Miguel Roig, Ph.D.

OFFICE HOURS: Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11:00 am and 12:00 am; Tuesdays from 2:10 to 3:10 Rosati Hall.

TEXTBOOKS. There are no required texts for this course. However, given the pre-requisites for the course (PSY 2030; PSY 2040), students are expected to be familiar with basic research methods, experimental design, and statistical concepts. Therefore, you will likely need to consult relevant textbooks, such as:

COURSE OBJECTIVES. Seminar (PSY 4990) is an advanced course of research and discussion of various areas of psychology of interest to individual students. The course is designed to resemble the advanced-level classroom conditions of a graduate course. The primary goals of the course are: a) the integration of knowledge gained in previous psychology courses (particularly research methods, statistics) leading to b) a well written review of the literature in a specific area of psychology, the formulation of an original hypothesis, and the methodology to test it, and c) high levels of thoughtful and critical student discussion and independent scholarship.

GRADING. The largest portion of your final grade (50%) will be determined by a paper (due no later than April 24^th) which will consist of a comprehensive review of the empirical literature and a research proposal on a topic of your choice. The topic, although open to any area of psychology (with some exceptions, e.g., self-esteem, eating disorders, and other pop psychology topics), must meet my final approval. Please feel free to contact me at any time in person or via e-mail during the semester to discuss the acceptability of your topic. The review must include a research proposal to test an original hypothesis, or series of hypotheses, derived from your review of the literature. However, you will not have to collect any data for the project. The FINAL PRODUCT will consist of a formal APA style research paper (title page, abstract, introduction, method, projected results and discussion) of a minimum of 25 pages excluding references. Point your browser HERE for additional details about how I grade papers and HERE for details on paraphrasing, avoiding plagiarism, and my academic dishonesty policy. For an introductory guide on APA style see Paul C. Smith's hypertext research paper. For additional tips on writing papers in psychology you may want to point your browser here.

COURSE STRUCTURE. The course will be divided into two basic parts. During the first quarter of the semester, I will be reviewing research methodology, various research library techniques that will help you in identifying topics and locating references for your paper and sharpening potential hypotheses for your research proposal. The second quarter will be used for informal presentations by students. The rest of the semester will be used for formal student presentations.

E-MAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST- During the first week of classes you need to send me an e-mail message which should include your full name, your student number, and the title and course number (i.e., Seminar, PSY 4990). When I receive this message I will include your e-mail address in our class’ e-mail distribution list. This list consists of the e-mail addresses of all of the members of the class and will make it easy for me to send pertinent messages (e.g., announcements, related course material) to the entire class. Please use whichever e-mail address (school or home) you consult most frequently. You are probably aware by now that each of you has a St. John’s University e-mail address which consists of your first initial, followed by the first 4 letters of your last name followed by the last 3 numbers of your social security number @stjohns.edu. Thus, for example, if your name was Juan Gonzales and your social security number was 150-57-4643, your e-mail address at St. John’s would be jgonz643@stjohns.edu.

EXPECTATIONS AND ADVICE REGARDING THE COURSE. Because of the fact that even the best research libraries do not carry all existing periodicals, you should expect to go to one of the many larger university libraries, e.g., CUNY; Rutgers, NYU; New York City Public library, to obtain some needed references. Also, you are expected to provide each student (and professor) a copy of at least one representative paper of your topic for informal class discussion sometime during the third week of classes. Perhaps one of the most critical parts of the course is the selection of the topic. Therefore, it is recommended that you start actively working on selecting a topic immediately. Spend some time at the library canvassing the psychology abstracts, Psychlit, etc., to help you select a topic.

ATTENDANCE AND CLASS PARTICIPATION: Class participation will be an integral part of this course. Therefore class attendance, punctuality, and active participation are mandatory (particularly during student presentations). A combination of three late arrivals or early departures will result in one absence. During class participation, please refrain from using sophomoric language, e.g., "prove", "proven", and "society", "you know", "sort of" "like a", etc. I will be observing you everyday on how you conduct yourselves in this class and your individual behavior will serve as the basis for my comments about you should you require a letter of recommendation from me. Behavior characterized by serious scholarly inquiry is expected. On the other hand, the atmosphere of the class should be relaxed and conducive to much learning, discussion, and discovery.

DEADLINES. By February 14^th, students are to submit a tentative title of the topic of the research proposal, a list of about 5 references to be used in the review of the literature, and one or more journal or magazine articles that describe the nature of the problem. These materials will also to be distributed to each member of the class. At this time, students will be assigned presentation dates at random. If any student anticipates being absent at any time after this date let me know before I make the schedule to be distributed in class. For the next two or three weeks, students will make informal presentations of their topic. We can also use this time to brainstorm ideas for your proposal. These sessions should help the student sharpen their hypotheses and the focus of their research. On March 20^th, formal student presentations will begin. If a student, for any reason (medical, legal) must be absent during the day of his/her presentation, 5 points will be deducted from the final grade. If a student fails to submit the short paper exactly one week before his/her presentation 5 points will be deducted from the final grade.