Special Experiences for Psychology Majors at IPFW Dr. Blakemore

Organizations for Psychology Majors Psychology Club Open to any student interested in psychology Psi Chi The national honor society in Psychology Advisors are Drs. Miller and DiClementi

Working as a Research Assistant See the department web page at: http://www.ipfw.edu/departments/coas/depts/psychology/resources/research%20opportunities.html The faculty most likely to have a significant number of research assistants are: Lawton, Jackson, Miller, Drouin, DiClementi, Ross, Yoder, & Kaiser A little less so: Hill, Lundy, Vartanian, and me You can ask the others Dr. Bendele is often involved in student’s own research: honors thesis (more later) You should seek out the faculty member you are interested in working with You will need to complete a form (basically a contract) when you work as a research assistant

What Do Research Assistants Do? Collect data – run research participants – this is the most frequent activity Enter and clean up data Do library research and searches Sometimes assist in the data analysis process Assist in the research development process Much less often, but on occasion, contribute to the writing of a paper or poster Go to scientific meetings and present the paper with the faculty member (MPA is a very common such place) www.midwesternpsych.org Also less frequently, be an author on a research paper

Working as a Research Assistant: How Do Students Benefit? Letters of recommendation for graduate school Consideration for department honors and scholarships Getting to know the department and faculty better Learning about the research process

Working As A Research Assistant: How Do Faculty Benefit? Huge benefit to have students collecting the data. Students give new ideas or a new “take” on the research question. It’s very rewarding to mentor students – especially those who go on to graduate school in psychology – but any students.

Presenting Posters and Papers Students may be coauthors on faculty driven research This can be presented at many meetings (see samples in the hallway) There is funding to help students attend these meetings http://www.ipfw.edu/offices/resp/students/ And for other individual research activities, more later

Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) Look at last year’s program book Linked on the lecture page Always in Chicago in May Search for IPFW faculty and see all the students attending to present the poster or paper with the faculty member

Psi Chi at MPA There are many activities specifically for undergraduate students at MPA, hosted by the midwest regional Psi Chi group When students do their own research (e.g., an honors thesis), they can submit it directly to Psi Chi, which hosts poster sessions for undergraduate research, and which also presents awards for the “best” undergraduate research

Attending MPA Psi Chi and Psychology Club often take groups of students to Chicago for MPA The department often assists this activity financially, and the clubs do fundraisers to help pay for the trip Students don’t need to be presenting a paper or poster to attend MPA

Doing Your Own Research: An Honors Thesis Once you have worked as a research assistant for a faculty member, and have taken research methods, and meet other requirements (number of hours, GPA, etc.), you may want to do your own research Best to do in junior year, or with enough time to complete it and present it before applying to graduate school Find more information at: You may also want to complete the research certificate You can even get a scholarship/grant to pay for your honors thesis credit And additional financial support may be sought for your research http://www.ipfw.edu/ores/undergraduate/default.shtml

Presenting your Research at IPFW Every Spring semester the university hosts an annual undergraduate research symposium for students in all disciplines In 2014 it will be March 28th http://www.ipfw.edu/offices/resp/students/symposium.html You can present work you did as part of a faculty-driven team, or you can present your own honors thesis There is also a similar symposium for the state of Indiana at IUPUI in the Fall, and students who presented at IPFW in Spring, sometimes go to IUPUI in Fall, but you can do one and not the other – they aren’t tied together

Other Valuable Special Experiences PSY 480: Field Experience in Psychology Two different configurations: Dr. Young takes a group of students to Parkview Hospital’s Behavior Health unit each Summer I He also supervises field placements in many different community settings every semester PSY 490: Practicum in Psychotherapy Dr. Young offers this course to 10 students every Spring semester

Advantages of Field Placement If you are applying to clinical or counseling graduate programs, this is a very valuable undergraduate experience, and one clinical programs will look for (note, doctoral programs will want to see research a bit more than this, but there’s no reason you can’t do both) Doing a field placement or internship is exceptionally valuable to students who want to work in human services fields with a bachelor’s degree – it’s reasonable to say that it’s an essential experience for this purpose Also, being in mental health or applied setting can teach students whether they really like to do this kind of work – better to find out now!

Being an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Sometimes referred to as TA or UTA Students usually enroll in PSY 392 (Undergraduate Teaching Assistant) One configuration involves being a TA for PSY 120 The other configuration involves being a TA for one of the other larger courses that many nonmajors often take (e.g., PSY 235 or PSY 350), working individually with a particular faculty member

UTA for PSY 120 This is coordinated by Dr. Hill and Dr. Bendele Students must see one of these faculty members to sign up All TAs meet as a group once a week with Drs. Hill and Bendele They have group activities and assignments related to the teaching of psychology, and PSY 120 in particular Then, they are assigned to a particular PSY 120 instructor, with whom the meet individually, and for whom they do particular activities such as Grade critical thinking assignments Enter scores in a gradebook Proctor exams Show videos to the class when the instructor is out of town Run study or review sessions Have office hours and assist students by one-on-one tutoring