PSYCHFILES: PSYC 7106G

Syllabus

• Course Information

  PSYC 7106G: Research and Program Evaluation Methods in Applied Psychology

  
  

  LECTURE

  Alla Chavarga

  alla.chavarga@gmail.com

  W 6:30-9:15PM 2613J

  Office Hours: T 1-3pm 4305J

• Course Description3 credits

  PSYC 7106G: Research and Program Evaluation Methods for Psychology

               Studying human behavior can be messy and difficult but conducting research in organizations is even more challenging. In organizations, circumstances can be dynamic and uncontrollable, employees and employers may not be willing to provide time and resources, new employees come and old ones leave, employees may not trust the researcher, standard laboratory methodology may not be suitable or available, and so on. A researcher in an organization could be an HR employee charged with the task of finding out why there is a lot of turnover in the organization, a consultant hired by the management or by the HR director to deal with the problem that people are not very motivated to do their jobs, or the head of a department who realizes that there are communication problems between her department and another department yet both are expected to work together.

               Before we discuss research methods, we will talk about problems in organizations. Once we have identified a problem, we have to find out why the problem exists. But how do we make sure that it is not just our own, biased interpretation of the situation? Well, a literature review is the answer: What do researchers and scientists say about this problem? Which psychological construct is at the core of the problem? What research methods did they use to study this construct? What were their findings? Knowing this will help us plan and conduct our own research study to see whether the problem actually exists in our organization. Only then can we try to find a way to fix it. A program may be designed to address the specific issues that contributed to the problem. More specific results of our research will allow us to design more specific programs to address the issue. Such programs could be, for instance, a new employee training program to reduce turnover or a new benefits program to improve employee satisfaction. To find out whether those programs really work, we will need to use program evaluation methods to see whether the money spent on the program is money well invested.

               There are no good or bad research methods, only wrongly applied methods if they don’t appropriately address the problem or the research question. The method we use to investigate a problem directly depends on the type of question we ask. Each question requires a specific type of method. We will discuss various research and program evaluation designs specifically useful in applied settings, which we will use to explore various problems and constructs relevant to I/O Psychology.

• Course Goals and Objectives

  Primary objective of this course is to prepare you to critically evaluate the validity, adequacy, and relevance of research in I/O psychology and to apply the principles of good research to specific organizational problems. You will learn the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of investigating behavior in organizations and their respective applications. This course has three main goals:
  
  • Provide an understanding of how various research designs can be used to answer questions in I/O psychology.
  
  • Enable you to plan and conduct basic studies answering common problems typically posed in an organizational context, either as HR professionals or as consultants.
  
  • Enable you to understand research reports and become critical readers of research reports as found in scientific journals.
  
  

• Required Textbooks

  Swanson, R. A., & Holton III, E. F. (Eds.). Research in organizations: Foundations and methods of inquiry. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. (PDF available)
  
  American Psychological Association. (2010). The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. (PDF available)
  
  

• CITI Training

  To ensure responsible conduct of research and the protection of human participants, every researcher is required to complete one online training course: Human Subjects Research (HSR) for Social & Behavioral Faculty, Graduate Students & Postdoctoral Scholars. The certificate must be submitted by the class session in which ethics and responsible conduct in research are discussed. To take the online training, please go to this site: CITI Trainiing
  
  If you have completed a certificate before and it is still valid, you can simply send a PDF copy of the existing report and submit it via email. If it is no longer valid, you can take a short refresher course and submit that certificate. Animal certificates or biological sciences certificates are not acceptable for this course.

Course Policies

• Grading

  Performance in this course will be evaluated on the basis of five assignments, one weekly presentation, one term paper (research proposal), one research proposal presentation, and a final exam.
  
  5 Assignments: 4HWs and CITI (4% each)       20%
  Weekly Presentation     20%
  Term Paper (Research Proposal)     20%
  Final Exam     20%
  Proposal Presentation      20%
  

• Brooklyn College Regulations Regarding Academic Integrity Cheating, Plagiarism, and Academic Dishonesty

  The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and plagiarism. You are responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for avoiding both. The complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College procedure for implementing that policy can be found at this site: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies. If a faculty member suspects a violation of academic integrity and, upon investigation, confirms that violation, or if the student admits the violation, the faculty member MUST report the violation. if you plagiarize any of your work (assignments, term paper, oral presentation, final exam), you will fail this course (i.e., receive the grade F not only for the specific work but for the entire course).

• Center for Student Disability Services

  In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be registered with the Center for Student Disability Services. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an appointment with the Director of the Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie Stewart-Lovell at (718) 951-5538. If you have already registered with the Center for Student Disability Services, please provide your professor with the course accommodation form and discuss your specific accommodation with him/her.