Psychology Department Guidelines for Psychology 297
(adopted 1/98)
The major goal of Psychology 297 is to provide undergraduates with an opportunity to learn about and participate in psychological research. Because students receive academic credit for Psychology 297 and because Psychology 297 is offered by faculty members, every Psychology 297 course should......
(1) contain an academic component that involves significant learning, and
(2) include some contact with the faculty instructor.
It is recognized that there can be considerably flexibility in meeting the above criteria, given the wide variety of faculty members' research and undergraduate students' capabilities. The following are suggested as possibilities:
(1) an academic component that involves significant learning could include having the undergraduate research assistant ......
a. participate directly in any of several research activities (e.g., preparing research material, conducting experiments, collecting data, coding data, entering data, analyzing data)
b. participate in any of several research related activities (e.g., literature searches, laboratory training sessions, research planning sessions, research presentations)
c. obtain information relevant to the planned research (e.g., background reading, research reviews, research proposals)
d. demonstrate acquired knowledge, skills and/or experience (e.g., participation in discussion sessions, oral presentations, written summaries of what has been learned, which could include research critiques and/or proposals for future research)
(2) some contact with the faculty instructor could include......
a. individual meetings with the faculty member (e.g., at a minimum, three meetings, at the beginning, during, and at the end of the semester)
b. periodic research team meetings which include the faculty member
c. observation and/or supervision by the faculty member of research or research related activities
d. informal and/or formal feedback from the faculty member regarding any of the undergraduate's activities described in #1 above.
Other Considerations:
Prerequisites for Psychology 297: All undergraduate students who enroll in Psychology 297 are required to have taken Psychology 202Q and its prerequisite Statistics 100 or 110. In addition, individual faculty members may require their research assistants to have other formal preparation ( e.g., the "basic" 200 level course in the area of the research) or informal preparation (e.g., previous research experience, level of interest, degree of motivation, etc).
The Amount of Time Required by Psychology 297: Generally, undergraduates who enroll in Psychology 297 are expected to devote 42 hours per credit per semester to the course (about 9 hours per week for the typical 3-credit Psyc 297). Because weekly research activities may be highly variable, the amount of time r equired or expected of undergraduate research assistants each week may vary. Also, recognizing the wide variety of activities that may comprise Psychology 297, an undergraduate assistant may not be expected to spend all of this "required" time engaged in the laboratory.
The Role of Graduate Students in Psychology 297. Graduate students who are actively involved in the research can serve as "role models" for undergraduates. Graduate students can provide substantial input into the academic component of Psychology 297, and can provide useful feedback to undergraduate research assistants. However, graduate students should not be solely responsible for the academic component of Psychology 297 and should not be the only source of feedback to and evaluation of undergraduate research assistants.