Psychology

• You must first arrange to take this course with a research supervisor, i.e., the chair of your thesis committee. Any faculty in the psychology department (excluding adjunct faculty) can serve as a thesis chair.

• You and the chair should then identify two other faculty members, at least one who is a psychologist with a research focus, to serve on your thesis committee. The purpose of the thesis committee is to direct and assist you in all phases of the project.
• Once your committee is familiar with your thesis project, you should apply for IRB approval if your advisor’s current IRB approval does not cover your project, so you can begin conducting the research.
  1. NOTE: If the research supervisor is NOT a faculty member in the psychology department (e.g., is in another department, such as Clinical and Health Psychology), you must find a Psychology faculty member to serve as a co-chair of your committee.

To enroll for PSY 4970, you will need the following information:

• The names of the members of your thesis committee.
• Your IRB approval #
• Your written thesis proposal, (at least 7 pages in length, double-spaced), consisting of an introduction and method like what will appear in the actual thesis. The typed proposal must accompany the registration form. If you cannot complete this proposal, then you will not be able to register for PSY 4970 and instead should consider signing up for PSY 4905.
• Your proposal must outline the following:
• Specific aims or purpose of the project
• Review of pertinent literature
• Type and number of subjects to be tested.
• Apparatus or materials to be used.
• Techniques or procedures for data collection
• Methods of data analysis
• Possible outcomes of the study and their interpretations for the senior thesis.
• The undergraduate coordinator, Dr. Ron Chandler will review your proposal, so make sure to email your proposal at least 1-2 days before the registration deadline. Please copy Psych-advising.
• PSY 4970 Enrollment Form- Fill out and print the enrollment form and obtain the signature of your faculty supervisor (again, it must be a faculty member in psychology).
  1. Once completed and signed, email the form to the Psychology Advising office at psych-advising@ufl.edu, where the undergraduate coordinator must review your form and proposal. You will be notified when your PSY 4970 form has been approved by the undergraduate coordinator, after which the advising staff can register you for the course.

Note: Students must enroll in at least one credit of PSY 4970 in the semester they will defend their thesis (often the same semester they will graduate), although typically previous semesters will have already been spent working on the thesis.

The first step is to identify a laboratory where you would like to gain your experience. There are several ways to do this.

1. Talk with your course instructors and teaching assistants about research projects that they are conducting.
2. Browse the notices about available research positions on the bulletin boards on the first floor of the Psychology Building.
3. Look through faculty members’ web pages to see who is conducting research of interest to you (see https://psych.ufl.edu/directory/faculty/ for a listing of faculty and links to their web pages).
4. Get involved with the Psychology Club. The club will announce opportunities for research positions periodically.

Once you have identified laboratories of interest, contact the faculty member or graduate student to find out about the availability of research assistant positions and the specific laboratory’s application procedures. You are encouraged to do this as early as possible, as some laboratories have a limited number of available positions. It is best to apply towards the end of the semester before you want to begin working in the research lab or as early as possible in the semester you want to begin working.

Students can take 0-3 credits per semester, to be determined by your research supervisor. For each credit taken, you must complete 45 work hours this semester. This translates into 3 hours per week during the Spring and Fall semesters, 3.75 hours per week during Summer C, and 7.5 hours per week during Summer A or B (for each credit taken).

PSY4905 is used for working independently to collect data. PSY4911 is supervised research. This is when a student is actively participating in conducting/ participating in labs under the supervision of their faculty/project supervisors. PSY4905 cannot be used for supervised research that should be taken under PSY 4911.

Although there are various uses for which PSY 4905 is appropriate, students typically sign up for PSY 4905 when developing a senior honors thesis idea or when doing a directed readings course as an independent study with a professor.

Research taken for credit must be voluntary and unpaid.

As with any course, credit for these courses cannot be awarded retroactively, so if you want to earn credit, register for the individual work course in the semester that you plan to work.

Registration for these courses is available during advance registration through the semester’s midpoint.  If you have a scholarship, you should check with financial aid about any consequences for adding these courses after drop/add.

Although many students begin with PSY 4911, these courses do not have to be taken in sequence, nor do all of the courses have to be taken before conducting a senior thesis.

You can enroll in 0 credits for PSY 4911, so if you have already taken the maximum # of credits in these courses, you can still sign up for 0 credits. No fee is associated with 0 credits and the course will still reflect on your transcripts.

If you plan to work primarily with a graduate student as your supervisor, you still must obtain a signature from the graduate student’s faculty supervisor.

If you plan to work on research with a member of the Clinical and Health Psychology faculty, you may sign up for CLP3911 (Introduction to Clinical Research) and receive credit toward the psychology major, but you must do this through HPNP (go to HPNP 3158 or call 273-6455 for more information).

If the faculty member is not in psychology or clinical and health psychology, you must get a member of the psychology department who is experienced in the research area you plan to complete research in.  You will need them to sign the form as the faculty sponsor.

Students who have a 3.5 or higher upper-division UFGPA automatically receive Cum Laude. To receive high or highest honors, students must register for PSY 4970 and complete a thesis.

A senior thesis is an original and substantive research project conducted under the close supervision of a faculty member. If you think that you might want to do a senior thesis, then you should first become involved in research as a research assistant (see information on PSY4911) this will enable a faculty member to get to know you, after which he/she may consider supervising you in a senior thesis. A thesis is a serious commitment, both in intellectual effort and in time. Most thesis projects require at least two semesters (or more) for completion, in addition to the time first spent gaining experience as a research assistant.

To complete an honors thesis, you must find a Psych Faculty member (not adjunct) who will oversee your work, register for a one-credit honors thesis course, and then complete an honors thesis/research paper by the end of the term in which you will graduate.

If you enroll in PSY 4970 but do not defend a thesis that semester, you must submit a progress report to psych advising and Dr. Chandler by the last day of classes, explaining the progress that you have made on your thesis research over the semester as well as your plans for completing the research in a subsequent semester. There isn’t a set number of pages, but the report should be detailed enough to document what you have accomplished this semester (as a function of the number of credits you are registered for). Occasionally, students must discontinue working on their thesis, and under those circumstances, you must give a detailed explanation for your inability to finish the thesis in a subsequent semester. This should be a rare occurrence; if you sign up for PSY 4970, you are doing so under the expectation that you will complete a senior thesis as described above. You do not need to get your mentor’s signature on this – simply turn in a paper copy of the progress report to psychology advising.

• If you are planning to continue working on your thesis next semester, you must sign up for PSY 4970 credits in the semester that you plan to defend. We have a max of 4 credits that can be taken for PSY 4970, so if you have already done 3 credits this semester, you can only sign up for 1 next semester. Remember that these credits must count towards the psych requirements. You will need to fill out the PSY 4970 paperwork again (you can use the same thesis proposal that you used this semester, just attach it to a new form that is signed by your Faculty Supervisor) and turn it in via email to psych-advising@ufl.edu.