[4.1]

The Point System. Grading is the sole prerogative of the professor and is essentially a private affair between each student and the instructor of the course.

Recognizing that (a) grades are important in the community, inside and outside, academia and, (b) a definite degree of disease surrounds this practice, therefore, it may be helpful and useful to establish pre-arranged criteria for grading, criteria to which both the professor and the student ought to feel bound to honor so as to safeguard feelings, as well as a comfortable system of predictable order.

The following schema depicts the economics of the available grading points:

Research Reports handed in on time and prepared according to the prescribed format automatically earn 15 points each. The additional 10 points, each, may be earned through thoroughness and evidence of having grasped the concept of "social psychological data."

Committee Work points are assigned on the basis of participation and involvement, as evidenced in the Periodic Reports. Note that these reports are to identify the activities accomplished as well as who carried them out.

Class Quizzes are given periodically. Consult course syllabus for dates and pages of Workbook to be covered. Quizzes require brief definitions or the identification of specific information and should be prepared for thorough rote memorization.

Outside Subject Volunteers can earn up to 5 points by writing up a brief description of their serving in an experiment during the semester. The typed statement should include: Name of Experimenters; Place and Time of Participation; Description of What You Had to Do; Your Guess as to What They are After.

Typed Notes based on Lectures, Readings, and Lecture Tapes may earn up to 15 points in each of the three categories. Thoroughness of coverage, creativity of graphic presentation, and overall comprehensibility to a reader, earn the most points.

Unexcused Absences cost you -5 points starting with the fifth! (You get four free.) Absences may get excused in only one way; by handing in typed notes on the contents of the Lecture Tape for the day you missed. Each lecture is taped and deposited to the Sinclair Library Listening Center, the day after each lecture, where you may go to listen to it. Medical excuses, etc. are not needed since all absences (after the first four) must be made up through listening to the taped lecture, irrespective of the reason for the absence. This rule insures that the student will be exposed to most of the lecture materials, without which neither the Workbook, nor the Research Reports, are complete. Students who miss a significant amount of lectures should attempt to withdraw.

Late Research Reports are disruptive to course procedures and a source of unease to those who put the effort into the pre-arranged schedule. If you lose points for late submission, you may make it up by additional effort in any of the other categories.

The above grading system has been devised and amended several times, and has served well for students in previous semesters. Students liked the fact that they can keep track of their probably score themselves so as to know how to schedule their work effort depending on time, involvement, and need. Suggestions for amendments for next semester's students may be given in writing to the professor.

For your convenience in figuring out your probable grade, the professor will use the following distribution:

The following table illustrates six possible distributions and can serve a reference point for figuring your probable grade. (Remember to deduct points from your total if you have items (I.) and (J.) not take care of.)

The point system described here offers an excellent source of data for the study of social psychology of evaluation. Grading in a course is an application of the instructor's evaluation practices, hence, its study constitutes fieldwork for the student of social psychology. We plan to examine, in the lectures, the data we have on this from last semester's students of Psychology 222. The social psychology of evaluation will then be contextualized within some outside literature.