The use of computers and other technology is critical for students of psychology.  Here are some resources to help you.

Creating an online survey

The best option for most online surveys is to use Qualtrics, a very powerful survey creation and hosting engine.  Go to bates.qualtrics.com and login with your Bates username.

Although qualtrics has extensive online documentation, Brian Pfohl has written up answers to a few common questions that come up designing surveys for psychology research.  View his documentation here.

Another option for creating online surveys is by using the “Form” document type in Google documents.

Using SPSS

SPSS is the primary statistics package that is taught in our psychology department. Brian Pfohl has prepared documentation and videos about cleaning up data in SPSS, with a particular emphasis on data that is generated in Qualtrics.   View his documentation here.

Using PsycINFO and other library resources

PsycINFO is an searchable online database of scholarly publications in the field of psychology. The Bates community can access it from the Ladd Library website.  Michael Sargent has prepared a video interview with Brian Pfohl to discuss ways to maximize use of this tool.

He has another video in which he interviews Christine Murray, the social sciences librarian at Bates, about other library resources that may be useful to psychology students.

Creating a poster

Most seniors choose to present their thesis projects as a poster presentation, either at the department-sponsored session in the fall or at the Mt. David Summit in the spring.  In addition, many psychology classes will have you create posters to summarize class projects and to give you practice before your senior thesis presentation.

Check out Brian Pfohl’s Poster-making 101 site with design tips and technical suggestions for creating a poster in Microsoft PowerPoint.

You can also consult with Michelle Holbrook-Pronovost in the Curricular & Research Computing Group to learn about making a great poster.

Introduction to Excel

Brian Pfohl has prepared a brief Introduction to Excel which covers the basics of using formulas to perform calculations, copying and pasting to perform the same calculation multiple times with different sources, and relative vs. absolute references.