Section D · Page 16
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 17, 1998
Students dislike being guinea pigs
Sometimes nothing catches their attention
Use white space to your
advantage when designing your
ad, it's an attention getter.
Psychology asks for research help to collect data
By Julie Sachs Kansan staff writer
When students enroll in Psychology 104, they almost instantaneously become human guinea pigs.
It is a requirement for students taking the class to participate in psychology research studies.
"One component of an introductory course is to get experience on how research is done," said Chris Crandall, associate professor of psychology. "It gives an upclose-and-personal experience on what it's like to be in research."
Student participation is beneficial in other ways.
Because student's do not get paid for their participation, costs
are cut for the researchers while they are collecting their data
it's only one of the ways to collect data. We could pay people, but funds in psychology research are drying up," Crandall said.
Only one in 50 researchers in the psychology department has some sort of outside funding. Crandall said that it was difficult to obtain money for research.
If a student is opposed to participating in the research studies, there is an alternative.
The student can either choose to participate in the five hours of research studies or they can write a research paper, Crandall said.
Most students, he said, choose to do the research participation. He also said that there were about 75 experiments conducted each semester.
"You are supposed to learn something by being there and it keeps you out of the library."
"One component of an introductory course is to get experience on how research is done. It gives an upclose-and-personal experience on what it's like to be in research."
Crandall said.
Chris Crandall Associate professor of psychology
Shanna Kirkpatrick, Lyndon junior, said she did not feel that participating in the studies was a beneficial learning experience.
"I thought they were a waste of time and a pain," Kirkpatrick said. "But I understand why we had to go."
"Students should know that they are not being coerced into this." Crandall said.
Participating in the research experiments is encouraged. But if the student is good at writing a paper then that option is available. Crandall said.
Crandall calls the research participation a semi-requirement.
this semi-requirement has frustrated many students.
Dessie Orear, Lyndon junior, said it was a major problem if a student missed an experiment for which they signed up.
One said that some people in her class had to participate in about 30 experiments just to complete the five-hour requirement.
If students forget to attend an experiment they must participate in two additional experiments to make up for the one they missed, Orear said.
About two to five percent of any given class does not complete its five hours of participation by the end of the semester, Crandall said.
n the student does not complete the five-hour requirement, then the student receives an incomplete grade for the semester. Crandall said. The student is then given one more semester in which to complete their research participation.
If they still fail to complete the hours, the student then is given a failing grade. Crandall said.
This same penalty is received in students do not finish their research papers by the allotted grace period.
Exceptions are made in certain circumstances.
Students will rarely be treated badly if they have justified reasons for not completing their research requirements, Crandall said.
"We'll go out of the way to help," he said.
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