Undergraduate Education: Making the Psychology Major Count for Students

Thursday, January 5, 2023
11:40 AM - 12:30 PM
Zoom

Presenters: Angelica Aguirre, Ph.D., Bradley Arzsnov, Ph.D., Kristie Campagna, Ph.D., Andi Lassiter, Ph.D., Adam Steiner, Ph.D., Emily Stark, Ph.D., Psychology

"There is no better time to be a psychology major. Psychology students gain skills like scientific literacy, effective communication, and critical thinking that are sought after in the workplace. However, departments may not know how to help students connect these skills with future workforce opportunities. APA’s Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major include these five goals: 1. Knowledge Base 2. Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking 3. Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World 4. Communication 5. Professional Development. Many undergraduate programs are capable of aligning content and assessments to meet these goals. However, in our department we have observed our majors having a difficult time articulating what they have gotten out of the psychology major. As a department serving over 500 majors, we also know that students are split in terms of whether they will attend graduate school or immediately enter the workforce.

Our department developed a framework for capstone courses in which we used a team approach to ensure our students know the value of their major and can reflect on skills gained in the APA’s five goal areas. In this critical conversation, we will describe the variety of capstone experiences our students can choose from (e.g., research and field experiences, science communication, and history and systems) and the team-based teaching and assessment approach that connects the capstone experiences together. We will then discuss how our faculty collaborated to develop instructional modules that allowed students across all capstone experiences to hone their skills, and reflect on how those skills could contribute to their future, whether it is in the workforce or graduate school. We will also present outcome data and student dissemination experiences from these capstone courses. In this session, we hope to continue the discussion to identify best practices and share stories and examples.
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