Survey Results
IV - 1

        Out of the 219 respondents indicating the use of a laboratory course, 50% offer one or two such courses while the remaining 50% offer a range of 3 to 15 such laboratory courses (see Figure 6). The mean number of courses was 3.43 while the modal response was 2. The vast majority of institutions (87.7%) conduct 6 or less sections of laboratory courses each semester (see Figure 7). The modal enrollment in each of these courses was 10 - 20 students with fully 44.9% of respondents endorsing that category. The majority of the respondents (81%) indicated 30 or less students per section (see Table 2).
        The most frequently endorsed type of lab course was a "General Experimental" lab while a "Cognition & Perception" lab course was second; a lab course in "Developmental" was the most infrequently endorsed type of lab (see Figure 8 & Figure 9). Other types of laboratory courses that were not included in the survey but mentioned by respondents were research methods, statistics, and personality.
        For institutions offering BA and BS degrees, lab courses were required 90.2% and 92.9% of the time, respectively.
        Seventeen departments did not offer laboratory courses; however, 15 of these departments would offer such courses if the resources were available. The most commonly indicated responses for not offering such courses (see Figure 10) were "lack of resources to equip such courses," and "lack the space for such a course." Other reasons not listed on the survey but indicated by the respondents were "We are not sure that such courses are necessary or efficacious,"

We don't get credit for teaching a lab course (where lab courses meet for additional hours per week). Our colleagues in the natural sciences receive credit for teaching one and one half courses for a lab, we receive credit only for one. There's definitely no incentive to make a course into a lab course . . .

and "practitioner vs. research emphasis."