Psychology Honors Program
The main purpose of the Psychology Honors Program is to provide a program of study for the superior student that will accelerate and enrich his or her knowledge of psychology. To this end, the Honors Program has the following goals:· Educate students to think independently as scholars in their field
·Provide opportunities for close, scholarly and scientific analysis of significant topics in psychology
· Encourage and provide opportunities for students to undertake independent research
· Introduce students to a broad range of psychological ideas and issues.
Benefits of the Program
Honors students may take graduate courses and apply the credits toward their undergraduate degree. However, in order to take a graduate course, the student must get special permission from both the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology and the Associate Dean in BSOS. Students have access to the upper level General Honors seminars and many of the General Honors functions. Honors students may establish their own internships under supervision of the Department of Psychology and receive Honors credit.
Eligibility Criteria
Psychology majors may apply at the end of the sophomore year, or during the junior year, but in no case later than the sixth semester. Applicants must have:
· Completed three courses (9 credits) in psychology, including PSYC 200
· An overall and psychology GPA or at least 3.50
Thesis Overview
The Honors thesis describes a research project carried out independently under the guidance of a Psychology Department faculty member. The research may be an original project or one that derives from ongoing work in the faculty mentor’s lab or research group. Whatever the research, it must have the approval of the Institutional Review Board's Human Subjects Committee or the Animal Care Committee. The thesis forms a significant part of the student's Honors work. The written document as well as an oral defense will be evaluated by the Thesis Committee, which consists of the student’s research advisor plus two other members of the faculty, at least one of whom is in the relevant graduate training area.
In judging the written thesis, the Thesis Committee weighs (a) how well the student places the research into the context of the relevant literature; (b) the clarity and originality of the experimental design; (c) the relevance of the statistical design and analysis; and (d) the student's interpretation and integration of findings within the research and theoretical literature in psychology. Similar criteria are used to judge performance in the oral examination.
To apply to the PSYC Honors Program go to: http://psychology.umd.edu/ugrad/undergrad_forms.html
