Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit convener and lecturer
Alissa Beath
C3B 610
Unit convenor and lecturer
Naomi Sweller
C3A 512
Lecturer
Mike Jones
C3A 516
Tutor
Eyal Karin
Tutor
Joshua Barber
Tutor
Alistair Soutter
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
(Admission to BPsych(Hons) or GPA of 2.5 (out of 4.0)) and 18cp in PSY units at 200 level including PSY222(P) or PSY248(P)
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit builds on and unifies statistical and design topics introduced in previous units, particularly PSY248 Design and Statistics II. Topics include: multiple regression (linear and curvilinear); analysis of variance and covariance; and model reduction procedures. These are all applied to non-orthogonal experimental designs in psychology. The unit also illustrates the links between these different methods through placing them in the context of the generalised linear model; in so doing the unit enhances students' understanding of statistical methods and their relationship with research design. Practical classes utilise the SPSS statistical package.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
There are 3 forms of assessment for PSY349: weekly quizzes, which involve data analysis via SPSS and will be submitted online through iLearn; a major practical project, which will involve data analysis and communication of findings in response to a research question; and the final examination. Overall grades for the unit will be determined by adding together marks for the weekly quizzes, the practical project and the final examination. Scaling may be undertaken. See the university policy on grading for more information.
In PSY349, we encourage students to form study groups to revise course material and practice using SPSS. However, any work you submit for assessment (quizzes and the practical project) must be your own, including computations and written expression. In recent years we have had a number of problems with students copying other students' work and submitting as their own work. Firstly, we encourage students to discuss their work with each other, and working together can be especially beneficial for statistics. All pratical projects are assessed for plagiarism via Turnitin upon submission.
It is in your interest to keep a (hard or electronic) copy of your submitted work. Firstly, to be able to produce the copy if your original goes missing, and, secondly, to be able to produce an unmarked copy in the case of requesting a re-mark. If you request a re-mark you will need to submit an unmarked copy of your work, which will be marked by a different marker, and you will receive the revised mark which may be either higher or lower than the original mark. If you wish to request a re-mark you will need to collect a Department of Psychology Application for Re-mark form from the Faculty of Human Sciences Student Office in C3A and follow its directions. You can also find a link to these forms on the PSY349 Web Page.
Requests for special consideration and appeals against grades: please refer to the Faculty of Human Sciences website http://www.humansciences.mq.edu.au/
Late submission of the practical report will attract a penalty of 5% of the maximum mark for every day late. In other words, the assignment is worth 38%, so a penalty of 5% x 38 = 1.9 will be applied. 1.9 marks are subtracted from whatever the student received for the report for each day late. No work can be accepted after marked project reports are handed back to students.
Requests for extensions for assignments are granted by the Faculty of Human Sciences Undergraduate Student Centre.
You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of the examinations.
http://students.mq.edu.au/student_admin/exams/
The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Disruption to Studies, through https://ask.mq.edu.au.
If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process, the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period.
Supplementary Examination in the Department of Psychology will be held on the 14th and 15th of July 2016. The format of a supplementary examination is at each unit convener’s discretion and is subject to change from the original final examination.
Supplementary Exams are only offered to students who have satisfactorily completed all other assessments for the unit and were unable to sit the final exam because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption.
All applications for supplementary exams should be submitted as a Disruption to Studies request, through https://ask.mq.edu.au. It is the student’s responsibility to follow the steps outlined in this website and to submit supporting documentations with the request. This must be done within five (5) working days of the commencement of the disruption. An email will be sent to the student advising them of the outcome of their request for a supplementary exam. If a supplementary exam has been granted, it is the student’s responsibility to check the date and location of the supplementary exam. Students who are granted to sit for a supplementary exam must make themselves available to sit for the supplementary exam on the specified date. There will only be one time. It is the student’s responsibility to email Student Centre to confirm attendance at the supplementary exam.
You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, which is the final day of the official examination period.
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Weekly online quizzes | 12% | 5pm each Friday |
Practical Project | 38% | TBA |
Final Exam | 50% | University examination period |
Due: 5pm each Friday
Weighting: 12%
The unit’s tutorial program is vital for students to have a first-hand understanding of the material and its application in psychology research.
Each week (starting week 1) there will be a set of practical tasks to complete. Most weeks this will involve a simple, practical data analysis (involving SPSS) and interpretation task, although some weeks students are given SPSS output to interpret and answer some questions using the output. The requirement to complete a small on-line quiz each week will help ensure that students keep up with the unit material week-by-week. Tutors will then work through the solution during tutorial sessions in the subsequent week.
Tutorial quizzes will be worth 1% each and the best 12 out of the 13 quizzes will be counted towards the final grade. The final task in Week 13 may be graded if it is one of your best 13 quizzes, but will not be reviewed in tutorials. The answers will be posted on iLearn rather than discussed in a tutorial.
