Guidelines for Undergraduate Research in the Psychology Department at Knox College

<> All psychology majors at Knox must complete an independent research project before the end of the senior year. This requirement will usually be satisfied by a project completed while the student is enrolled in a two term sequence of courses, Psychology 360 & Psychology 361. The student will receive one-half credit for each of these terms, and grades will not be assigned until the completion of the project. In special cases, a student may continue his or her research on the topic by registering for an independent study. Exceptional students may satisfy the research requirement by petitioning the department to enroll in Advanced Studies. Under ordinary circumstances, students will receive one credit per term for three terms while pursuing advanced studies. Upon successful completion of the project, the student will be recommended for College Honors in Psychology.

Requirements to undertake Advanced Studies

1. An upper class GPA of 3.45 and a Psych GPA of 3.45 at the time of petition.

2. A well-defined research question and preliminary list of the literature to be

reviewed before the beginning of the senior year.

3. Approval of research proposal by the psychology department faculty.

Expectations for Advanced Studies:

The quality of the work should approach that of a master's thesis.

It should be an empirical project (i.e., there ought to be data).

The literature review must be comprehensive and of professional quality.

The student will make an oral defense of the project to the committee and an outside examiner from another university.

The student will make an oral presentation of the proposal and the final paper in a public forum.

How will the senior projects (360-361) differ from advanced studies?

For Psychology 360-361:

There will be no outside examiner or oral defense of the project.

Expectations for the scope of the overall project will be less demanding. That is, because of greater financial and time constraints, the size of the project in terms of number of subjects and complexity of design will usually be smaller.

The student will work with a single faculty member rather than with a committee.

There will be no minimum GPA requirements, as it will be required of all students.

Under ordinary circumstances, the student will receive a total of one credit rather than three credits.

What will the senior project have in common with advanced studies?

Except in very unusual cases, all senior projects will be empirical, data-based projects. The study must meet at least one of the following methodological requirements:

- The study is a true experiment involving the actual manipulation of an independent variable and the measurement of a dependent variable. (Race, gender, etc. do not qualify, as they are not manipulated.)

- The study is a quasi-experiment or correlational study which includes a difficult-to-obtain sample, i.e.,  a sample of something other than American college students. For example, the student might use children, older people, animals, and so on as subjects.

- The study is a quasi-experiment or correlational study in which one of the main variables is operationally defined by using a method which the student has devised. This might involve the construction of a new questionnaire, coding system, etc. The student must also test the reliability of the measurement which he or she has devised.

Each student will make an oral presentation or poster presentation of the final paper in a public forum such as ILLOWA or the departmental poster session.

The project will result in a paper written in APA Format.

What will grades be based upon in senior projects?

The following factors will be considered in the evaluation of senior research projects:

1. The originality/creativity of the project

2. The degree to which the student worked independently in the various stages of the project (Literature review, data collection, data analysis, writing)

3. The quality of the writing and thinking in the final draft of the project

4. How conscientious the student was in meeting deadlines agreed upon with the director of the research

5. The effort and diligence displayed during the course of the project

6. How much trouble and inconvenience the student created for the advisor and him/herself because of a lack of initiative and failure to meet deadlines

Advanced studies will be evaluated by these same criteria along with others - what else?

1. Performance during the oral defense

2. Feedback from the outside examiner and other committee members

3. In general, a higher level of independent work will be expected of advanced studies students