The Honors Program and Honors in Psychology

Psychology students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of Sweet Briar's Honors Program.

First year students are invited to join the Honors Program based on their High School records. Once enrolled in the College, students become eligible for membership in the Honors Program when they achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.30. Students who are not formally members of the Honors Program may still take part in Honors courses. Honors courses include special Honors seminars, Honors sections of regular courses, and Honors Variants (Honors meetings and work associated with a regular course). Students interested in Honors Variants of regular Psychology courses should speak with the instructor of those courses within the first week of the semester. Honors students take a minimum of one Honors course per year, and participate in at least one Honors co-curricular activity, including the Honors Colloquia, the weekly lunch table, the MARCUS Conference, and the Summer Research Program.

A student may choose to complete an Honors Thesis whether or not she is formally a member of the Honors Program. In Psychology, the Honors thesis is a year-long empirical project conducted in the student’s Senior Year. Students interested in writing an Honors thesis should have completed Statistics, Experimental, and Research in Psychology by the end of their Junior Year.

A copy of the Sweet Briar College Honors Program Handbook, detailing the program further, is available in the Honors Center

Qualifying students in the Department of Psychology can elect to receive graduation honors in the major.  The designation of "Honors in Psychology" exists separately from the college-wide "Honors" designation, and is dependent upon students completing a special course of studies in addition to maintaining the high standards commiserate with an Honors degree.  In addition to departmental requirements, there are also some requirements from the Honor's program which must be met.  If you have any questions, please ask a member of the department.

As part of the Honors in Psychology requirement, students must first seek a recommendation from the Psychology Department.  The department will review each student's transcripts and make sure that they have met the standards for recommendation (both the overall and departmental GPA's will be taken into account for this recommendation as will the perceived potential of the student).  If recommended for this honor, students will undertake a year-long research endeavor during their senior year (please see proposed timeline below), sponsored by one member of the department.  As would be expected, this research endeavor will consist of a novel empirical project which will be proposed and defended before the entire department, the head of the honors program as well as other relevant individuals.  In meetings with your faculty supervisor, a timeline for activities will be determined and all work (including defense) must be completed prior to the end of classes during the spring semester of the senior year.  For those who are interested in attempting an Honors in Psychology designation, you should speak to a member of the Psychology faculty no later than the beginning of your Junior year. 

Proposed Timeline

Sophomore year:

• Take the Statistics / Experimental Psychology sequence of classes (Psyc 219 / 310)  These classes serve as prerequisites to the Junior Honors research requirement and teach the fundamentals of psychological research and APA writing style.

• Talk to Department member about qualifications for Honors in Psychology designation
• Take Research in Psychology (Psyc 315 - 3 hours). This work constitutes the Psychology Department's Junior level research work required by the honors program.
• Students should consider seeking out a summer research fellowship to engage in pilot work for larger research project (if so, Human subject forms MUST be completed during spring semester of Junior year)

• Select faculty sponsor and fill out all paperwork for honors work
• Develop timeline and plan of action for research project
• Begin work on background lit search and determination of research idea

• Research prospectus due the end of the first week of classes
• Presentation of summer work (if undertaken) at research conference
• Written proposal due to project advisor by mid-point of semester (date may vary a bit depending on project)
• Full proposal meeting of research to psychology faculty, director of the honors program and other appropriate individuals.
• Human subjects form submitted to Human subjects Research committee (check with project advisor to determine exact date of submission)
• If time remains in semester, data collection can begin (or could start over semester break)

• Finish data collection and begin analysis of data.
• Prepare APA report
• Formal defense of research to psych faculty, director of honors program and other appropriate individuals.
• Revisions to paper based on meeting.
• Formal presentation of research to the campus.
• Final draft of paper to major advisor and director of honors program due approximately 2 weeks prior to the end of classes.

** As always, this schedule is approximate and the specific requirements and timeline will be worked out in conjunction with your faculty supervisor.