Charlotte, I teach experimental psych now and then and do lab classes in
Personality, and also Social Psych. We also find students trying to put off taking
the required stats and experimental sequence here, but since these classes are
required for the labs and they are not allowed to take the capstone class without most
of their core classes completed, we find most have had them by the time they are in
their last semester.
I think getting them out there to explore a question can be a fine exercise as
long as you can take the time to refresh their thinking about research issues, or use
it to discuss problems of bias, lack of controls, etc. In the labs I teach, I find
that very few retain info from their stats or experimental classes because they did
not practice enough. We try to use the labs (or at least I do) to practice the stats
and methods. I will often have them use friends and family members and despite how to
present instructions and materials, we find a lot of variation in what is actually
done. I then use this to discuss problems of control, standardization, random
assignment, etc. Hopefully, the hands-on experience gets them to think about these
issues more concretely. Just asking them to go out and describe behavior can be an
interesting exercise as everyone of course does it differently and issues of training,
observational techniques, sampling, etc., can be usefully discussed. Best wishes,
Gary Peterson
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
989-964-4491
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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