First Year Seminar:
Talking about Numbers
Psychology 053
Spring 2012
We are meeting in Room 347 Davie Hall from 9:30-10:45 am starting on Tuesday January 10, 2012.
How do you figure out if you should trust results from research studies reported in the media? How do you persuade others with numbers? What general principles should you think about when sharing data with others? This seminar introduces you to the many ways that research results are reported to the public in your everyday lives-through advertising and mass media, the Internet, research-based policy statements, oral presentations, and scientific journal articles. You will learn practical skills that will use in your classes through all your years at Carolina and after graduate (in graduate school, in your job). In this course you will learn how to design research studies, collect data, use graphics and data analysis programs, give effective presentations to others, and write about data. We will discuss how to judge your audience when reporting research results – whether in the media, in government forums such as Congress, in the courtroom for expert testimony, and on the Internet. Our emphasis is on how we can develop a critical eye for interpreting results, how to share results with others, and how computer use and the Internet landscape fit with issues of data access and reporting.
What Will You Find Here?
This portion of the web site includes: Talking about Numbers News, the class list, the special topics list, our course syllabus and course philosophy, detailed descriptions of exercises and assignments, data sets to download, information about preparing a Talking about Numbers semester project, quantitative places to visit, step-by-step instructions about using SPSS, information about quantitative talks/workshops and websites, and contact information.
Course Materials
To access the Psychology 053 web site, you'll need special access information distributed by the instructor during the first class meeting to enrolled students. Contact Dr. Panter at panter@unc.edu if you have technical issues. To access course materials, click below.