Psychology Undergraduate Honors Requirements

What Do You Do in Honors?

A student participating in the Psychology Research Honors Program will design and fully implement a research project. Typically, the project begins during the last semester of the junior year and continues for three semesters.

Students accepted into the honors program enroll in the pre-honors seminar in spring of their junior year. There they review material such as ethics, write an IRB proposal, develop ideas, review the literature, and begin writing the honors thesis. Also, they are linked with a faculty mentor. The mentor and the student will work together to develop a proposal, write up an IRB proposal, plan the details of the study, and put together the equipment/resources needed for the study. Some students and mentors are able to work on the thesis research during the Summer.

Once the IRB approves the proposal, data collection begins.  Many things go wrong running studies and they often take much longer than you might expect.  Once data are collected, student and mentor analyze the data.  The student writes a thesis, often with many drafts edited by mentor.  Students in the program will graduate in spring of their senior year, perhaps even that summer.

Who Qualifies for Honors?

Admission to the Psychology Research Honors Program has to meet the following requirements:

1. A 3.50 GPA.
2. A “B+” average in a substantial number of psychology courses.
3. At least an "A-" in PSY 21500 (Applied Statistics). In addition, you must have taken, or be enrolled in, PSY 32100 (Experimental Psychology) during your first term of honors work. Earning below a "B+" in Experimental Psychology may lead you to be taken out of the Honors Program.

Students completing the honors program will receive 3 credits in PSY 30000 in the first spring semester, 3 credits in PSY 30200 in the following fall semester, and 3 credits in PSY 30300 in the second spring semester. Only 3 of these credits count toward the 12 credits in 300-level psychology courses that are required to graduate as a Psychology major.

How Do You Sign Up for Honors?

Send an email to Professor Silverstein ( bsilverstein@ccny.cuny.edu ) requesting an application. He will send a description of the program, similar to that above, along with the application. Fill out the application and send it back to him.