Quizzes must be completed within iLearn by 5pm on the Friday before the week in which it will be discussed. The one exception to this rule is the quiz for Week 1 which must be submitted via iLearn by 5pm on Sunday 1st March. The iLearn system will not accept submissions after that time and a mark of zero for that week will be recorded if no quiz is submitted on-time without a valid medical certificate or other documented unforseen circumstances. Each quiz is completed via iLearn and you will receive your mark on completion of the quiz. The tasks must be completed individually by each student.
If there are technical problems associated with iLearn (e.g., error message and then being unable to complete the quiz), make sure you take a screen shot of any error messages that occur. If a screen shot of an error occurring within iLearn is sent to both Alissa Beath and Naomi Sweller (in a single email) before the quiz deadline, and it is deemed to be an error occurring that was out of the student’s control, then a second attempt at the quiz will be granted. No second attempts will be granted under any circumstances without evidence of the glitch. Similarly, no second attempts will be granted if you begin your attempt too late and cannot complete the quiz before 5pm Friday.
It is strongly recommended you complete your quiz well in advance of the 5pm deadline!
Due: TBA
Weighting: 38%
PSY349 is a unit emphasising practical data analysis for psychologists and hence an assessment on practical data analysis is crucial. In the practical project, students are asked to address a practical research question and must operationalise it and determine an appropriate course of analysis with only general directions. SPSS commands needed to complete the practical project will not be provided for you. You will be expected to have learnt the required SPSS commands through understanding the demonstration programs used in lectures and practical assignments and through your own practice with SPSS. Details of the practical project including the question and the dataset will be made available via iLearn during the mid-session break.
The practical project report must be submitted online via iLearn/Turnitin. Assignments submitted by post or emailed to tutors/lecturers will not be accepted. Marked assignments will be released via iLearn/Turnitin. Please be sure to proof read your practical project reports, as no unattached "addendums" will be accepted. Please also note that iLearn can lag when large numbers of students are uploading documents at the same time. Submission time for assignments will be counted as the time the assessment was received, not the time the uploading began. Because of this, make sure you don't leave your submission to 4:55pm the day it is due! Late penalties will be applied to assignments that are received after the due time.
Due: University examination period
Weighting: 50%
This will be a 3-hour exam conducted during the official university examination period. The exam period for Session 1, 2016 is from 14th June to 1st July, 2016. This exam will assess all course material that has been covered in PSY349, including lecture content, tutorial content and required readings.
You will be allowed to take into this exam up to 4 single-sided A4 sheets of summary notes (or 2 double-sided A4 sheets of notes), plus a calculator. These summary notes can be in any format (including hand-written, word processed, photocopied, etc - or a combination). Statistical tables will not be required. Overall the final exam will assess knowledge, but not in a rote fashion, your understanding, through interpretative tasks, and ability to apply knowledge gained to practical problem solving in psychology research. Your understanding of SPSS is examinable including use of SPSS syntax.
There are three hours of lectures per week, which are scheduled for Mondays 2 - 3pm and Thursdays 11 - 1pm. These lectures will be recorded via Echo360 (which captures the data projector and the lecturer’s voice) and will be available on the iLearn page following the lecture.
There are three hours of lectures each week. The lecture content will begin with a review of data including data structure, data quality and descriptive statistics. Following this, statistical modelling will be covered with special reference to the General Linear Model (GLM). The GLM includes regression models (simple and multiple), the t-test, oneway ANOVA models, factorial ANOVA models (balanced and unbalanced), ANCOVA models and models involving statistical control with mixed measurement independent variables.
For these models we will only concern ourselves with models which have one, numeric dependent variable. The unit finishes with models appropriate for non-Normal dependent variables with Gamma regression (skewed DV) and Logistic Regression (categorical DV). As our models become more complex (i.e., have increasing numbers of independent variables), we will discuss the process of model reduction.
There is a one hour tutorial each week starting in Week 2. While attendance is not compulsory, tutors will keep a roll each week.
Managing Classes: Official changes to all units can be done on-line via eStudent, including tutorials. After the designated last day to add units, no further changes will be allowed via eStudent. However, students will be allowed to informally move between tutorial classes, provided there is space available. Please email the tutor of the class you wish to attend for a particular week to check.
Field, A. (2014). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.). London, UK: SAGE.
The texts below are useful references. Students are not required to have or read these texts but may find them useful if they are wanting additional material beyond the textbook.
Agresti, A., & Finlay, B. (2014). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (4th ed.). Essex, UK: Pearson Education.
Howell, D.C. (2012). Statistical methods for psychology (8th ed.). Belmont, California: Duxbury Press.
Keith, T. Z. (2006). Multiple regression and beyond. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
You are expected to have had prior experience in the use of SPSS before coming into PSY349, and be able to read raw data files, access pre-existing data files and retrieve SPSS sav files. You are also expected to have some knowledge of syntax in SPSS. There are several ways of accessing SPSS throughout this course, including purchasing the software yourself, using computers on campus or logging in to iLab. These options will be discussed in more detail during the first week of lectures.
