Psy 233.

3 Statistical Methods for the Behavioural Sciences, I

TTh 11:30 a.m. 12:50 p.m., Fall 2015.
Instructor: G.E. Sarty
Office Hours: At the lab only: Tuesdays at 1 pm.
Texts: 1. Sarty, Introduction to Applied Statistics for Psychology Students. Online Free!
3. Green & Salkind, Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh, Pearson. Required.
Calculators: It is essential that you have a pocket calculator for this course. It is not
necessary that you buy an expensive model ($20 should do), but it is necessary that you
have a model that has capability to compute a mean and a standard deviation. If you
wish advice on a particular calculator, feel free to ask me.
Laptops: Laptop computers or iPads or cell phones are not allowed in class. Your
attention needs to be focused on me and the blackboard and not on FaceBook.
Assignments: Assignments are posted on the course webpage at http://homepage.
usask.ca/~ges125/Teaching/Psy233/Psy233.html. Suggested dates for beginning the
assignments are listed in the Course Plan. No marks are given for the assignments this
term, you are expected to be mature enough to work on them on your own. Answers
are posted on the course webpage. The labs are there for you to ask questions and to
work on the assignments together if you wish. I will mention in class a good time to start
each assignment. Please note: Math is not a spectator sport. You cannot learn the
material by watching me in class. Even reviewing the class notes or reading the textbook
is not enough. You need to think and work your way through the assignments to learn
the material.
Evaluation: First, the maximum mark you get from the following 2 options will be taken:
(1) Midterm 1: 15%, Midterm 2: 15%, Final Exam: 70%
(2) Midterm 1: 30%, Midterm 2: 30%, Final Exam: 40%
Then that mark, x, will be adjusted to a final mark of z to give a class mean M = 72%
by the following formula:
"

"

100(M x)
(M x)
2
x
+
1

x
z=
(x2 100x)
(x2 100x)
This adjustment will likely move your x mark by one or two points. If you get 100%, you
will still have 100% after the adjustment.
The exams will all be comprehensive, covering all material presented in the course prior
to the date of the exam. Each exam will present questions in a multiple-choice format.
ALL EXAMS ARE OPEN-BOOK AND OPEN-NOTES. YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO
BRING YOUR CALCULATOR TO ALL EXAMS. You will not be permitted to review
your final exam unless you can convince me that there was an error in the evaluation of
the exam.
LABS: The lab times are on Tuesdays, immediately following the class, at 1:00 pm in
the computer lab, ARTS 140, where you have access to SPSS. The labs are tutorials so
you are encouraged to bring any and all of your stats questions, especially about the
assignments, to the lab. The lab is the only place where you can see me outside class.
Labs begin September 8. There are no labs on October 13, 20, November 17, December
8 and as announced in class.
1

Course Plan in terms of Teaching Objectives:

Note: This is a plan, reality may be slightly different. The class material will be
presented in 3 blocks. Block 1 is an introduction to the basic tools of statistics and
probability and should be mostly complete by the first midterm exam. Block 2 gets you
into the ideas of hypothesis testing and should be complete by the second midterm exam.
Block 3 is material on one- and two-sample t tests and will be complete by the final exam.
Date
Thu, Sep 3
Tue, Sep 8
Thu, Sep 10
Tue, Sep 15
Thu, Sep 17
Tue, Sep 22
Thu, Sep 24
Tue, Sep 29
Thu, Oct 1
Tue, Oct 6
Thu, Oct 8
Tue, Oct 13
Thu, Oct 15
Thu, Oct 15
Thu, Oct 22
Tue, Oct 27
Thu, Oct 29
Tue, Nov 3
Thu, Nov 5
Tue, Nov 17
Thu, Nov 19
Tue, Nov 24
Thu, Nov 26
Tue, Dec 1
Thu, Dec 3
Tue, Dec 8
*L = Lesson

Class Topic
Course overview and statistical terminology
Summation notation, frequency tables, SPSS
Frequency tables
Histograms, pie charts
Stem and leaf plots; Mean, median, mode
SPSS
Variance and standard deviation
Sample Spaces and Probability
Permutations and Combinations
Probability/Binomial Distributions
The normal distribution
Percentiles, quartiles, deciles
Outliers; Boxplots
The Central Limit Theorem, SPSS
Confidence intervals - z distribution
Confidence intervals - t distribution
First Midterm Exam
Confidence intervals - proportions
SPSS
Confidence intervals for and 2 - 2
Hypothesis testing
SPSS
H0 on means - z and t tests
H0 on proportions - z test
H0 on variances - 2 test
SPSS, Unpaired z test
Confidence intervals for differences of means
Second Midterm Exam
Comparing variances, the F test
Unpaired t test
Unpaired t test, SPSS
Paired t test, SPSS
Review
Review
from Green & Salkind text

Relevant
Reading*

Assn
Begin

L 1-10

L 12-18

1
2

3
4
L 19
5

L 20
6
L 21
7
8
L 22

L 24
L 23

9
10

Academic Misconduct: All papers and exams that students present for grading must be the
result of their own honest effort. Should a student be suspected of plagiarism or cheating,
the matter will be referred immediately to the appropriate Dean. The Arts and Science
website that summarizes these matters and links to the university website in question is
http://www.arts.usask.ca/students/academics/appeals-integrity.php.
Note on Course Credit: Students are responsible for determining whether they have completed the appropriate prerequisites for the course. Credit for this course will not be
granted without previous completion of the prerequisites or permission of the Department. PSY 110 is the prerequisite for all 200 level PSY courses and the absence of the
prerequisite implies no credit for the course.
Copyright: The University of Saskatchewan respects the rights of copyright holders, their
legitimate assertions of their rights and any rules that they articulate for the use of their
material. Faculty and students have the responsibility to respect the rights of copyright
owners, to make themselves aware of federal legislation and to take the steps necessary to
ensure that their use of all copyright materials is compliant. Please, familiarize yourselves
with Copyright Law. You can find relevant information here: http://www.usask.ca/
copyright/.