USF Advantage

USF advantage

The foundation of Psychology is research and USF students get hands-on learning opportunities:

• Students participate in faculty-student research projects. One study on sex roles led to a faculty-student co-authored publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Students helped with the first wave of data collecting to evaluate the new honors program (the Duns Scotus program) at USF.
• Two groups of students worked with the faculty and videotaped children’s performance on Piagetian tasks to test Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory.

USF’s Psychology major requires two research foundation courses. experimental approach and designs, requiring all psychology majors working in groups to complete a true experiment initiated by themselves from the very first step of generating a researchable question to the very last step of writing up a manuscript in APA style and presenting the study at the USF Senior Scholarship Symposium. This requires doing research, not just learning about research.

The second course is focused on the survey approach, which is the most widely used approach in everyday life, and other non-experimental methods.

Two capstone courses are also required for the psychology major degree:

• Research Methods in the Behavioral Sciences I gives hands-on experiences so that students learn how to use experimental designs to research and how to write the report in APA style.
• History and Systems of Psychology gives students experiences on how to do library-based research and how to synthesize the information according to different schools of thought in psychology.
• Both capstone courses require students to present their work at the USF Senior Scholarship Symposium.

Symposia

USF Psychology students have the opportunity and are encouraged to attend the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) in Chicago where they may see one of their professors or a fellow student present. Attendance at this event is organized by the Psychology Club.

The annual student symposium of Associated College of the Chicago Area (ACCA) is also a must for students and again attendance is organized by the Psychology Club.

Internships

Internships in the local social service agencies/facilities and business settings and internships with the Psychology faculty such as teaching assistantships and research assistantships are opportunities made available to USF students.