval for parental consent and minor participant assent.
Posted research opportunity announcements MUST include the following information:
IRB File #
Title
Brief description
Requirements/restrictions (including whether minor may participate)
Length of study
Dates/times
Email/ phone contact for researcher
Email/phone contact for Faculty sponsor (if different from researcher)
Sign up forms MUST remain on the Bulletin Board until AFTER the research has been
completed. If the researcher wants to remove the sign up sheet (e.g. to take to the study)
s/he must leave a copy on the Bulletin Board.
For more information, contact Dr. Patricia Kowalski, Serra Hall110
kowalski@sandiego.edu 619-260-4003.