chapter 2 by Friday 10/2

Read and take notes on chapter 2 by Monday 10/5

due next week 9/21-9/25

Next week's due dates:
Monday 9/21 - naturalistic observation due
Thursday 9/24 - experiment due (see description below)
Friday 9/25 - test, chapters 1 and 3 (thinking critically with psychological science and the nature/nurture of behavior


Designing an Experiment
For your first project, you will be creating an experimental design for a psychological research project. First, you must choose an area of interest concerning human behavior. Then, identify a hypothesis that you wish to test. Your research design must include the following sections in your report:

I. INTRODUCTION
This section should read from general to specific, beginning with an overview of the topic you wish to study and concluding with your hypothesis. Introductions generally include a literature review, in which you provide summaries of relevant psychological studies that have been previously conducted. For the purposes of this assignment, however, a literature review is not necessary.

II. METHOD
This section is generally divided into three sections: materials, participants, and procedures. Materials include any objects, tests or other created items used in the study. The participant section includes information regarding the general characteristics of the subjects (no names), and the manner in which they were selected and assigned. Lastly, the procedures section provides detail on how the experiment is to be conducted.In your text, be sure to include and identify the following terms as they apply to your study: hypothesis, independent variable, dependent variable, operational definition, experimental group, control group, as well as any other relevant terms (such as random sampling, random assignment, placebo.)

In the spring, you may have the opportunity to follow up on this design by conducting the experiment.

This is an individual assignment and will be graded on the basis of correct use of terminology, clarity of written expression and sophistication and orginality of the concept.

Due at the start of class Thursday 9/24 - worth 75 points for term 1

upcoming due dates

1. Read/take notes on chapter 3 for Friday 9/18
2. Naturalistic observation is due Monday 9/21

syllabus for Monday 9/14, ch. 3 for Friday 9/18

-read and sign syllabus - return Monday 9/14
-chapter 3 (nature and nurture of behavior) needs to be read (take notes also) by Friday 9/18 - as a benchmark, you should have read the first 3 sections of the chapter by Tuesday's class