Your Week One Assignments: 

1-3 Discussion:  Scientific Method:

You will be addressing whether or not you believe the theories of Freud were scientific, as well as what makes a theory scientific. The best way to do this would be to give your definition of “scientific,” based on the reading. Then compare one of Freud’s theories to this definition to see how well it fits your definition. Do not forget to cite your resources!

Note: Your Module One discussion is due at 11:59 EST. Modules two through ten are due at 11:59 in your local time zone.

1-2 Short Paper: Scientific Skeptic:

In this paper, you will choose a claim about a pseudoscience. Some examples are: astrology, ESP, tarot card readings, and ghost hunting. However, you are not limited to these topics. Just choose a topic that makes claims about human psychology and or human behavior, that people believe in, regardless of the scientific findings related to them.

Begin your paper by stating the claim you are skeptical about.

• Do not simply state what your chosen topic is in one sentence. Provide a brief description of it.
   

Then create a research question.

• This will provide the foundation of your paper.
   

Apply the steps of the scientific method to your research question to test your question.

• You will find these in your reading. Hint: there are seven.
   

Finally, compare the application of the scientific method to other methods mentioned in this module.

• You will find these in your reading. Hint: there are three.
   

This paper must be at least three pages long and in APA format. Your instructor will be adhering strictly to the rubric when grading, regardless of their personal beliefs related to the pseudoscience you have chosen.

Your Week Two Assignments:

2-2 Discussion: Variables

In your discussion, you will define and operationalize your variables.

Independent Variable (IV): These stand alone and are not being manipulated, receiving the treatment in your experiment, or being altered in any way.

Dependent Variable (DV): These variables change, depending on how you manipulate, apply the treatment, or alter them.   

Operationalize: This is how you define your variables and measures. An example would be determining if participants in an experiment have anxiety. You might choose the Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI) as your measurement tool, and a score of 16 as your threshold (cut score).

Note: Modules two through ten are due at 11:59 in your local time zone.

2-1 Final Project Milestone One: Topic Selection, Search Terms, and Preliminary Research Question:

In a one-page APA-formatted paper, you will choose a topic for your paper. Be sure that the topic interests you. You do not want to be stuck writing about something you hate for the next 20 weeks. Also, choose something manageable and reasonably simple. You only have 20 weeks to accomplish this; it is just you, and you cannot do complex research. We also advise you to conduct some cursory research on the topic to ensure it is viable and will sustain the project. Also, you cannot ask about diagnosable mental health conditions, suicide, or abuse of any kind. This includes the USE of mental health medications.

You will also need to provide key search words or terms. Choose the 6-10 most productive that yield peer-reviewed research that you would consider using in your paper, not just hits in a Google search.

Finally, a preliminary research question related to your topic. This is only week two. Do not get attached to this question; it is not set in stone. You have done minimal research; more will inform your question. It is also understood that your research question will evolve with instructor feedback in Milestones Two and Three.

Your Week Three Assignments:

3-2 Discussion: Validity and Reliability

In this week’s discussion, you will review internal and external reliability. You will choose one of the articles that you intend to use in your paper and then highlight at least one threat to internal OR external validity OR reliability. Pay attention to the ORs in there, you are only doing ONE of the combinations! (e.g., external validity or internal validity, or external reliability, or internal reliability). Below are links to articles from Simply Psychology that will help you with differentiating between internal and external variables. Please remember, while Simply Psychology is excellent at breaking down complex terms and theories, it is not considered a scholarly source.

3-1 SPSS Assignment 1: An Introduction to SPSS

We cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to review all the tutorials, especially the videos, for this and all of your SPSS assignments!

The purpose of your first SPSS assignment is to learn how to input data into the program. All of the data you are inputting is hypothetical. You do not have to gather it from anywhere, and you DO NOT and SHOULD NOT conduct any actual research.

You will launch SPSS via the Virtual Desktop (VDI). The VDI is incredibly slow; be patient! There are numerous links in the module and below to assist you. If you are still having trouble, workshops are available at the link below.

Your Week Four Assignments:

4-2 Discussion: Peer Review:

In this discussion, you will explain what you believe are the best criteria for determining the credibility of research material. In other words, if you do not have the peer-reviewed button in the Shapiro Library to rely on, what standards do you personally use to assess a resource’s reliability? Then, provide strengths and limitations. It is always a good idea to give examples, application shows comprehension!    

4-1 Milestone Two: Research Question, Hypothesis, and Annotated Bibliography

In this assignment, you will restate your research question. This time, it will be modified based on your instructor's feedback.

Be sure to consider your instructor’s feedback. It is not personal; it is only meant to improve your work. An example of feedback would be to make your population more specific. This is done to narrow down your field of research.

You also have to provide a testable hypothesis. How do you actually answer your research question?   

Hint: Be sure to include the tests that you will use to answer the research question.  

In the annotated bibliography portion of the assignment, while maintaining the hanging indent, you will copy and paste the abstract of your article between the reference and the annotation. A screenshot of the format has been provided below. Be sure to include all elements of the rubric in your annotation.

5-2 Discussion: Psychological Experiments:

In this discussion, you will talk about the difference between an experiment and a quasi-experiment. You will need to name the key difference and a scenario that would make a quasi-experiment necessary.

You also need to discuss some of the reasons self-report data can be problematic. To start you off, think about different biases and ethical issues.

Then think about self-report versus observational observations. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? Remember, application shows comprehension, examples would be great here.

5-1: Short Paper: The Importance of Random Assignment

In this assignment, you will be writing a letter to a student from the point of view of a tutor. While you are writing person-to-person, we recommend writing in the third person, unless you receive permission from your instructor to write in the first person.

