The psychology department offers several faculty-supervised co-curricular leadership opportunities to help students develop career competencies. Peer leaders are responsible for supporting psychology students in their learning and academic success.

Peer Lab Leader Training

Peer lab leaders are undergraduate UO students who excelled in Psychology 202 (Mind and Society) and have at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Peer Lab Training provides the unique opportunity for undergraduates to gain teaching and public speaking experience.

Peer lab leaders lead Psychology 202 students through lab activities designed to illustrate key concepts in the course. Peer lab leaders typically work in pairs to lead two 50-minute labs each week. In addition to leading labs, peer lab leaders attend one weekly class meeting. In this class meeting, peer lab leaders prepare to lead each week’s lab and engage in professional development activities. These professional development activities can vary from term to term, but they usually involve honing students’ pedagogical skills and preparing students to apply to graduate school. Being a peer lab leader is a great leadership opportunity, and also useful experience for students considering graduate school, either in psychology or in another field.

Peer Statistics Tutors

The Peer Statistics Tutors are UO students who have completed Psychology 302 with excellent mastery and are skilled with undergraduate-level statistics. They are familiar with using statistics programs such as JAMOVI and help other students with course material by explaining confusing concepts or by walking them through homework problems. This is opportunity for strong upper-class students to get experience in tutoring, communication skills and support their peers. To enroll in peer statistics class, student must be able to commit three hours per week for two terms to stats tutoring.  

Peer Research Methods Tutors

Research Methods Tutors are UO students who have already completed PSY 303 Research Methods course and received at least an A- in the class and are skilled at scientific writing. They are very familiar with the nuances of academic writing and APA style. PSY 303 tutors provide guidance on various tasks related to writing a scientific paper. This can include how to do a literature review, structuring a paper, and connecting ideas to a hypotheses, and drawing conclusions. To become a peer research writing tutor, students must be able to commit three hours per week for two terms to the program. 

Peer Advisors

Peer advising is a great opportunity to develop leadership skills, improve communication skills, work closely with psychology faculty and graduate student advisors and provide academic support to your peers as well as contribute to co-curricular programs in the department and build professional competencies. Psychology peer advisors are trained to help psychology majors and minors select courses and plan schedules, build resumes and plan for careers related to psychology. To become a peer advisor, you must be able to commit three hours per week for three terms to advising.