PSYC 528
Advanced Methods in Social Psychology and Personality
(2020-2021
Academic Year, Term 2)
When: Fridays 12:00 - 2:00
Where: Via Zoom (Zoom info sent by email; email Mark if you need that
information again.)
Course
webpage (to access the readings): https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/psyc528.htm
Instructor:
Mark
Schaller
Email:
schaller@psych.ubc.ca
Zoom office hours: By appointment (some additional details
described below)
Course
objectives:
Productive
psychological scientists need to be able to do a lot of things. At the very
least, you need to be able to (1) identify interesting research questions and
novel hypotheses that plausibly answer those questions, (2) design and carry
out empirical studies that yield the kinds of results necessary to rigorously
test the veracity of those hypotheses, and (3) present these empirical findings
in articles that get published and noticed by other scholars. There are lots of
challenges to overcome in order to attain those goals. There are lots of useful
methodological strategies that you can employ to meet those challenges and to
achieve those goals. Some of these challenges and methodological strategies are
relevant in just about any domain of the behavioral sciences. Some of them are
particularly germane to research in personality and social psychology. The
purpose of this course is to provide a useful overview of many of these
challenges and methodological strategies, and to help you think critically
about the advantages, disadvantages, and issues associated with specific
methods that might be used to address specific challenges.
(This
is not a course on statistics. There are lots of other classes that you can
take that dig deep into methods for statistically analyzing data after data has
been collected. The focus of this
class is on methods for doing the kinds of stuff that scientists have to
rigorously do in order to actually acquire useful data in the first place.)
If
this course is successful, it will (1) sensitize you more fully to the
methodological challenges associated with research in social and personality
psychology, (2) help you be a more mindful user of the scientific tools that
you're already familiar with, and (3) introduce you to additional tools that
might come in handy over the course of your research career. Also, along the
way, the course might (4) provide additional insights into some psychological
processes that are important topics of inquiry in social and personality
psychology.
Overview of the course, at a
glance:
Week
1 (Friday January 15): Introductions & some basics
Week
2 (Friday January 22): Constructs (measuring and manipulating them)
Week
3 (Friday January 29): Mediation and causal chains
Week
4 (Friday February 5): Sampling decisions and implications
Week
5 (Friday February 12): Getting inside the head
MID-TERM
BREAK
Week
6 (Friday February 26): Going into the real world
Week
7 (Friday March 5): Connecting to other levels of analysis
Week
8 (Friday March 12): Replication and cumulative knowledge
Week
9 (Friday March 19): Ideas, theories, models, hypotheses
Week
10 (Friday March 26): Student presentations
Week
11 (Friday April 2): Student presentations
Week
12 (Friday April 9): Student presentations
Readings:
I
have curated a reading list to guide us. The reading list is on the class
website, and you can find it here: https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/528ReadingList.htm.
Many of the readings provide some sort of useful overview of particular
kinds of research methods. Others present spirited opinions about and/or
criticisms of particular kinds of scientific practices. Others offer examples
of how specific methodological strategies might be used to address particular
kinds of questions that can arise in social / personality research.
About
this list of readings: It is really long; but please do not get freaked out by
that. For each week, there are two categories of readings: (a) a short list of
3 or 4 things to Read for sure; and
(b) a supplemental (and often much longer) list of Other things worth reading, when you have the time.
Read for sure means
exactly that: Make sure you read these things! And make sure you read them
before we meet. Some of them are short, but some are pretty darn long or dense
or otherwise take some time to plow through thoughtfully. Give yourself enough
time to read these Read for sure
readings done each week, so that you are fully ready to discuss them before we
meet.
(As
for the Other things worth reading, when
you have the time: They are on the list simply as an additional resource
for your potential benefit: Useful things for you to be aware of, and to
potentially dig into and draw upon whenever you have the inclination and the
time. If you have a chance to read some of them this term, that would be great
and you would probably benefit from it. If not, no problem. At the very least,
I want them to be on your radar.)
All
readings are available in electronic form, on the course website. To obtain
each reading, just click on the reference to it on that reading list on the
website: https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/528ReadingList.htm
Class Time:
This is
graduate seminar, and so most of class time each week will be devoted to
focused discussion (and maybe sometimes even spirited debate) about topics and issues
covered in the assigned readings. I envision my role to be primarily as a
facilitator of that discussion. Sure, sometimes I might find some opportunity
to provide you with additional information that is not in the assigned
readings; but mostly I will just be trying to moderate a conversation in which
the rest of you do the majority of the talking. So, again, it is super-duper
important that you read the readings, so that you come to class prepared to
discuss those readings thoughtfully!
Also, I want
each of you to help share the burden of leading our class discussions. This
will also help ensure your active participation in class discussions. You will
have the opportunity to choose one of the Read
for sure readings assigned for Weeks 2 - 9, with the idea that you will
facilitate the class discussion on the topic(s) covered within that reading
during that class meeting. (We will sort out the details during our first class
meeting, so that you can plan accordingly. It would be awesome if you gave the whole
reading list a look-over before our first class meeting, and identified some
specific readings that you might be particular keen to lead the discussion of.)
Our class
meetings will take place on Zoom. (Zoom info provided to you separately, via
email).
