**Gary Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
**Do any of you have a psych curriculum that requires other
**sciences, say a biology class?
Hi Gary,
Here at GSU, 9 credit hours of other sciences (bio, chem,
physics; 2 semesters of lab highly encouraged) are required
for a B.S. in psychology, but not for a B.A. I really like your
idea about requiring a philosophy of science course, though.
Seems to me that would be appropriate for both B.A. and
B.S. students. Hmmm...
**One other comment I heard recently when I was talking
**about our students doing research projects in psych and
**presenting at local conferences. "Do you teach them the
**value of replication? I heard you psychologists do
**one-shot studies and then try to present or publish them.
**What impression do you give your students about the value of
**checking on your findings?"
Perhaps it varies for different areas of Psychology, but I'd
say replication is alive and well in Experimental Psychology.
In fact, it's nearly impossible to find an outlet for a single
experiment paper in Cognitive Psychology these days. Most
JEP papers seem to run 3-6 experiments per paper. Granted,
not all include exact replications, but most consist of rather
close variations on a theme.
On a personal note, I wasn't able to publish my dissertation
because after it was completed I attempted to replicate
some key findings and couldn't. After the third or fourth
attempt (it's not easy to let go when the tenure clock is
ticking), I had to let go. I was lamenting over this with one of
my junior colleagues (a community psychologist) and he
noted how different our two worlds were. In his research
area, it is more normative to do very large scale, expensive,
and time consuming projects. I'd guess there are (rightly)
fewer internal replications in that research domain than in
my own, where experiments can require as few as 20-50
subjects, and can be completed within a few weeks.
-Mike
*****************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Psychology Department
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
phone: 404-651-0704
fax: 404-651-0753
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money as
long as you have it."
-- E.W. Teale
