Psychology Major - Psychology Minor - Advising - Faculty Mentoring - Senior Assignment - Program Opportunities - Undergraduate Handbook - Honors Academy - Careers & Graduate School
The Department of Psychology has a long and distinguished tradition of engaging students in psychological research. Experience with running studies, analyzing data and presenting results is a requirement for admission to high-quality psychology graduate programs, so we encourage students to gain as much research experience as possible.
Most of the research experiences below are described with the same words found on the web sites that promote them. The information is current as of 2009.
SIUE’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program
The URCA program allows undergraduates to get involved in research and creative activities in two ways--as an URCA Research Associate or as an URCA Research Assistant. At this page you can learn more about these research programs.
Psychology 491 (Research in Psychology)
To find out more about enrolling in Psyc 491 at SIUE, please talk to the undergraduate psychology advisor or a professor with whom you are interested in doing research.
CIC’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP)
This program allows you to enhance your academic and research skills by working one-on-one with a faculty mentor at a top-ranked research university. The SROP web site lists the following details about this program's activities:
NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program
In the words of the REU web site, the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. This solicitation features two mechanisms for support of student research: (1) REU Sites are based on independent proposals to initiate and conduct projects that engage a number of students in research. REU Sites may be based in a single discipline or academic department, or on interdisciplinary or multi-department research opportunities with a coherent intellectual theme. Proposals with an international dimension are welcome. A partnership with the Department of Defense supports REU Sites in DoD-relevant research areas. (2) REU Supplements may be requested for ongoing NSF-funded research projects or may be included as a component of proposals for new or renewal NSF grants or cooperative agreements.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities and Internships Listed on the APA’s Web Site
This page lists a variety of research opportunities that are endorsed by the APA.
APA’s Summer Science Fellowship
The American Psychological Association's web site states that this is an expenses-paid, intensive summer training program that allows up to 12 talented students to be placed in the psychology laboratories of some of the most outstanding researchers in the Washington, DC area for up to 7 weeks. The SSF program gives students an opportunity to explore the intellectual, personal, and social processes of scientific inquiry and to experience cutting-edge psychological research through hands-on laboratory activities. SSF offers promising students the opportunity to equip themselves with skills essential to succeed in graduate school, and gives students who plan to pursue advanced degrees in psychological science the opportunity to be mentored by nationally-known faculty.
APA’s Advanced Statistical Training in Psychology (ASTP) Program
The Advanced Statistical Training in Psychology (ASTP) program is an intensive 9-day seminar in which students will learn about psychological statistics and research methods in a dynamic setting that emphasizes the hands-on skills it takes to analyze and interpret real data. Much of the statistical instruction will be geared toward the use of computer-assisted statistical packages (SPSS). This intensive seminar will be co-taught by award winning instructors who have each taught graduate statistics and/or research methods at major research universities.
Undergraduate Internship Program with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world's largest archive of digital social science data, maintains a paid summer internship program. ICPSR is a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Interns gain experience using statistical programs such as SAS, SPSS, and Stata, take courses in quantiative methods and participate in a weekly lunch and lecture series.
Colorado State University’s Summer Program on Mind and Brain
The Department of Psychology at Colorado State University, with funds provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, offers qualified undergraduates the opportunity to participate in a nine-week summer program on mind and brain. The centerpiece of the program is a research experience under the close mentorship of a faculty member in which students actively participate in developing, running, analyzing, and presenting a research project. The research problems available to students span a range of topics from the fields of perception, cognition, and cognitive neuroscience, reflecting the research specializations of faculty mentors.
University of South Carolina’s Summer Research Institute
This summer research program focuses on experimental psychology (specifically, behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience).