12/21/06

       The Sub 3 scores, Final Project totals and your Class Averages have now been posted.   Your paper submissions were, once again, very well done.   The average for the Final Project was 90%; range 82%-99%.  The overall class average was 84.1% and ranged from 65%-96%.  Excellent work, class!  I hope to see each of you again in future courses; have a great break and a happy holiday!

12/17/06

       The Participation scores have now been posted.   They were graded on the 1 - 10 scale as indicated in the syllabus, then converted to percentages for the calculation of your average.  The Mean Participation = 8.78%; range 7 - 10, which is quite high for an introductory course.  These scores reflect your active attention and engagement in lecture and in small group work.  Good job everyone - stay tuned for Sub 3 scores which will be posted by Weds.

12/12/06

       The Final Exam scores have now been posted.  You will see that this class once again has a fairly high mean (80.9%), though a slightly restricted range of 62.7% - 92.2% on this exam.  You will also see that the far-most righthand columns in the gradebook are now up to date with Extra Credit additions and Attendance subtractions for absences beyond the first two.  The averages you see encompass all the posted grades, so they will change this week as Submission 3 and Participation grades are figured in.  Those will not likely be posted until next Tuesday, so consider these averages just a guideline of your final grade.   Check back again here next week and do please stop by to pick up your final papers early next semester  (they'll be outside my door).

12/11/06

      Exam IV (the final) consists of 51 M.C. questions.  See you tomorrow at 2pm in room 107.

12/8/06

      ATTENTION ALL!:

       THE FINAL EXAM IS IN OUR CLASSROOM

(NOT ROOM 147)!

     I have clarified with the registrar that there was an error in the listing.  Please come to the right room for your final.

      The attendance in the gradebook is now final (see 12/6 note for how that is being handled).  Look for all scores to be in the gradebook (including your final course grade by 12/19) - some scores will be posted as they are finalized.  Our final exam is Tuesday, 12/12, at 2pm-5pm, in room SC-147.  NOTE the room change - this has been confirmed by the Registrar's office.  Thanks for drawing my attention to that today!     See you then!

12/7/06

     For those who submitted extra credit forms, the final percentages of how much you earned are now in the gradebook.  Remember to bring in questions about the final exam tomorrow if you want to review any concepts from ch. 12, Cushman or Rogers' articles.

12/6/06

     Ok, the submissions from today look pretty good.  For those of you who forgot to give me either the article (with your name on it) or Sub 2 with my comments today, make sure you get me those tomorrow also, or you will lose points on Sub 3.  For now, you will see a 0.5 in the sub 3 column indicating that it has not yet been fully submitted. 

         If you have not yet given me  your Extra Credit requests, remember that they will not be accepted after tomorrow's class period and that they must have not only the researcher's signature, but also your typed summary of the project including theoretical perspective and method.  For the online surveys, you  must have the debriefing form and your summary attached, and these will earn 0.25% credit each.  Again, the maximum extra credit given is 3%.  

          Remember to check your attendance, scantron scores, etc in the gradebook if you have not already done so.   If you have documentation for an absence that you have not given me, get it to me by Friday.  At this point I believe all excused absences that were documented have been entered as 0.9, so you are not being penalized for those.   If you think I neglected to change yours, contact me immediately.   Note that the right-most columns of the attendance page will not be accurate until after Friday.  At that time, you will be able to see your total unexcused absences so you know how much will be deducted, according to the policy laid out in the syllabus.  While I record lateness (0.8) in the attendance sheet, they are NOT deducted from your final average the way absences are.  Instead, I factor patterns of lateness into your Participation grades.  Participation grades will be up close to when grades are submitted (which is 12/19).  In the  meantime, you will see your Sub 3 scores, final project scores, extra credit and final exam scores posted as I finish them during finals week.

11/27/06

     Due to my illness, office hours are cancelled today.  Please make an appointment or come by on Friday if you need to discuss your paper or anything else about the class.  Exam III grades are now posted: MC and Matching (out of 50) + Short Answer (out of 9) and the final score (out of 59).   The mean is 81.8% (B-) and the range: 67% - 98% - nice job everyone!  You can also now see the current exam average, off to the right side of the grades page.  Remember, the paper counts for 25% and the final and Participation will count for 15% each, so your actual course grade may be different.  Still, you can see where you stand currently in the class.  Do feel free to ask me about any aspects of the final paper which are still unclear (about the content, your critique, or APA formatting, etc.).  Again, ch. 12 is due this Weds, the paper and the Cushman article are due next Weds, 12/6.

11/20/06

     Class: sorry again for the bit of chaos this morning.  I appreciate your patience.  Please do come see me during office hours or make an appointment if my comments on Sub 2 are not clear.  Also, I know some of you have been obtaining Extra Credit for this course - remember to keep the forms until the last Thurs. of class, 12/7, when I'll collect them all at once.  If you have questions about the summaries you need to do for the extra credit to count, bring them to class after break.  All online studies should have some type of debriefing form at the end which validates your participation - contact the researchers (or Dr. Bill Altermatt) if you did not get one, b/c I cannot give credit without that.

    I have updated the gradebook to include your Sub 2 grades.  There you can see the breakdown of your score, out of 30 pts.  I have now also posted the scantron scores for Exam III.  You will see the mean for the MC and Matching is 82.7%, range 64%-98%, so no one failed.  I hope to have the short answers scored by tomorrow evening.  If they are not posted by then, they will be up after break.   We'll probably go over the exam on Weds, 11/29.   Good job everyone!

    For anyone interested, I will be conducting a workshop at the Learning Center (old science hall) on Tues., 11/28, 7pm.  It will be on managing Public Speaking Anxiety.  While we will not have a presentation assignment in our class, you may have them in your other classes.  Feel free to drop in if it is something you are interested in. 

     Finally, just a reminder: the Rogers article is due 11/27 and the Cushman article is due 12/6 - please bring your copies and/or any notes you've taken on them to class on those days.   Notice that both the Cushman article AND your final papers (Sub 3) are due the last Weds of class.   Please plan accordingly.  As stated in class, I am  happy to take papers earlier than the extended deadline, but all must be in my hands by class time, 12/6.

11/10/06

    In case you missed it, the final submission (Sub 3) of your paper is now due 12/6, Weds of Dead Week, due to my delays grading your Sub 2s.  You will get them  Monday, after your exam.   

11/10/06

    The answers to the Defense Mechanism Handout are  here you should be able to answer them from your reading, but if not, do the ones you can from class review, and then bring the ones you find confusing in on Monday. 

     Also, in case you have not seen it, according to the newly revised Final Exam Schedule, our exam is (still) Tues, 12/12 from 2-5pm.  Although the final is not a lot longer than regular exams in this class, you should assume you need to be here the full three hours, so you are not under time pressure during the exam.

11/3/06

     For those of you who find yourself occassionally struggling with issues of time management and/or study skills problems, please consider attending next Tuesday’s Spotlight on Academics talk at the Learning Center.  The topic is “It’s Never Too Late: Ten Tips for Getting Academically Back on Track.”  The talk will focus on specific, concrete strategies for improving academically that can be put into practice immediately. It’s designed to help students re-engage and re-focus on classes that are difficult in a meaningful way. The talk will be held TU, 11/7, in room 102 of (old) Science Hall at 7:00 p.m.

11/1/06

    While I am NOT offereing Extra Credit for this, there is another event I meant to announce in class - The Psych Club, People for Peace and a bunch of other organizations are sponsoring a film tomorrow night followed by a panel discussion.  "Invisible Children" is a powerful film about the plight of children who are being abducted into war in Uganda and Sudan.  The film is at 8pm in CFA Auditorium 11/2.  Do try to make it if you can.

10/30/06

Another Extra Credit opportunity:

         THIS Thursday 11/2, at 11 AM, in SCC 147, Professor Jia Wu will being doing a teaching presentation.  The psychology department is considering hiring her for teaching neuropsych next term.  If you attend the presentation and bring me your extra credit form at the end, I will sign it to indicate you should receive the extra credit.   You will then need to summarize the presentation according to the same issues you would normally cover for a research study (i.e., what is the person's theory, what methods did they discuss, etc.).  Once again, the forms are linked to my main vault page, and the Psych dept page.

10/27/06

Ok, your scantron scores and corresponding Exam II grades have now been posted.  The average was 78.2%, with a range similar to last time: 53% - 96%.  Remember, if anyone wishes to Withdraw from this class, the deadline is Tuesday, 10/31 - talk to your advisor before coming to see me, and bring the appropriate withdrawal form. 

   A research project that counts toward extra credit is being conducted by Jared Smith, James Gentry and Charla Chailland, students at Hanover College taking Dr. Bill Altermatt's PSY 220 course on Research Design and Statistics. The questionnaire that you are asked to complete is designed to examine college aged sexual activities. You will be asked several questions on your personal sexual experiences. You will also be asked a few demographic questions. After you have finished answering all the questions, you will be debriefed.   http://vault.hanover.edu/~altermattw/research/bodymod/

Please remember, for all of these studies,  you must fill out the Extra Credit form (from my vault page or the psych dept page) and  you must do the summary for each study in which you participate.

10/26/06

    As I described in class, there are various studies going on.  Below is an announcement from one of our seniors.  It is unusual in that there is actually some money associated with it, because it will require a lot of your time.  As you know, there is a maximum of 3% that you can receive for extra credit, so if you do this on top of other studies you will still only get 3% added at the end of the term.  However, it should be interesting and would help a fellow student out:  

              "I am in need of participants for my Independent Study in Psychology. I am studying interventions that help people decrease their use of profanity. Participation in this project requires that you commit to 3 meeting times--Oct 27th, Nov. 3rd, and Nov. 10th. Each meeting will last 1 hour. In between meetings, you will also be asked to keep track of your use of profanity. You will also be asked to fill out a final brief survey via e-mail. The cessation sessions will be led by an intern from Hanover College Counseling Services. While it is unlikely that any sensitive material will be divulged during these sessions, all aspects of participation in this project will be confidential.

All participants will receive $20 for your participation after the completion of the final measure which will be sent to you by email. In addition you will receive extra credit based on your course instructor’s guidelines.

