Intro to Stats
Welcome to Introduction to Statistics for Psychology!
This course will introduce you to the basic statistics used in psychological research. Psychology has developed scientific methods to explore questions about humanity and this course will introduce you to the statistics used to interpret and evaluate research findings. The goal is to provide you with a foundation to continue your training in psychology and to think critically about psychological findings reported in research articles and the media. Specifically, this class will teach you to: neither fear nor revere statistics, use statistics to share observations, understand statistical inferences, use SPSS to analyze data, and interpret results obtained during analysis. You will also develop the ability to write clearly and concisely about scientific research in APA format.
Revised Syllabus (includes lab syllabus; to be used from 2/27/10 onward)
***Powerpoints are provided as an aid to note taking during lecture. They are not intended to replace lecture and may not contain all of the information needed to study for tests or complete assignments.
***Links are provided to websites and sample data sets that you may find helpful when studying for tests and trying to understand class concepts. These are not required and are provided to assist you. If you have any suggestions for additional links or sites, please let us know.
***Your grades on class assignments, tests, and quizzes will be released through the TAMU blackboard system. It’s a good idea to check this system regularly to check your scores.
Week 1
***Labs will be held the first week of classes and CRITICAL tasks will be completed during this lab.
Tuesday Lecture: Introduction
Lab Lecture: Study Design
Thursday Lecture: Psychological Methods
Tips on study design and methods here
Week 2
Tuesday Lecture: Measures of Central Tendency
Lab Lecture: Descriptive Statistics
***Writing Assignment #1 will be distributed in lab this week
***There is no lecture on Thursday
Week 3
Tuesday Lecture: Variability
Lab Lecture: Figures, APA
Thursday Lecture: Figures
Site that demonstrates the relationship between SDs and graphs here
Interactive graphing website here
Week 4
Tuesday Lecture: Correlations
Lab Lecture: Reliability
Thursday Lecture: Reliability and Validity
Week 5
Tuesday: Test 1
Lab: Quiz 1, group projects
Thursday Lecture: Hypotheses ; Guest Lecture on Hypotheses
Week 6
Tuesday Lecture: Probability
Lab: Hypotheses
Thursday Lecture: Significance Testing
Week 7
Tuesday Lecture: Independent t-tests
Lab: T-tests
Thursday Lecture: Dependent t-tests
Week 8
Tuesday: Review for Test 2
Lab: Quiz & Project Discussion
Thursday: Test 2
*****SPRING BREAK!*****
Links if You’re Having Difficulty with Formulas or Math
Order of operations site here
Information about statistical notation here
General Class Links
Why study statistics as a psychology student? Find some thoughts here.
Tips on note taking here.
Tips on how to do well in a stats class here.
The companion website for your text is here. It contains sample problems, data sets, and practice quizzes that can be very helpful for you in doing well in this course.
