If you enjoy research and would like more firsthand experience, we invite you to become involved in department research through research assistantships (Psychology 401). You might also consider joining our departmental honors in psychology program. Students in Psychology 401 and honors in psychology students work closely with department researchers.
Honors students obtain valuable experience in designing, carrying out, and writing up a substantial project for the senior honors thesis. Both experiences lead to stronger faculty recommendations for future training.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply for Psychology’s honors program, students must have completed PSY 301 and 302, with a grade of B or higher and have achieved a psychology GPA of at least 3.60. PSY 303 must also be successfully completed before fall term of the year in which students start the honors program. Prospective honors students will need to meet with a psychology advisor to create a graduation plan.
Some of our psychology honors project students are also in the UO’s Clark Honors College (CHC). The psychology honors project can also double as the CHC senior thesis, so long as both sets of criteria are met.
Before applying for the honors program, we strongly recommend you first become a research assistant in one of the many research labs in the department. Faculty or other researchers in the lab are much more likely to be willing to be your advisor for an honors project once they get to know you as a research assistant. Please look at our faculty profiles and at the Psychology Canvas page for openings for research assistants. Working in a research lab is good experience and also an excellent way to find a supervisor to advise you on an honor’s thesis.
Application Process
To formally apply to the program:
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Find a psychology faculty member who agrees to serve as your advisor and provide the potential advisor with a copy of your unofficial transcripts. Most honors students recruit a faculty member as their primary advisor. However, it is also possible to have a graduate student in the psychology doctoral program or a faculty member from a different department as primary advisor. In that case, however, you would need a psychology faculty member as secondary advisor. The psychology faculty member must either sign the application form or email Jeff Davis (jeffreyd@uoregon.edu) to confirm their willingness to advise you on the project.
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Complete the application form and turn it in to Jeff Davis (jeffreyd@uoregon.edu or 346-4952) in the department’s main office (139 Straub Hall). You must have a primary advisor’s approval for full consideration of your application. If your primary advisor is not a faculty member, you must also have a faculty member serve as your secondary advisor and give approval upon submission of application.
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Note that to be eligible to apply for Psychology’s honors program, students must have completed PSY 301 and 302, with a grade of B or higher.
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If you apply to the program, you must attach a printout of your transcript to the application form as well as a copy of your graduation plan. Please see a psychology advisor to create and approve your graduation plan. You may use the unofficial transcript you can print from DuckWeb.
Completion Requirements
If you are admitted into the honors program, the next steps for completion are:
- Register for PSY 412 (Intermediate Data Analysis), which is offered fall term only.
- Register for three consecutive terms in the 1-credit honors seminar (PSY 490-492).
You will need an advisor and a second reader for the honors program. As noted above, one of your advisors must be a psychology faculty member. You need to have a second reader recruited at least two terms prior to completion of your project.
Design and complete your honors project. The final version of your paper needs to be approved by your adviser, your second reader, and the honors program director. There is also a required poster presentation for honors projects each spring term and a required oral presentation. These requirements are discussed in detail in the honors program seminar sequence PSY 490-492.