You will also be expected to access the PSY349 unit Web Page at least weekly for unit notices and information regarding data files etc.
If you feel you need to brush up on your use of SPSS, Chapters 3 - 5 in your textbook are a good place to start. You can additionally consult the Intro to SPSS (The Red Book) pdf written by Dr. Alan Taylor at http://psy.mq.edu.au/psystat/SPSSforWindows.html
Week Starting |
Topic |
Reading |
Assessment |
Week 1 29th Feb |
Administration An overview of the unit Correlation |
Text chapter 7 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 2 7th March |
Simple Multiple regression |
Text chapter 8 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 3 14th March |
Expanding the right hand side of a regression model – multiple regression |
Text chapter 8 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 4 21st March |
Badly behaved data |
Text chapter 5 + Supplementary notes |
Weekly quiz |
Week 5 28th March |
Generalizing the right hand side of a regression model – ANOVA (1) |
Text section 10.5 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 6 4th April |
Generalizing the right hand side of a regression model – ANOVA (2) |
Text section 10.5 |
Weekly quiz |
Mid-Session break 9th to 24th April |
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Week 7 25th April |
Generalizing the right hand side of a regression model – ANCOVA |
Text chapter 12 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 8 2nd May |
Generalizing the right hand side of a regression model – curvilinear relationships |
Text section 10.3 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 9 9th May |
Model reduction (1) |
Supplementary notes |
Weekly quiz |
Week 10 16th May |
Model reduction (2) |
Supplementary notes |
Weekly quiz Practical Project due |
Week 11 23rd May |
Gamma Regression + intro to categorical data |
Text section 10.1 – 10.5 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 12 30th May |
Logistic regression |
Text chapter 19 |
Weekly quiz |
Week 13 6th June |
Finish logistic regression & Review |
Text chapter 19 |
Weekly quiz |
Please note, there might be some changes to the above schedule.
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
New Assessment Policy in effect from Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html. For more information visit http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/07/19/new_assessment_policy_in_place_from_session_2/
Assessment Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy prior to Session 2 2016 http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
In large (statistics) lectures noise can often be a problem. In the interest of your colleagues and the lecturer please remain quiet during lectures. It is impossible to learn while people around you are talking. Questions directed to the lecturer are encouraged but please keep talking between yourselves to an absolute minimum. If you wish to carry on a conversation with another student please leave the lecture. The lectures are electronically recorded using the iLecture system and will be available using the unit web page. If you wish to tape the lectures on your personal tape recorder please discuss your request with the unit chair. As a general rule, please turn off your mobile phone. It is not required but you may find it useful to bring your laptop to the lectures if you wish to follow along with the practical aspects of the unit.
Tutorial classes start in week 2 but there is an online quiz due on the Sunday of the first week of semester. There is a one 1-hour tutorial class each week. Tutorials are not compulsory but tutorial material may be assessed in the final exam. Changes to all units can be done on-line via eStudent. As a general rule students are welcome to attend a tutorial session other than the one to which they are assigned as long as there are spare seats in the alternate class. If there are no spare seats and students who are allocated a seat cannot find one the tutor will ask those not allocated to that class to leave the room.
Tutors will work through the tutorial exercises and please note that solutions to online quizzes are not available from the tutors or unit chair. If you miss a tutorial class, it is your responsibility to arrange to see another student's solution.
The practical component of the unit is based on the SPSS statistical package. You will be required to use SPSS outside of class hours for approximately 15-60 minutes per week preparing material for practical classes. Some practical project tasks will require SPSS sessions. SPSS may be used interactively by tutors in practical classes to illustrate the use of the computer for statistical analysis.
Students with their own personal computers can purchase a version of SPSS from the Co-op Bookshop. If you already own a copy of SPSS and it is older than that used in lectures or tutorials do not worry, the SPSS procedures used in this unit have not changed in any meaningful way for many versions. Alternately, SPSS can be accessed for free by all students via the University’s iLab system. For more information on the iLab system, see: https://wiki.mq.edu.au/display/iLab/About. Data files for use in tutorials will available for download from the PSY349 iLearn page under “Datasets for quizzes”.
Dr Alan Taylor’s document “Introduction to IBM SPSS Statistics” which is referred to in the Practical descriptions is available from the PSY349 iLearn page under “Useful links and documents”. This document will be helpful for students unfamiliar with SPSS. See also Dr Taylor’s own webpage for valuable resources on using SPSS (follow links for the PSY349 website.)
The Library provides a range of learning opportunities aimed at developing student capabilities in research and information technology. Topics covered include:
You can choose to learn online or at face-to-face session in the library. More information is available at http://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/library/training/ Phone: 9850 7399