GRADING

Grades for the course Psychological Testing I will be based on two equally weighted components:
I. One research paper, which may be completed in groups of up to three persons.

II. A midterm exam on all materials covered up to convergent and discriminant validity.

 

Research Paper

The research paper is intended to give you experience in developing and evaluating a psychological test. You may choose to work in groups of up to three persons. If you wish to develop a test of your own, then you will need to collect data on this test. There will be one day in class during which everyone will take each other's tests, but you will generally be expected to collect more data from friends and acquaintances outside of class as well. Such data collection efforts should provide real-world experience with the process of collecting data as well as allowing you to amass enough data for your project. If you prefer to use an existing data set owned by the instructor, then that may be arranged on an individual basis, but then the topic of your project will obviously be limited to what the instructor has previously collected data on.

The paper must be in APA style, with appropriate title page, abstract (960 characters or less), introduction, method, results, and discussion sections. Although the paper will be graded on quality rather than quantity, it is the instructor's experience that the two are positively correlated, so a short paper (e.g., 15 pages) is unlikely to receive as good a grade as is a long paper (e.g., 25 pages). Example papers in APA style will be distributed to help you know what the instructor is looking for in both format and content.  

Midterm Exam

The midterm exam, made up primarily of essay questions, is meant to be a straightforward assessment of your knowledge of the lectures and assigned readings up to convergent and discriminant validity. You are responsible for what is covered in both the lectures and the assigned readings. Therefore, the best policy is both to attend class regularly and to read the assigned materials.

 

Last modified April 2003
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