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Undergraduate Studies | Department Honors

In order to graduate in Psychology with honors, there are three requirements: 

1) GPA of 3.33 in Psychology courses

2) Completion of the Seminar for Honors Students in Psychology

PSYC 475: Seminar for Honors Students in Psychology (NOTE: This course IS required to graduate with departmental honors and is usually offered only in the Winter Quarter). The Seminar for Honors Students in Psychology (PSYC 475) is designed to develop your critical thinking skills and involves discussion and debate of current (and often controversial) topics in Psychology.  The course requires active participation in daily class discussions, participation in debates and position papers on the particular course topics. 

3) Completion of a Senior Thesis project (PSYC 437).  A senior thesis is an independent research project (usually an empirical project) conducted by an upper-level Psychology major under the supervision of a mentor from the Psychology Department faculty.  The nature and scope of the project is determined by a mutual agreement between the student and his/her mentor.  The student is expected to write an APA-style research report as a final project.  This project (and the summary paper) must be completed by the graduation date in order to be recognized with departmental honors.  In order to register for PSYC 437, the student must first get find a mentor and get his/her approval to register.  A student generally registers for 1 credit hour per 1.5 hours of work per week.  The number of credits must be approved, however, by the student’s mentor prior to registration for PSYC 437.

Optional Senior Thesis Preparation Course (Note: This course is NOT required to graduate with departmental honors.  Completion of a senior thesis IS required to graduate with departmental honors, but the thesis may be completed without taking the thesis preparation course under Dr. Shockley).  In an effort to de-mystify the process of doing a senior thesis and to allow you to compare your own thesis project with others going on in the department, Dr. Shockley offers a senior thesis preparation course under PSYC 437 in Autumn Quarter.  Note that this does not mean that students who take this course will have Dr. Shockley as their thesis supervisor.  The course is designed to guide you through the steps of designing a senior thesis project to be completed with your faculty supervisor.  The primary goal of the course is to help you ground your ideas and operationalize your project on a timeline that will allow you to begin data collection with your thesis supervisor at the beginning of the subsequent term. To complement the preparation process, the course will include reviews of research design, APA style, and applications of statistics.  By the end of the course you should have completely designed your research project (in collaboration with your thesis supervisor), submitted your proposed project for approval by the institutional review board and written a full APA-style proposal. Therefore, students who wish to take this course should have identified a thesis mentor and have a basic idea of the research topic by the beginning of Autumn Quarter.  You may still take the course if you have already begun data collection (Many students who were already well into data collection found the course very useful in developing their understanding of their topic).  Please see Dr. Shockley if you have specific questions.