Rutgers University at Camden
Psychology Department
Psychology 215: Statistics for Social Science
Fall 2003
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 11:15 AM – 12:10 PM, Armitage 121.
Instructor:
Office:
E-mail:
Phone:
Office hours:
Katerina Bezrukova
Armitage 307
bezrukov@camden.rutgers.edu
856-225-6120
By appointment
Teaching Assistant: Rosetta Dweh
E-mail: drdweh@camden.rutgers.edu
Office hours (Armitage 307):
Mondays (9-11am) or by appointment
Course Description
This course is designed to provide you with an introduction to statistical methods in the behavioral and
social sciences, both descriptive (organization and presentation of data) and inferential (drawing
conclusions from data). Topics include graphical descriptive techniques and numerical descriptive
statistics, sampling distributions, point and interval estimation, tests of hypotheses, correlation and simple
linear regression, analysis of variance and test for qualitative data. Major emphasis is given to practical
applications in psychological research.
The objectives of this course are:
 To gain some experience in using samples of data to make inferences about a population
 To learn some of the basic statistical tools used to analyze data
 To get hands-on experience in computing with data.
Required Course Materials:
Spatz, C. (2001). Basic Statistics: Tales of Distribution (7th ed.).Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson
Learning.
Additional Supplies
Calculator (with square root and memory function)
**Bring your book and calculator to every class session!!
Student Responsibilities
My goal is to provide you with the best educational experience possible. However, it is up to you to take
advantage of the instructional activities that are planned. Some of your responsibilities include:
-Attend all class and lab sessions
-Arrive on time
- Read all assignments on the schedule prior to class
-Allow sufficient time to prepare for class (6 to 9 hours per week outside of class)
-Academic Honesty (outlined in University Catalog)
2
Homework
There will be approximately three homework assignments in this course. These assignments will count
towards your final grade, and hence you each must submit your own homework solution. Though
homework only accounts for 10% of the final grade, it is important to do the assignments for practice.
Similar problems will appear in the exams.
Homework will be assigned at lectures, usually a week prior to its due date. All of the homework
assignments will be graded, and solutions will be made available. Graded homework will usually be
returned one week after the due date.
NO LATE HOMEWORK will be accepted.
Exams
There will be two written midterms and a final exam for this class. The first midterm will take place on
Friday, October 10. The second midterm will take place on Friday, November 14. The final exam is at 9:00
am on Thursday, December 18. The location for the final exam will be announced later.
The only excuses for missing an exam are: a serious illness or a major family crisis. You must provide
proof in the form of an official document. A note from a family member is not sufficient. To be clear -- To
prove that you are seriously ill, you need to have a note from a Rutgers physician documenting that you
could not take the particular exam. A note from a physician saying that you were seen for a problem is
NOT sufficient. Minor illness or problems are not acceptable to be excused from an exam. Colds, sinus
problems, upset-stomach, slight fever and the like are not valid reason for missing an exam.
THERE ARE NO MAKEUP MIDTERM EXAMS. If you miss an exam and do not have an acceptable
excuse as described above, you will receive a ZERO for that exam.
The exams will be closed book exams. You will need a calculator for all exams.
Grading/Re-grading Policies
 Your final grade will be based on: 10% homework, 25% for each midterm, 40% final exam.
 The approximate grading curve for final grades is: 20-30% A's, 30-40% B's, and the rest C's,D's
and F's.
 No late homeworks will be accepted, but your lowest homework score will be dropped when
calculating your final overall homework score.
 There are no makeup midterm exams.
 Any dispute arising in grading of homeworks and exams should be submitted in writing. This
letter should clearly state clearly the question(s) where you think there has been a grading error
and what you think that error is. Simply asking for a "re-grade of question #2" is not sufficient.
Requests that are incomplete or that do not clearly explain the problem will not be considered.
Note that upon resubmission the entire exam or homework may be re-graded and not just the
disputed question.
 No re-grades will be accepted for exams or homework written in pencil.
 There is a one week time limit for submission of disputes for both exams and homeworks. The one
week limit starts from the day the homeworks/exams have been returned in class. If you are not
present in class when the exams/homeworks are returned, it is your responsibility to collect them.
 For the final exam each student is given two weeks from the beginning of the new semester to
examine their exams and submit any written request for re-grading. No requests will be entertained
after the two week deadline has passed.
3
Tentative Weekly Schedule of Lectures
Sep 3-5
Class
Overview of course and Introduction
Book
1 – 18
Sep 8-12
Data: Organization, Graphs, and Central Tendency
22 – 47
Sep 15-19
Variability
50 – 63
Sep 22-26
Combination Statistics / Review
Sep 29-Oct 3
Correlation and Regression
66 – 75
Homework #1 due
(Sept 22)
80 – 112
Oct 6
Review
Oct 8
NO CLASS
Oct 10
Midterm #1
Oct 13-17
Theoretical Distributions
113 – 133
Oct 20-24
Samples and Confidence Intervals
Oct 27-31
Hypothesis Testing: One-Sample Designs
134 – 156
Homework #2 due
(Oct 24)
157 – 177
Nov 3-7
Hypothesis Testing: One-Sample Designs/ Two Sample
Designs
Nov 10-12
Hypothesis Testing: Two-Sample Designs / Review
Nov 14
Midterm #2
Nov 17-21
Analysis of Variance: One-Way Classification
210 – 231
Nov 24-26
Analysis of Variance: One-Way / Factorial Design
234 – 262
Dec 1-5
Factorial Design / Chi-Square
278 – 296
Homework #3 due
(Dec 5)
Dec 8-10
Chi-Square / Review and Catch-up
Dec 18
Final Exam
180 – 207