PSYCHOLOGY 8993/4993, SECTION 6
TWIN AND FAMILY RESEARCH

SPRING SEMESTER 2005

Friday 1:15-2:30
N227 Elliott Hall**

Syllabus in pdf form

Instructors:

Objectives:

The purpose of this seminar is to review research of relevance to members of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family research (MCTFR) and the Minnesota Twin Registry (MTR). The goals of the seminar are to: 1) make researchers aware of ongoing research in the MCTFR and MTR, 2) provide a forum to seek advice on research topics and methods, and 3) stimulate interest in new research topics.

Evaluation:

All students are expected to read the assigned articles for each week and be prepared to discuss these in class. Requirements differ for graduate and undergraduate students. Graduate students will either: 1) give a formal presentation on their research, or 2) be responsible for leading one of the weekly group discussions of the assigned journal articles. Undergraduate students who are taking the seminar on an A/F grading basis must write a 10/15 page paper on a topic of relevance to the seminar (details provided here) in addition to attending the seminar. All undergraduate students, whether taking the seminar S/N or for a grade, are required to attend at least 80% of the sessions. Students taking the course S/N will receive an S grade if they meet this standard. Hopefully, everyone will participate in class discussions.

Format:

The seminar will consist of research presentations and journal article discussions. A typical seminar session will consist of a formal research presentation that will take about half the class period and a discussion of 2-3 journal articles that will take the remaining time. The journal articles are usually selected to relate to the topic of the research presentation.

Research Presentations:

Unless a presenter prefers otherwise, presentations should last about half the class session of 75 minutes. Presentations should provide a concise introduction to the research topic, the research methodology and results. Presentations can be made in Power Point, in which case copies of the Power Point slides should be provided to the seminar participants.

Journal Article Discussion:

One graduate student will be assigned to lead the discussion of the journal articles each week. It is not expected that the assigned individual would give a formal presentation on the articles. Rather she or he would be responsible for helping the group identify important issues to discuss and for making sure we get through all the assigned articles. It is therefore critical that all participants read the articles each week and come prepared to discuss the topic. For example, participants might identify issues of ambiguity, important findings, how the study relates to ongoing research at Minnesota, whether the study suggests new avenues of research.Journal articles are available through links provided on the SCHEDULE page.

Enrollment:

Gradute students interested in taking the seminar should enroll in Psychology 8993, Section #6 and undergraduates in Psych 4993, Section 6 for 2 credits. If you need a magic number, please contact Khois Nkosi at cspr@umn.edu Check in with Bill Iacono if you have any problems.

SCHEDULE

PAPER ASSIGNMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES

To Download readings you will need a copy of Adoe Acrobat, which you can download for free by clicking here

Website feedback: Matt McGue (mcgue001@tc.umn.edu)
This page last updated: 1/28/06 14:19

Copyright © 2001, The Regents of the University of Minnesota
The U of MN is an equal opportunity educator and employer.