5000 Series Independent Research

This is a faculty-supervised independent research course that includes literature review, data collection and analysis, and/or substantial theoretical development, meta-analytic, computational, or simulation-based work. Minimum of nine hours conference and independent work. Students meet with their advisers on a weekly basis and submit a final research report by the end of the semester. A copy of the report must be submitted to the department for each course section. No grade will be assigned for the course until a department-approved report is submitted and filed.

Eligibility Criteria

• Prerequisites: Introductory Psychology (PSYC 1000); Statistical Methods (PSYC 3400); six additional credits in advanced Psychology Department courses; Experimental Psychology (PSYC 3450), which may be included among the six credits or may be taken as a co-requisite; and permission of the chair.
• A faculty member agrees to serve as adviser/instructor.

Course Registration

Submit a completed course PSYC 5001–5004 registration form to the Department of Psychology:

• 5000 Series Course Registration Form (doc): Students complete the top portion; the faculty adviser completes the bottom portion.

The chair gives final approval for registration.

Submitting Work at the End of the Semester

Students submit a written report at the end of each semester they are enrolled in a PSYC 5001–5004 course. Department approval of the report is required before a grade is assigned for the course. The requirements for written reports depend on whether the course is:

• a single independent research course, not a part of a two-semester honors thesis, and
• one part of a two-semester honors thesis (see honors thesis page for more information).

Report Types for Single Independent Research Course (not a part of an honors thesis)

APA Format

Reports are written in APA format and should contain, at minimum, the following:

• Title Page (1 page),
• Abstract (1 page),
• Body: Introduction, Methods, Results (if applicable), Discussion (if applicable) (12 pages minimum), and
• References (minimum of 10 references).

Completed Research Report

This type of paper must include the following sections:

• Title Page;
• Abstract;
• Literature Review that provides sufficient background and justification for conducting the study, with specific hypothesis(es);
• Methods Section that thoroughly describe the design, participants, equipment, materials, tasks, and procedure of the study;
• Results Section that justifies and explains the statistical analyses that were conducted and their outcomes;
• Discussion Section that interprets the results, addresses implications of the results, identifies study limitations, relates the findings to the broader theoretical framework and issues raised in the Introduction, and poses directions for future research; and
• References.

Theoretical Report

A paper consisting of a thorough review and discussion of the research on a particular topic. The paper should not simply present a “catalog-like” summary of one study after another. Rather, the paper should consist of a systematic integrative synthesis of the literature with one or more of the following features:

• provides new and interesting connections or insights,
• evaluates a controversy in the field by considering the evidence for or against a particular theory or claim(s) that result in an informed conclusion and proposes research to evaluate or resolve the controversy, or
• makes a theoretical argument and/or presents a new theoretical model to account for a particular set of research findings. Computer simulation/modeling or meta-analysis are included as acceptable approaches.

Other

An alternate type of paper may be acceptable. Faculty advisers should append description to form.

Report Types for Honors Thesis

Students completing a two-semester honors submit two reports: an interim report after the first semester, and the final completed thesis at the end of the second semester. Student completing an honors thesis are referred to honors thesis page on the department website for more information.

Semester 1 Interim Report

Interim reports are written in APA format and are expected to meet the minimum standards for submitting written work in a single 5000-level course (e.g., minimum 12 pages body). The content of the interim report may depend on the nature of the research project and is set by the faculty adviser. For example, the interim report could be like a completed research report that would become one of the empirical chapters in the final thesis, or it could be more like a theoretical report, or “other” report that would eventually form different part of the final honors thesis.

Semester 2 Final Thesis

The thesis is a written report reflecting two semesters’ worth of work, and a substantial amount of scholarly work on the part of the student.

• Suggested minimum 20 double-spaced pages for the main body of the text, not including title page, abstract, references, and so on.
• A thesis can be submitted in different formats, and students are referred to the honors thesis page on the department website for more information about formatting.

PSYC 500X Series (PSYC 5001-5004) Courses Requirements Clarifications

• Students will spend a minimum of nine hours per week in the research lab actively conducting research (collecting and analyzing data) each semester.
• Faculty mentors must have weekly meetings with their independent research students.
• Project Requirement: Acceptable projects do not necessarily need to involve human or animal participants; rather, studies consisting of computer simulation or other computational methods, such as a meta-analysis (raw data from selected studies are combined and analyzed to improve estimates of the size of a given effect and/or to resolve uncertainty when research papers disagree about a certain topic) are also acceptable.
• Report Requirement: Students must submit a final APA-style report at the end of the semester, for each 5000-level course. A report that is merely a summary or a critical review of current literature on a specific topic is not sufficient for the 5000-level independent research report. However, only the first semester report of a two-semester, yearlong thesis project need be in APA format. There are options for formatting the final thesis, and students are referred to the honors thesis page on the department website for more information.
• Honors Notation: As an “honors” course, the presumption is that students will conduct “honors”-level work. Nonetheless, the instructor may choose not to assign an “honors” designation if the level of performance is not achieved by the student. If the faculty member chooses to assign an “honors” designation, he or she makes the request through the BC portal after grades have been submitted through CUNYfirst.
• Graduating With Honors: Students must complete a sequence of at least two of the PSYC 500X series (5001–5004) courses and submit a written thesis project (in APA format) to apply for consideration of departmental honors in psychology. In addition, students need to receive a grade “with honors” in these honors courses (to be noted by the instructor after grade submission) in order for the course work to count toward eligibility and consideration to graduate with honors in psychology.
• Course Bulletin Description: Minimum of nine hours conference and independent work; three credits. Faculty-supervised independent research that includes data collection and analysis and/or theoretical work. Weekly conference. Final report must be submitted to the department.