General Information
Qualified Psychology majors at Rice University may participate in the Psychological Sciences Honors Program. The Honors Program provides individualized and advanced instruction and experience in psychological research through the guided design, implementation, analysis, reporting, and presentation of a research topic of the student’s choosing. The program generally takes two semesters to complete and is undertaken in the senior year of study.
Students are encouraged to download the most recent informational handout for quick reference. It is located here.
Prerequisites
To be eligible for the Honors Program, students must meet the following academic requirements:
- Minimum overall GPA of 3.5.
- Minimum Psychology major GPA of 3.7.
- Completion of 18 hours of Psychological Sciences Department degree requirements.
- Completion of SOSC 302 – Statistical Methods.
- Completion or concurrent enrollment in PSYC 340 – Research Methods.
Advisor Requirements
Students interested in participating in the Honors Program must work with a member of the Psychological Sciences Department faculty who can serve as their Primary Advisor, but can be co-advised by any faculty advisor qualified to guide them through a year-long, honors-level research project grounded in the Psychological Sciences. Co-advisors do not have to be part of Rice University, but must be faculty members at an accredited university (e.g., some students are co-advised by faculty members from schools in the Medical Center).
Students not already involved in a research lab or project should consider that finding a research advisor who is willing and able to closely supervise their project over the course of a full year can be time-consuming. Students are encouraged to start thinking about a suitable advisor well in advance of their intended Program start date. Students without a committed advisor will not be able to enter the Program.
Registration
Students should start preparing well in advance of the Program's start. Students must have an advisor(s) secured by the first week of the Fall semester of the Program in order to register. The student and their advisor should complete a PSYC 499 Registration Request Form with the following information:
- Confirmation of academic qualification for the Program.
- Confirmation of qualified advisor(s).
- Confirmation of intent to submit a substantive proposal by the deadline, including the general topic of the research.
- Copy of unofficial transcript.
- Deadline: Last day of Week 1 of Fall classes.
- Submission: Once the PSYC 499 Registration Request Form has been submitted by the student, it will be sent to the Primary Advisor for confirmation. Once confirmed, the information will be sent to the Program Director.
All PSYC 499 Registration Requests are reviewed by the Program Director, who will confirm that the prerequisite and advisor requirements have been satisfied. Once confirmed, the Program Director will issue a Registration Restriction Override and notify the student of their acceptance into the Program. The student can then register for PSYC 499 - Honors Thesis. Once registered, the student will be added to the PSYC 499 Canvas course.
Qualified students may apply to the Honors Program during pre-registration in the Spring semester of their junior year.
Registration restriction overrides for the Spring semester of the Program are completed after submission of the Progress Report.
Proposal
The first milestone of the Program is the Proposal. Under their advisor’s supervision, students must develop a research topic and plan, written up as a research proposal. The proposal should consist of:
- cover page, including advisor signature(s).
- abstract
- literature review
- specific hypotheses of how predictor variables should relate to the dependent measures, or how the dependent measure should vary under the experimental conditions
- how these specific hypotheses support the theory presented in the literature review
- study design and method
- estimated number of subjects to be run
- materials needed
- listing or description of predictor and/or dependent measure(s)
- proposed analysis
- reference list
- Format: APA style
- Deadline: Last day of Week 2 of Fall classes.
- Submission: Proposals should be submitted through Canvas and must include advisor signature(s).
The Program Director will provide all Proposal submissions to the Undergraduate Committee for review. The Undergraduate Committee may accept the proposal as is, or request modifications. If the Committee requests modifications, it will set a deadline for submission of those modifications. If the modifications are not completed by the deadline, the student may still complete the project for 499 credit, but will not receive Departmental Honors.
Progress Report
The second milestone of the Program is the Progress Report. The student must prepare a brief (1-2 pages) report detailing the steps completed and underway in the research plan. It should also include how the student plans to successfully complete the project in the second semester of PSYC 499 enrollment. This report is used by the Undergraduate Committee to determine whether the student’s project is progressing according to the standards of the program, and allows the committee to voice concerns and advice on how the student can take corrective measures in their experiment design or implementation..
Progress reports can include but are not limited to the following updates:
- Revised Proposal Introduction based on feedback
- Prepared surveys or other measures
- Coding of experiments
- Submission of IRB materials
- Subject running progress
- Partial data collection
- Preliminary results
- Format: APA
- Deadline: Last day of Fall classes.
- Submission: Progress Reports should be submitted through Canvas.
The Program Director will provide all Progress Reports to the Undergraduate Committee for review. The Committee will either accept the report or provide feedback regarding potential areas of improvement. If the Committee finds that a student’s project is not progressing adequately, the Committee will coordinate with the student and their advisor to form a plan of action for improvement. The student will be required to submit a second progress report to the Committee before the Spring semester recess to confirm that the action plan is being succesfully implemented. If it is determined that this is not the case, the student may still complete the project for 499 credit, but will not receive Departmental Honors.
Final Manuscript and Presentation
The completed project must be presented as a formal written research report in proper APA format. The manuscript should contain all of the appropriate sections for an APA-style report including:
- title page
- abstract
- Introduction
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Reference list
- Appendices (if applicable)
- Format: APA
- Deadline: One week before the last day of Spring classes.
- Submission: Final Manuscripts should be submitted through Canvas
The Program Director will provide all Progress Reports to the Undergraduate Committee for review. The Committee may accept the manuscript as-is or request revisions. Revisions should be made before the public presentation. The presentation should be a 5-minute overview of the student’s research and findings and is usually held in early May at a time and location to be determined by the Undergraduate Committee each year.
Grading
Although the Program Director is responsible for submitting grades to Esther, it is the Primary Advisor, not the Program Director, who determines a student’s grade in the Program. The Program Director and the Undergraduate Committee monitor the student’s progress to ensure that the standards of the Program are being met, but it is the student’s advisor(s) who determines what grade the student will receive for PSYC 499 in the Fall and Spring semesters.
The Primary Advisor should send the grade they feel is appropriate to the Program Director at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters, at least 48 hours before the university’s final grade submission deadline.
- Honors status: determined by the Undergraduate Committee and Program Director
- Course letter grade: determined by the student’s advisor(s)
Receiving Honors
A student whose written report has been accepted by the Undergraduate Committee and who has made the public presentation(s) of their project as requested by the Committee will have completed the requirements of the Honors Program and will graduate with Psychological Sciences Department Honors.
As of Fall 2018, students can receive both Psychological Sciences departmental honors and Rice University honors (RUSP) for the same project and can enroll in both courses. Note that acceptance of a project by RUSP does not guarantee acceptance by the Psychological Sciences Undergraduate Committee for an honors project, nor does successful completion of a RUSP project guarantee departmental honors. You may turn in the same thesis for both Rice and Psychological Sciences honors, but you may have to make separate presentations of your thesis for RUSP and Psychological Sciences honors. Note, however, that the Psychological Sciences Honors thesis must be in recognized APA format, which will generally be acceptable as the RUSP final presentation.