Final Project - State University of New York at Plattsburgh



Psy 205 Final Project

In groups of about 3 people, you will design, conduct, and present a research project of your choosing. You may divide up the work among your group members however you like. You will collect data in class—your project must therefore be designed such that you can obtain the data from your fellow classmates during class. Each group will have about 10 minutes for data collection. Keep this in mind when designing your study. All projects must be approved by me. You should avoid controversial topics or any topics where participants might worry about their privacy, since your classmates will be your participants.

Attendance

On-time attendance at all planning meetings and data collection days is required and will contribute not only to your overall attendance grade but also to your final project grade. There are 5 class days devoted to the projects. Your project grade will drop by 1/5 (20%) for every day you are absent or late unless you have a valid documented excuse.

Project planning

• There are three class periods devoted to preparing your project. You are required to attend all meetings so that everyone in the group is participating. Group participation will contribute to your project grade. You may also decide to meet outside of class to make sure everything is ready.

• In the first class meeting, you should discuss your project ideas, and then agree on the main research question you intend to study and the methods that you intend to use. I will help guide your decisions, but the project will be best if the ideas come from you. One approach is to replicate an interesting effect that you learned about in another class. As a general rule, studies of gender, age differences, or other demographic comparisons will not work well because of the limited numbers and demographics of the students in the class. Your project must be an experiment, not a correlational study.

• In the second and third meetings, you should be preparing all of the materials that you will need to run your study. This means having all of your stimuli ready, your instructions written out, and generally getting everything ready to go. I can assist with making copies of any forms or handouts you will need as long as you give me sufficient time to do so.

• Instructions: You must plan out exactly what instructions you will give to the participants at each stage of the project. Do not just “wing it” when you begin. You must write down your instructions and have them approved by me. Be sure to speak loudly and clearly if you are giving instructions verbally. If there are separate stages to your project, make sure you provide instructions at the start of each stage (i.e., do not just tell them everything once at the beginning and expect them to remember it all). For example, if you are having participants view a list of words and then recall them, make sure you have instructions for viewing the words and then more instructions for recalling them (as simple as “Now please write down all of the words you can remember.”)

Preparation for running your project

• If you have multiple items (sheets of paper, etc.) to hand out, please plan to hand out everything at the same time. It is fine to instruct people not to look at something until you say so. It takes too much time to have several stages of handing out and collecting papers.

• Make sure you have a mechanism in place to keep track of each group’s data. You should make sure each individual data sheet is labeled in some way (e.g. with a “1” or a “2” if you have 2 groups). Do not just count on keeping things in separate piles – it only takes one mishap for everything to get dropped and hopelessly shuffled together!

• PRACTICE running your project beforehand so you can be sure that everything will run smoothly and that you won’t use up too much time.

Data collection

There are two class periods devoted to collecting data. Half of the groups will collect data on each day. You must attend and arrive to class on time on both days. It is terribly unfair and completely unprofessional to expect others to participate in your study but then not come to class to participate in their study. Also note that missing your own group’s data collection day, in addition to being irresponsible and thoughtless, will result in a further reduction in your grade.

Participation

At the end of the projects, everyone will be rated by their group members regarding participation in the project. Failure to fully participate and contribute to the project will lower your grade accordingly.

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