STATISTICS SYLLABUS - PSY/POL/SOC 200
Fall 2008 (20093)

Meeting Times and Locations:

Professor: Dr. Robert S. Ryan

Office: 385 Old Main

Office hours: Tues. 9:30 am - 11:00 am; Wed. 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm, and Thurs. 9:30 am - 11:00 am. You are welcome to drop in at my office, 385 Old Main, any time to try to catch me. I can usually take a few minutes to help you unless I am tied up with something very important or time sensitive. It doesn't have to be during my office hours. You can drop in any time I'm not teaching or in a meeting (go to my website and use the link to my teaching schedule and to my calendar   to see my classes, meetings, and other commitments. However, if you are going out of your way to see me, whether during my office hours or not, then it is always best to call me at 683-4457 right before you want to come, just in case I am not available because of something unexpected. For example, I could be with another student who just stopped in. If you call or visit my office during a time you thought you could catch me and find that I am not there right at that moment, don't assume I'm not available. I could have just stepped away from the office or my phone for a few minutes. So always wait at least a few minutes and try again.


Phone: (as of 9-12-08 Changed to): 484-646-432

E-mail: rryan@kutztown.eduWebsite: http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan

Required Text:  Grimm, L. R. (1993). Statistical Applications for the Behavioral Sciences . New York: Wiley.

Survival tips: I want every student to succeed in this course! Students can do well by following the good advice below: 

Course objectives: Statistics is a body of mathematical procedures that are used to describe and interpret data. To understand statistics requires understanding what data in general is, what are the different kinds of data, and what kinds of information one might wish to extract from data. One usually wants to either understand the characteristics of a population by examining data from a sample, or to infer general principles by examining data from an experiment.

An important goal of the course is to help students to appreciate the importance of understanding probability. Most events in the real world have some likelihood of occurring, not a certainty of either occuring or not. So understanding the world requires understanding how to deal rationally and logically with this uncertainty. That is the job of statistics.

Students will learn to recognize different kinds of data, to tell what kinds of information can be extracted from it, and to tell what statistical procedure must be applied in order to extract the information. They will learn to perform some of the simpler statistical procedures by hand. Importantly, they will learn how to correctly interpret the results of such procedures and what common misinterpretations to avoid.

Students will need to brush up on their high school algebra if they are rusty. They will need to have fluency with manipulating and solving equations (one variable only). They will need to know the order of operations for solving equations, how to do arithmetic with decimals and fractions, how to understand and work with ratios, proportions, and probabilities, and how to read graphs with an X and Y axis.

A pre-test, study materials, and post-test of basic math and algebra will be provided. You should take the pretest to determine what you need to brush up on. Then you should use the study materials and post-test on your own to brush up, and then to re-check yourself. Class time will only allow a very brief review of basic math and algebra as needed.

Students will:
1.    Identify the basic statistics involved in the scientific approach to research.
2.    Identify, organize, and define the basic and advanced terms, concepts, and principles of research designs and the appropriate statistical analyses.
3.    Compute and present the various descriptive statistics.
4.    Compute and use the various inferential statistics such as t-tests and analysis of variance.
5.    Use the appropriate Probability Tables to obtain significance statements, and draw conclusions.
6.    Identify the various errors and use the concepts of Power, Effect Size, etc.
7.    Present the results of their analyses in APA format.
8.    Use SPSS and/or Excel for performing descriptive and inferential statistical procedures.
9.    Use SPSS and/or Excel to create histograms, line graphs, scatterplots, and other graphical representations of data.

Summary of class policies.
(For complete class policies, see http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/policies.htm)

Academic Honesty: It is my intention to uphold the academic honesty policy of Kutztown University and all other student conduct standards as described in the online student handbook, "The Key". "Academic dishonesty involves any attempt to obtain academic credit or influence the grading process by means unauthorized by the course instructor". It is the responsibility of students to be aware of this policy and abide by it at all times.

Students with Disabilities: The Office of Human Diversity, located in 220 Stratton Administration Center, provides many services for students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability please let me know as soon as possible so that I may provide whatever accommodation you require.

Attendance: Attendance records are kept to help identify students at risk. No points towards your grade are added or subtracted due to attendance, but poor attendance will surely hurt your ability to do well on tests.

If you miss a class: If you miss a class, see me the next day. You may have missed an unannounced quiz or oral quizzing, and it is important to make it up immediately.

Excusable absences: "Excusing" you only means excusing you from missing a test so that you are allowed to make it up. It does not mean excusing you from understanding the material on which you will be graded. It is always your responsibility to make sure you understand the material. Any time you miss a test you are given a grade of zero. To replace the zero with a grade, first, you should make up the test immediately (the next day). Secondly, however, in order to be allowed to have your grade count, you must provide written documentation that your absence was necessary.

Communication: Kutztown email is now the standard means of communication between faculty and students. Email accounts are established for students when they initially register, but they have to be activated. If you have not activated your KU email, then you need to do so by following the instructions at https://secure.kutztown.edu/authentication/ . If I need to contact the whole class (especially important in the winter) I will send an email to the class list. The class list contains the Kutztown email address of everyone registered for the course. You should check your email regularly. If you do not wish to use your Kutztown email, then you need to set it to forward to whatever email you actually use. Go to KU's web based Messenger Express email system at https://mail.kutztown.edu/. Enter your user ID and password for your Kutztown email. Click "Options", then "Settings", then, in the Mail Forwarding box, type your preferred email address, and click "Save Changes".

