Proseminar: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Anthropology and Psychology

This proseminar introduces students to basic behavioral science research methods in psychology and anthropology. It teaches them how to read and evaluate research papers and translate their ideas into viable research projects. Topics include library and archival research, scholarly writing and argumentation, descriptive research methods, quasi-experimental and experimental design, ethical issues, and analytical methods. Because skills learned in this course are useful in subsequent courses, it is the first course that prospective Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) candidates should take toward the degree (or the second, if they are completing the expository writing prerequisite). While not designed to be a thesis or capstone proposal course, this course does serve as a foundation for eventual work on the thesis or capstone.