Weekly
Questions:
To help
ensure that you are getting the most out of the course, and are also
contributing constructively to class discussions (even when you are not a
designated discussion leader), I have a small task for you to do in advance of
our class meetings on Weeks 2 - 9: I want each of you to (a) articulate at
least 1 question each week that is inspired by one or more of the readings and
that you perceive to be worthwhile to discuss, and (b) to provide that question
in advance to discussion leader(s) and to me. Please phrase each question in a
coherent, understandable way; but please keep it brief. (Just one or two
sentences typically suffices for this sort of thing.) Email your question(s) to
the discussion leader(s), and to me, no later than 5:00 pm the day before each
class. (Please put your question in the body of the email; no attachments
please.) This will allow the designated discussion leader(s) to draw upon your
questions to help organize and facilitate a useful class discussion.
I will keep
a record of your submissions of these questions, as one way of tracking your
active participation in the course. But I am not going to be marking them in
any meaningful way. Mostly this exercise is designed to help ensure that
everyone is staying on top of the readings and is prepared to contribute
usefully to good, thoughtful class discussions.
Student Presentations:
The last
three scheduled class meetings (Weeks 10 - 12: March 26, April 2, & April
9) are reserved for student presentations. This is an opportunity for you to
(a) dig deep into some specific methodological topic of your choosing, and (b)
provide the rest of us with an expert presentation on it. You will each have a
30-minute time-slot for this presentation (roughly 20 minutes for a
presentation plus 10 minutes for Q & A.)
There are a
lot of different approaches you could take to this presentation. For instance,
you might focus on one particular kind of methodology, and provide an
introductory tutorial on that methodology (when to use it, how to use it, its
strengths and weaknesses, etc.). Or you might focus on one particular kind of
research challenge, and provide an overview of different methodologies that
might be employed to meet that challenge (along with some insight into their
different strengths and weaknesses). Or you might focus on one specific
published study that is methodologically innovative or noteworthy in some way,
and provide an insightful overview of exactly why and how it is
methodologically innovative or noteworthy (and how it might be useful in other
research contexts, etc.). Those are just some examples of approaches that you
might take. Ideally, you will use it as an opportunity to become deeply expert
on something that is useful to you; and, by presenting it in class, you will
share your newfound expertise with the rest of us too.
Before
committing to a topic for your presentation, it will probably be useful to chat
with me about it. I want to set up individual meetings with each of you at the
beginning of the term, and then again midway through the term. During one or
both of these individual meetings, we should make sure to talk in a planful way about your presentation, to help ensure that it
jives with your personal scholarly goals as well as the educational goals of
this course.
Paper:
I will want
you to write one paper for this class, due at the end of the term. (Deadline:
Friday, April 16; delivered to me via email.)
Because this
is a paper for a course on Advanced
Methods in Social Psychology and Personality, you should use this paper as
an opportunity to develop and demonstrate your skills at being thoughtful and
clever and insightful about research methods in social and/or personality
psychology. Ideally, you will also use it as an opportunity to write something
that might be a stepping stone toward publishable scholarly product. There are
different kinds of papers that might serve these goals. For example, you could
write a paper that functions as a research proposal (the sort of thing that
might be submitted as research grant application to a funding agency). This
kind of paper would articulate the scholarly rationale for one or more
empirical studies designed to test one or more novel hypotheses pertaining to
social and/or personality psychology, and then proceed to describe in detail
(and to justify) the methods that these studies will employ. Alternatively, you
could write a paper that functions as an incisive scholarly discussion of a
particular methodological issue or methodological tool (the sort of thing that
might be submitted as a manuscript to a journal like Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science). This
kind of paper could take many forms (an expert tutorial on a particular
methodology, a critical discussion of current methodological practices, etc.),
and you will see a lot of examples of articles like this on the reading list.
Anyway, you can choose what kind of paper you want to write (just so long as
you write a paper that provides you with opportunities to show off some
thoughtful methodological chops).
Before
committing to a topic for your paper, I expect it will be useful to chat with
me about it. Again, I want to meet individually with each of you at least twice
this term. During one or both of these individual meetings, let us make sure to
talk about your ideas for this paper assignment.
(By the way,
it is perfectly okay for the topic of your paper to overlap substantially with
the topic of the presentation you will give toward the end of the term. It is
also perfectly okay if there is no overlap.)
Regardless
of what kind of paper you write, I expect that the main body of these papers
will be roughly 15 - 25 pages, double-spaced (that doesn't include references,
abstract, or title page).
Course Grade:
Your
final course grade will be based on the following two things, weighted equally:
(a) the overall quality of your paper (with particular emphasis on the extent
to which it demonstrates methodological expertise and insight); and (b) your
class participation (as indicated by your presentation, your efforts as
discussion leader, your weekly questions, and your other thoughtful
contributions to class discussion).
Individual meetings
with Mark:
I
would like to meet individually with each of you early in the term, and then
again about halfway through the term. The purpose of the early-in-the-term
meeting is mostly so that I can learn more about you and your goals, including
your broader scholarly aspirations as well as what you hope to get out of this
course. It will also serve as an early opportunity for me to provide whatever
helpful guidance I can about the kinds of things expected of you in this
course. The middle-of-the-term meeting will provide us a timely opportunity to
talk in detail about the presentation you will give toward the end of the term,
and about the paper due at the end of the term. (We will sort out a schedule
for these meetings during class, and/or via email.)
If
you want to meet with me at other times, just let me know.
We
will do these individual meetings via Zoom. (I think we can use the same Zoom
link that we are using for our weekly class meetings. I am sending that Zoom
info to you separately, via email.)