Course Introduction for Psychological Statistics at St. Mary's College of Maryland taught by Roger Stanton

Professor: RogerStanton, St. Mary's College of Maryland

Office: GH 131

Office hours: M, W 10:30 – 11:30 or by appointment 

Course description: This course is meant to give you an understanding of statistical techniques used in the analysis of psychological data specifically, but the tests used are applicable to a wide array of fields.   We will cover many of the inferential statistics that are used in research in the physical and social sciences.  Regardless of whether your specific interests are in biology, sociology, physics, educational studies, or psychology, you will find this class useful.  By course end you should understand the different classes of data, be able to describe the data and use appropriate analyses to interpret the data. Furthermore, the course will stress approaching all data and information (whether presented in a journal article or a newspaper column) with a skeptical eye.

Required Tasks:  Course announcements will be sent to your St. Mary's College of Maryland email address.  It is your responsibility to check this account daily.  If you prefer to have messages sent to another address you need to have emails from your St. Mary's College of Maryland account routed to the preferred address.  The professor, Roger Stanton, is not responsible for ensuring that you receive your emails.

If you have a need for any sort of accommodations, you must tell the professor, Roger Stanton, during the first week of classes.  Also, it is your responsibility to set up any accommodations with the Academic Service office at St. Mary's College of Maryland.  To set up these accommodations, the Academic Services office will need to have official documentation on file in the Registrar's office at St. Mary's College of Maryland.   For example, if you have permission to take exams in academic services you must reserve a room and notify Professor Roger Stanton of your plans at least two days before each exam.

Attendance: You are expected to attend and to arrive at each class session with assigned readings read, homework finished, and/or prepared for examinations. Attendance is taken indirectly through in-class assignments. 

Many statistical topics build on previous topics; therefore, missing class can be detrimental to your progress.  If you know you will miss class for an excused reason (athletic participation, religious holiday, etc.), it is your responsibility to let me know at least two weeks in advance.  If you miss class for an excused reason I will do my best to see that you get any materials you missed and/or make arrangements for you to take a make-up exam should you miss an exam.  That said, the professor simply cannot give mini-lectures to those missing class, excused or not.  If you miss class, you need to get materials from a classmate and read the textbook chapter(s) and then make an appointment with Professor Roger Stanton and/or the St. Mary's College of Maryland TA if you have questions.

Homework: All homework assignment are posted in the ‘Content’ folder on the St. Mary's College of Maryland Blackboard site.  Homework assignments will consist of problems assigned from the text plus questions written by the instructor, Roger Stanton, and the point value of each assignment varies. You should pay special attention to the instructions on all homework assignments, often I will ask you to go beyond what is required by the problems in the book, such as interpreting what the final numbers mean in plain English, putting results in APA format, or commenting on aspects of the calculations.

Here is the formatting for submitting a homework assignment:

Roger Stanton

St. Mary's College of Maryland

Psychological Statistics

Homework #1

The Writing Center.  This is not a writing intensive course, however it is suggested that you seek the writing help offered at The Writing Center at St. Mary's College of Maryland.  The Writing Center is staffed by other St. Mary's College of Maryland students, and these peer advisors can offer advice on a variety of writing activities.

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism  All work submitted in this course must be your own and be written exclusively for this course.  You will have few options for plagiarism, but many options to copy your classmates.  As a student at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and as a student in Professor Roger Stanton's course, you are expected to submit work that you completed.  You can seek help with your work, but you can not have others do the work for you.