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Undergraduate Research Experiences

As an undergraduate psychology major you will take classes, certainly, and possibly be involved with faculty research projects or internships related to your field of study.  In taking classes at the university level you will be expected to: 
  • Study textbooks and readings
  • Discuss topics in class
  • Write papers and reports
  • Take multiple choice and essay exams
  • Perform critical analyses of research and theory relating to psychology issues
  • Design and carry out psychological experiments
How is College study different from High School study? 
Study at the college level is more advanced than in high school, in that you are expected to study a subject in more depth - for example, in psychology you must take at least ten classes in various areas of psychology, whereas in high school you may have taken at most one class in psychology. Also, you are expected to develop skills of critical thinking, and an ability to synthesize ideas and come up with well reasoned arguments to support academic positions. 

By the time you graduate you will have had wide experience in the critical analysis of theory and research, and statistical data analysis, and will have skills that will be useful to a broad range of occupations and other activities in life. In addition you will have in-depth knowledge and understanding of human behavior, mental processes, and development, and the interaction between body, mind, and the social and physical world. 

Experiences outside of class: Assisting in research
While you are a psychology student one of the most valuable experiences you can have is to take part in a research project. Penn State's Psychology department has many very active researchers, who also teach classes, and so you will get the opportunity to meet these faculty members, find out about what they are researching, and work for them in their laboratories. There are also over 80 graduate students in the department, who are all involved in research, and so you may have the chance to help them with their projects too. 

Experience working on a project is valuable first because it gives you experience of what most psychologists do, and so you can understand research from the 'inside', as opposed to just reading about it or hearing lectures about it. Second, it can give you an idea as to whether you want to do research yourself. This would mean applying to graduate school after you have finished your major. Grad school applications have a much better chance of success if you have had significant research experience as an undergraduate. 

If you are interested in working with a faculty member (professor) or graduate student doing research, you can obtain more information on the Faculty Research Interests portion of the psychology website. 
  

Experiences outside of class: the Internship 
Another worthwhile experience you can have as an undergraduate is to work in an internship, or a 'practicum' as we call them here. A practicum is a job in which you work in a psychological setting. This usually involves working with a clinical population, such as people who are mentally retarded, mentally ill, disabled, having drug or alcohol problems, or elderly. The other main type of psychology practicum involves working in a business setting, perhaps in a personnel or training department. Those who are interested especially in industrial/organizational psychology are most likely to do this kind of internship. 

Again, a practicum is useful because it can help you decide whether you want to be a practicing psychologist such as a clinical psychologist, and it can also help you to get into a grad school program like clinical psychology. 

If would like more information about Internships in Psychology, visit this site. 

Penn State psychology undergraduates also have a the largest chapter of Psi Chi in the country. Psi Chi is the Psychology Honors Society, open to students with high GPAs. 
 

This page was last updated on 08-05-05.