Grading: The grade for the course comes from the various quizes, tests, exams and activities in the course. These may consist of any combination of objective (multiple choice; true/false) and subjective (short answer; essay) questions. They may be oral or written, announced or unannounced. Therefore, you must keep up with learning the material as it is presented. 

There will be 4 major tests worth 30 points each. There will be at least 2 assignments worth 4 points each. There may be a few more small assignments worth 1 point each.There may be opportunities for extra credit. If so, they will be announced in class.

The grade on any individual test or activity will be shown as a percentage grade. It can be converted to a letter grade according to the following breakdown:

90% - 100% = A
80% - 89% = B
70% - 79% = C
60% - 69% = D
< 60 = F

Calculating grades: Your grade for the course is a weighted average of the various test and activity grades that you will receive. See Class Policies to learn how to work with weighted average grades.

Schedule of Topics 
(Subject to change if needed)

Week

Date

Lecture Topic and Reading Assignment

  Labs

1

Tues.
8/26

  Introduction to the course. Definitions. Mon. 8/25 - NO LAB

Thur.
8/28

  Scales of measurement.
 Frequency distributions. 		Wed. 8/27 - Lab for 051 - How to use SPSS to enter data.

2

Tues.
9/2

  NO LECTURE CLASS - FOLLOWING THE MONDAY SCHEDULE
 NO LAB on Mon. 9/1
Tues. 9/2 Following the Monday schedule. Lab for 030 - How to use SPSS to enter data.

Thur.
9/4

 Mean, Median, and Mode.

Wed. 9/3 - Lab for 051 - How to use SPSS to construct a frequency distribution and calculate descriptive stats. 

3

Tues.
9/9

  Standard deviation.
 Mon. 9/8 - Lab for 030 - How to use SPSS to construct a frequency distribution and calculate descriptive stats. 

Thur.
9/11

 Z scores (Standardized scores)

 Wed. 9/10 - Lab for 051 - Practice; discussion; your questions 

4

Tues.
9/16

SPSS exercise on descriptive stats due in class.  

 TEST 1 

 Mon. 9/15 - Lab for 030 - Practice; discussion; your questions 

Thur.
9/18

 The sampling distribution of the mean.

Wed. 9/17 - Lab for 051- Category induction experiment. 2 Extra Credit points.

5

Tues.
9/23

  The logic of hypothesis testing. Mon. 9/22 - Lab for 030 - Category induction experiment. 2 Extra Credit points.

Thur.
9/25

  The single sample z test. Wed. 9/24 - Lab for 051 - Constructing a sampling distribution of the mean.

6

Tues.
9/30

  The single sample t test. Mon. 9/29 -  Lab for 030 - Constructing a sampling distribution of the mean.

Thur.
10/2

Feedback from Test 1

Confidence intervals.

Fri. 10/3 is the last day to withdraw without a "W"

Wed. 10/1 - NO LAB

7

Tues.
10/7

 Errors of inference and power. Mon. 10/6 - Lab for 030 - First category induction retention test.
 2 Extra Credit points.

Thur.
10/9

Review

Wed. 10/8 - Lab for 051 - First category induction retention test.
 2 Extra Credit points.

8

Tues.
10/14

TEST 2 

 Mon. 10/13 - COLUMBUS DAY - NO LAB

Thur.
10/16

Correlation and Regression.

Wed. 10/15 - Lab for 051 - More on entering data in SPSS

9

Tues.
10/21
Chi Square. 		Mon. 10/20 - Lab for 030 - More on entering data in SPSS

Thur.
10/23
Two Independent Samples t test. 		Wed. 20/22 - Lab for 051 - Correlation, Regression, Chi Square

10

Tues.
10/28

 Feedback from Test 2

Paired t test. 		Mon. 10/27 - Lab for 030 - Correlation, Regression, Chi Square

Thur.
10/30

 Review. Wed. 10/29 - Lab for 051 - The two sample t tests.

11

Tues.
11/4

TEST 3

Mon. 11/3 - Lab for 030 - The two sample t tests.

Thur.
11/6

 One Way ANOVA for independent groups. Wed. 11/5 - Lab for 051 - How to use SPSS to do t tests, correlations, and chi square tests.

12

Tues
11/11

One Way ANOVA for independent groups.

Mon. 11/10 - Lab for 030 - How to use SPSS to do t tests, correlations, and chi square tests.

Thur.
11/13

 Repeated measures ANOVA. Wed. 11/12 - Lab for 051 - One Way ANOVA

13

Tues.
11/18

 SPSS exercise on inferential stats due in class.
Feedback from Test 3

Repeated measures ANOVA. 		Mon. 11/17 - Lab for 030 - One Way ANOVA

Thur.
11/20

  Factorial ANOVA.  Wed. 11/19 -  Lab for 051 - Repeated measures ANOVA and Factorial ANOVA

14

Tues.
11/25
Factorial ANOVA. 

Last day to withdraw without a "WF"

 Mon. 11/24 - Lab for 030 - Repeated measures ANOVA and Factorial ANOVA

Thur.
11/27

 THANKSGIVING - NO CLASS
 Wed. 11/26  - NO LAB

15

Tues.
12/2

 Review.  Mon. 12/1 - Lab for 030 - Second category induction retention test. 2 Extra Credit points.

Thur.
12/4

 Review. Wed. 12/3 - Lab for 051 - Second category induction retention test. 2 Extra Credit points.

.

.

Final Exam
Section 030 (the 8:00am section): Thursday, 12/11/08, 8:00am to 10:00am
Section 051 (the 12:00 section): Tuesday, 12/9/08, 11:00am to 1:00pm