| Syllabus for Psychology 401: | Dr. John A. Johnson |
| Advanced Research Methods in Psychology | Office 188 Smeal |
| Fall Semester, 1998 | Hours MWF 10-10:50 |
| Tuesday, 4:30-5:00 and by appointment | Email: j5j@psu.edu |
| WWW: http://cac.psu.edu/~j5j/ |
Required Readings:
Required readings for the course are listed below in the order in which
they are covered. These readings are available from the instructor. Shortened
titles for each reading are used when referring to reading assignments
in the course outline at the end of this syllabus.
Johnson, J. A. (1997). Units of analysis for
the description and explanation of personality. In R. Hogan, J. Johnson,
& S. Briggs (Eds.) Handbook of personality psychology. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Cronbach, L. J. (1957). The two disciplines
of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 12, 671-684.
Cronbach, L. J. (1975). Beyond the two disciplines
of scientific psychology. American Psychologist, 30, 116-127.
Block, J. (1978). The Q-sort method in personality
assessment and psychiatric research. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists
Press. (Original work published 1961)
Bowers, K. S. (1976). There’s more to Iago
than meets the eye: A clinical account of personal consistency. In D. Magnusson
& N. S. Endler (Eds.), Personality at the crossroads: Current issues
in interactional psychology (pp. xx-xx). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hofstee, W. K. B. (1994). Who should own the
definition of personality? European Journal of Personality, 8,
149-162.
Megargee, E. I. (1972). California Psychological
Inventory handbook. Chapter 2: Philosophical basis of the CPI (pp.
9-20.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gough, H. G. (1989, April). The new California
Psychological Inventory: Implications for research and practice. In P.
McReynolds (Chair), Recent advances in psychological assessment.
Invited symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological
Association, Sparks, Nevada.
Gough, H. G., & Bradley, P. (1996). CPI
manual (3rd ed.). Chapter 1: Introduction (pp. 1-16). Palo Alto,
CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Meehl, P. E. (1945). The dynamics of “structured”
personality tests. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1, 296-303.
Johnson, J. A. (1997). Seven social performance
scales for the California Psychological Inventory. Human Performance,
10, 1-30.
Wolfe, R. N. (1993). A commonsense approach
to personality measurement. In K. H. Craik, R. Hogan, & R. N. Wolfe
(Eds.), Fifty years of personality psychology (pp. 269-290). New
York: Plenum.
Briggs, S. R., & Cheek, J. M. (1986). The
role of factor analysis in the development and evaluation of personality
scales. Journal of Personality, 54, 106-148.
Goldberg, L. R. (in press). The comparative
validity of adult personality inventories: A first empirical application
of a consumer-testing framework. Chapter to appear in S. R. Briggs, J.
M. Cheek, & E. M. Donahue (Eds.), Handbook of adult personality
inventories.
Hogan, R., & Nicholson, R. A. (1988). The
meaning of personality test scores. American Psychologist, 43,
621-626. The following articles are responses to the Hogan and Nicholson
article.
Edwards, A. L. (1990). Construct validity and
social desirability. American Psychologist, 45, 287-289.
Walsh, J. A. (1990). Comment on social desirability.
American Psychologist, 45, 289-290.
Nicholson, R. A., & Hogan, R. (1990). The
construct validity of social desirability. American Psychologist,
45, 290-292.
Howard, G. S. (1990). On the construct validity
of self-reports: What do the data say? American Psychologist, 45,
292-294.
Kagan, J. (1990). Validity is local. American
Psychologist, 45, 294-295.
Instructional Goals for Course:
The objectives of this course are as follows:
- To allow students to understand personality research as a world view,
complementary to experimental research. - To allow students to understand how to conduct, quantify, analyze, and
interpret structured observations of personality. - To allow students to understand how to quantify, analyze, and interpret
self-reports of personality. - To allow students an opportunity to learn about hypothesis testing through
the construction and preliminary validation of an original self-report
personality scale.
These goals will be accomplished through a combination of assigned readings,
discussion, in-class laboratory work, and independent research.
Grading:
Grades will be based on performance on three take-home essay tests (100
points each), three labs begun in class and completed out of class (100
points each) and a final independent research project due at the end of
the course (200 points). Attending class and reading the assigned writings
are essential to successfully completing the tests, labs, and final project.
Each assignment will be graded on how well you follow directions. The assignments
are described in more detail in the additional documents that accompany
this syllabus. Final letter grades will be assigned according to percentages
of 800 possible points:
744-800 = A
720-743 = A-
704-719 = B+
656-703 = B
640-655 = B-
624-639 = C+
560-623 = C
480-559 = D
0-479 = F
Statement of Academic Integrity:
Violation of academic integrity includes all of the following:
Plagiarizing
Submitting the work of another person as your own
Tampering with the work of another student.
Students violating academic integrity in any way will receive an F for
the course. Further information, including appeals processes, are described
the current Policies and Rules for Students handbook.
Course Outline:
Please note that this course outline is tentative and subject to change.
Any changes to the outline will be announced by email.
| CLASS
MEETING |
TOPIC | READING
ASSIGNMENT |
|
| 1 Tue 9/1 | Why are we here? What will we be doing? |
Johnson, Units of Analysis | |
| 2 Tue 9/8 | Issues in personality research | Cronbach, Two Disciplines | |
| 3 Tue 9/15 | Computers in personality research;
Library research; Basic statistics |
Cronbach, Beyond 2 Disciplines | |
| 4 Tue 9/22 | Take-home essay test on Unit I | ||
| 5 Tue 9/29 | Unit I essay test and Lab 1 due
Q-sets and rating scales |
Block, The Q-Sort Method | |
| 6 Tue 10/6 | Assessment logic;
Objectifying personality |
Bowers, More to Iago
Hofstee, Who should own? |
|
| 7 Tue 10/13 | Reliability and validity analyses | ||
| 8 Tue 10/20 | Take-home essay test on Unit II | ||
| 9 Tue 10/27 | Unit II essay test and Lab 2 due
Empirical scale construction |
Megargee, Philosophy of CPI;
Gough, The New CPI Gough & Bradley, CPI Manual |
|
| 10 Tue 11/3 | Personality dynamics in self-reports |
Meehl, Dynamics of Self-Report | |
| 11 Tue 11/10 | Social dynamics in self-reports | Johnson, Seven Social Performance Scales |
|
| 12 Tue 11/17 | Itemmetrics and psychometrics | Wolfe, Common Sense
Briggs & Cheek, Factor Analysis |
|
| 13 Tue 11/24 | Unit III essay test and Lab 3 due | Goldberg, Comparative Validity | |
| 14 Tue 12/1 | Reliability and validity analyses for final project scale |
Hogan & Nicholson, Meaning of Personality Test Scores and responses to article |
|
| 15 Tue 12/8 | The science game; APA format;Making a study publishable |
||
| Finals Week Tue 12/15 | * * * Final Project Due * * * |
||