There are three points you need to convey to the student in the three-page paper.

First, you have to give an overview of the three reasons why random assignment is important. It is important that you do this in your own words, and not just list them in bullet points. Information can be found in Chapter 7.

Second, you must provide examples of the actual methods of random assignment. These methods can be found in Chapter 8. Hint: there are four.

Finally, if you cannot randomly assign participants, how can you still draw valid conclusions? This information can be found in Chapter 8. Remember, examples always help to put theory into context.

Hints:

• While written like a letter, this is still a paper; citations and references are still required. So are a title and a reference page.
• You are more than welcome to bring additional resources into your paper.   

5-3: PSY 520 Experiments: (Ungraded) In addition to your assignments this week, you are strongly encouraged to respond to surveys posted by the PSY 520 students in the PSY-510/520 Student Lounge. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. You can exit a survey at any time. Please prioritize surveys with fewer than seven participants. Please try to complete the surveys before Thursday so students can gather data for their coursework in a timely manner. Keep in mind, you will be in their shoes next term!

Your Week Six Assignments:
 

6-2 SPSS Assignment 2: Exploring Data:

Again, we cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to review all the tutorials, especially the videos, for this and all of your SPSS assignments! Remember, the VDI is slow; please be patient.

For this assignment, you will generate a histogram and a simple boxplot with the designated variables. You will need to explain some of the strengths of visual representation. Think, what do you find easier about a graph or a pie chart? Then what are the weaknesses? Are there questions that cannot be answered with a histogram, boxplot, or other graph?

Then calculate the means and standard deviation for the album sales dataset. Choose one of the variables to explain what the mean and standard deviation mean for that particular data set.  

6-1 Milestone Three: Problem Statement and Literature Review:

This assignment will begin with your problem statement, which introduces the issue and why it needs to be addressed. Identify your issue, the root cause, the desired outcome, and the consequences of not meeting this outcome. This will be about a paragraph, approximately 5-8 sentences.  

The literature review will contain six elements. You will begin by summarizing each article individually. Then, you will synthesize (or integrate) the information from all the articles, discuss how the designs either help or hinder the progress of your topic, and determine which is most appropriate. Then, determine what is still unknown. Finally, using the APA’s Five General Principles as a checklist, review the studies and identify any ethical issues.

You will close with your revised research question and revised, testable hypothesis. Finally, you will describe your variables, independent and dependent, and why you chose them.

This image may be helpful with the process of your literature review:

Your Week Seven Assignments:

7-2 Discussion: Correlation

In your discussion, you will have to provide a review of an article that you are using in your paper or from a popular news source. Then, describe how they could be misinterpreted, and create a misleading headline from the findings.

7-1 SPSS Assignment 3: Scatterplot and Correlations  

Again, we cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to review all the tutorials, especially the videos, for this and all of your SPSS assignments! Remember, the VDI is slow; please be patient.

For this assignment, you will create two matrix scatterplots and correlation matrices and discuss the relationships you see in them. In the final question, you will create your own dataset of ten participants, on which you will run a scatterplot.     

Your Week Eight Assignments:

8-1 Milestone Five: You are drafting the Discussion section of your final paper. As noted in Week Seven, you did a lot of this work as part of your journal assignment. Your Milestone Five has six bullet points to write about, and, specifically, you addressed some aspects of the first three bullet points and the fifth one, in your Week Seven journal assignment. You also have had some practice with identifying tests that you could have used and ones that are less appropriate (the fourth bullet point of your Milestone Five) back when you did your journal assignment in Week Five, so be sure to check out the feedback you received from that assignment!

8-2 SPSS Assignment #4 on Chi-Square: Follow the answer template provided and do the questions in order. Be sure to check out the tutorial video in your Reading & Resources section of the module before attempting this assignment (also linked below).

Your Week Nine Assignments: 

9-2 Discussion: Ethics

Choose a published, but questionable, psychological research project or study. Give a summary of the project or study. Provide details about what made the case unethical, and use module resources to give examples of actionable steps that could have been taken to prevent these issues. Hint: Use the Five General Principles of the APA’s Ethics Code and confidentiality and informed consent as a checklist.

Be sure to include the article’s citation and the resources in your post.  

9-1: Human Subjects Research

In the CITI Program Human Subjects Research: Social and Behavioral Research Investigators Course, you will complete a series of small readings, which are followed by small 2-4 question quizzes. We recommend NOT attempting to complete the program in one sitting, as it can take up to 6-8 hours! 1-2 hours are much more manageable.  

Week Ten Assignment:

10-2 Discussion: Neuroimaging

Don’t leave this until the last minute, as this is a very technical topic that might need a few read-throughs for some. When answering the prompts in this discussion, it is not enough to hypothesize; you have to be sure to substantiate your answers with evidence from scholarly sources.

10-1 Final Project Submission: Research Proposal

Finally, after nine long weeks, it is time to submit your final research proposal. It will be graded using the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric, which is provided below. Be sure to use this rubric as your guide. Additionally, include ALL of your instructor's feedback.  

PSY 510 – Final Paper – Content Checklist:

Problem Statement

Literature Review

Existing Research

Research Designs

Advantages and Disadvantages

Appropriateness

Unknown

Principles and Standards

Research Question and Hypothesis

Research Question

Hypothesis

Variables

Proposed Methodology

Participants

Materials

Procedures

Ethical Concerns

Data Analysis Plan

Preparation of Raw Data

Analytical Procedures

Descriptive Statistics

Principles and Standards

Anticipated Results