The initial meeting time for this project will be Friday, October 27th at 4 PM in SC160. You must attend all three meetings in order to receive the $20 and the extra credit. A sign up sheet is posted on the bulletin board outside of room 147. Please sign if you think you might be interested. I will contact you soon to confirm your interest.

Primary Researcher: Cole Wyatt

Faculty Supervisor: Skip Dine Young

 If you have any further questions please contact me at wyatt@hanover.edu"

10/19/06

    Once again, Exam II is on Ch. 5, 6, 7, Esays 2, 3 and the videos we've seen in class.  You may skip the pages we omitted along the way (below) and the Essay #3 material that relates to ch. 8.  The 45 question all-multiple choice exam will be similar to the first one (no short answers). 

     Again, research participation opportunities are now posted on bulletin board outside rm 147, they are also linked here:

Extra Credit Drew

Extra Credit Yates

      Lastly, I know it seems far away, but when we get to ch. 9 and 10 after the exam, you will need to read those carefully as i will not be lecturing on much of the material.  Instead, we will apply the concepts in those chapters to two films, so try  not to miss class during those weeks. 

10/10/06

    Ok the material on disciplining children was not where I thought it was on my home page so I have re-posted it towards the bottom of our class coursepage, for any one who is interested in the issue from a psychological perspective.

10/6/06

    As I said in class, we will finish reviewing ch. 6 on Monday, Essay #2 is due for Weds., and ch. 7 is due for Thursday.  In addition, we have to go back to a few of the pages we skipped in chapter 3, regarding Intelligence.  Please read pages 102-107, also for Thursday.  If it helps you to read some of the other pages we skipped (99-110), feel free, but you will not be tested on the material in those pages.   To keep us from falling behind again, I am eliminating the following from chapter 7: p. 287-291.  Obviously, if you are interested, do read this section, but you will not be tested on it. 

10/4/06

    My very brief overview of your first submissions indicates that you were all on time and chose unique articles.  Great job!  I will look them over more carefully in the coming days and provide feedback on errors or problems.  You can check the gradebook next week for your scores.  At this point, you should be reviewing the articles carefully and starting to summarize them.  As we discussed, I do not expect you to understand all the technical statistics, but you should have a dictionary handy to look up "jargon" (professional terms that are new to you) and you should try to discern what the research methods were and how they relate to the theory and  hypothesis.  Please stop by my office if you have questions on your articles or the last exam.

9/28/06

    The scores have now been posted for Exam I.  On the grades page you will see your raw scores for the MC section (out of 40) and raw score for the Short Ans (out of 10), then they are combined for a final percentage, so the MC counts as 80% of the grade and the SA makes up 20% of the exam grade.  I do not think we will have time to go over these tomorrow, so expect to get them back Monday.  The stats for this exam are: Average = 80.7% (B-) and Range: 58% - 98%.  Good job!   For those of you scoring 73% (C-) or below, please do come talk to me if you are unclear how to improve your work in this class.  Given that our next exam falls AFTER mid-term grades are due, your mid-term grade report will be based primarily on this exam and your first paper submission, which is due on MyHanover next Weds. by class time. 

9/25/06

    The final lay-out of Exam I looks as follows: there are 40 multiple choice questions and 10 fill-ins, for a total of 50 questions, worth 2 points each.  Questions are drawn from the first four chapters, Essay #1, lecture discussions, and videos.  I will aim to have at least the multiple choice portion graded by Friday - scores will be posted in the Vault gradebook as soon as they are available.  You will need your codename to identify your score. 

    Please remember upcoming assignments: chapter 5 is due Thursday and Submission #1 is due a week from Weds, 10/4.

    Good Studying!  See you Weds.  

9/20/06

    It has come to my attention that the coursepage was not displaying the Submission 1 folder properly.   W e are still working the glitches out of the MyHanover page – if you had a problem, please try it again now.  You should be able to see the Submission 1 folder and post to it.  Let me know if you still encounter problems. 

9/18/06

    I just realized I mis-spoke in class today.  Your exam is Weds 9/27, NOT Monday.  Sorry, I mixed you up with another class.   In addition, it turns out Gary Petiprin will be coming Monday, not Thursday, as originally announced, he had a scheduling conflict.  At this point, everyone should be done with chapter 3 and starting chapter 4 - we'll wrap that up by Friday and review Essay #1 for Monday, in addition to Gary's presentation.

9/10/06

    I have now posted the Final Project assignment on our webpage.  We will go over these in class on Weds (I'll bring copies), then meet in the library on Thursday to start the research.

9/7/06

    I have now posted the Excel Spreadsheet that has your attendance and grades in it.  Please check this Gradebook periodically for accuracy. 

9/5/06

To help with managing all the work in this course, I suggest you attend the first learning center workshop:

9/4/06

Please check this Announcements page at least once/week to see if you have missed anything.  I cannot always announce interesting upcoming events in class, but they may well be listed here.  In case you missed it, the syllabus says office hours are on Weds but really they are on Mon and Friday, both at 2pm.  Please correct your syllabus.