B9608-001: (PhD) Experimental Design & Analysis for Behavioral Research
F - Full Term, 02:15PM to 06:30PM
Credit hours: 3.0
Location: URI 305
Instructor: Michel Pham
This course is aimed at Ph.D. students who intend to conduct experimental and quasi-experimental research in business (e.g., marketing, organizational behavior) and related disciplines (e.g., economics, psychology). The primary objective of the course is to provide such students with the concepts and tools needed for collecting and analyzing behavioral data. A secondary objective is to provide these future academic reviewers the foundations for the methodological evaluation of other behavioral researchers' work. The course thus covers the designs and analyses that are most often used by experimental researchers in the following fields: marketing, organizational behavior, and psychology. Topics include factorial designs, repeated (within-subject) and mixed designs, fractional (e.g., Latin squares) designs, analysis of covariance, etc.
We will examine these designs and analyses from the perspective of an applied behavioral researcher, not from that of a statistician. That is, we will emphasize the actual use of proper data collection procedures and analysis techniques for rigorous (i.e., publishable) theory testing. Although there will be sufficient coverage of statistical concepts (to ensure that the procedures and techniques are applied intelligently), we will not focus on statistical theory per se (as would related courses in a statistics department).
In addition to the objectives mentioned above, the course will offer students an opportunity to get started with the use of SAS, one of the most widely used statistical programming languages for manipulating and analyzing data. While this will not be a course on SAS itself, students should become comfortable with this platform by the end of the course. This comfort will eventually allow them to move on to more complex applications using SAS (or similar languages).
Michel Tuan Pham
Kravis Professor of Business
Professor Pham’s business expertise covers the areas of marketing strategy and management, branding, customer and consumer psychology, trademark psychology, marketing communication, and executive decision making. His most recent research focuses on the role of feelings, emotions and motivation in consumers’ and managers’ judgments and decisions. His numerous publications are widely cited and have appeared in many leading scholarly journals including...