This is the course website for the Stanford Psychology Honors Program. The Honors Program in Psychology is designed for Psychology majors who wish to pursue a full year of intensive supervised independent research during their senior year. Students in the program will acquire a broad background in psychology as well as a deep background in their chosen area.

In the fall quarter, we will focus on career development, acquiring valuable research skills, and on discussing our research projects. In the winter quarter, we will focus on reading and discussing research papers that are relevant for our projects. In the spring quarter, we will focus on how to present our research in writing, as well as in poster and oral presentations.

Team

Ellen Markman Tobi Gerstenberg Kate Petrova
Ellen Markman Tobi Gerstenberg Kate Petrova
Role Instructor Instructor Teaching assistant
Email (@stanford.edu) markman gerstenberg kpetrova
Office hours* By appointment By appointment By appointment

* We warmly invite you to join us for office hours! You don’t have to have a specific question in advance - you can check in just to say hi if you want :) We’re also here in case you want help with project troubleshooting, planning for project updates, career advice, etc.


Where and when?

During spring quarter, the class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:00-4:20pm in Building 160, room 120.


Learning goals

In this course, we will:

  • Build community with your peers to support each other in your research and beyond.
  • Expand your horizon of research questions and methods in psychology through actively engaging with your peers.
  • Gain more insights into what the academic research path looks like through panel discussions with current PhD students and lab managers.
  • Learn about the tools necessary to contribute towards open and reproducible science.
  • Critically evaluate existing research and discuss strengths and weaknesses.
  • Improve your scientific communication skills through presentation, discussion, writing, and peer feedback.
  • Enable you to write an honors thesis that makes you proud.

Schedule

Day Date Topics
Tuesday April 1st Check-ins / brief project updates
Thursday April 3rd Discussion on writing a thesis
Tuesday April 8th Poster workshop (with Helen Lie)
Thursday April 10th Title workshop & more poster tips
Tuesday April 15th Hume writing workshop (with Chris Kamrath)
Thursday April 17th Writing workshop (time for writing)
Tuesday April 22nd Writing workshop (time for writing)
Thursday April 24th Poster presentations
Tuesday April 29th Poster presentations
Thursday May 1st Poster presentations
Tuesday May 6th Poster presentations
Thursday May 8th Poster presentations
Tuesday May 13th Poster feedback
Thursday May 15th Writing workshop/poster printing
Tuesday May 20th Writing workshop/poster printing
Wednesday May 21st Poster session! (3:45-5:00pm)
Thursday May 22nd Social
Tuesday May 27th Writing workshop (time for writing)
Thursday May 29th Writing workshop (time for writing)
Friday May 30th Thesis due
Tuesday June 3rd No class

General information


Attendance policy

We expect that you attend each of our course meetings in person. However, if something comes up, please let us know and we can make arrangements for you to make up your absence. Unfortunately, we can’t offer remote attendance via Zoom this quarter, but we are happy to send you a class recap (and we will of course post all relevant materials and slides on Canvas).

And of course, your health is the top priority, so if you are sick or have ANY potential symptoms of COVID-19, flu, RSV, a cold, etc., please email us (when you can) and stay home and rest!


Grading & assignments

Our primary focus is to make this course useful for all of you.


Here is the breakdown of what we expect from all of you:


  • Attendance (30%): Attendance is required to for you to benefit from the range of class meetings we’ll have this quarter (including skill workshops, poster presentations, and writing sessions) and to get feedback from your peers. And most importantly, attendance is essential for creating and sustaining a culture in class that is supportive, informative, constructive, and provides a safe space for troubleshooting issues together.
  • Active participation (30%): Active participation encourages dynamic learning and enhances communication skills. Moreover, both individually and as a group, we benefit from hearing everyone’s perspectives. Therefore, we encourage you to actively participate in class discussions.
  • Poster presentation (20%): This spring, our class time will mostly be devoted to learning about how to communicate your research findings via poster presentations. You’ll be asked to create a poster about your honors thesis work and present it to the class for feedback. Towards the end of the quarter, you’ll also have the opportunity to present the final version of your poster to the entire Psychology department. We hope that these experiences will help you develop and practice key skills for communicating about psychological research.
  • Peer feedback (20%): Providing constructive peer feedback fosters collaboration, hones your critical evaluation skills, and promotes a supportive classroom environment. You’ll have several opportunities to provide your peers with feedback in class this quarter as you craft your posters and make progress on your honors theses.

Class norms

  • Be respectful of each other

    • Be respectful of everyone’s ideas, work, identities and needs.
    • Be respectful and helpful when giving and taking feedback.

  • Provide constructive feedback

    • Start positively when giving feedback. Try to provide a solution when giving feedback.
    • Participate in class discussions but don’t dominate the discussion.
    • Be constructive with suggestions, not critical.
    • Be honest when reviewing others.
    • Take space, make space.

  • Recognize differences in the stages and fields of research

    • Be aware that everybody may be at different places in the honors research process and don’t assume that everyone is at the same stage.
    • Respecting different areas of research - every question is useful.
    • Be mindful of the use of language and jargon.

  • Look for opportunities to help each other

    • Step in to help out (especially for troubleshooting issues).
    • Participate in each others’ studies when that would be useful.
    • Share resources and knowledge

Support

Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability should initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066, URL: http://oae.stanford.edu).

Stanford offers several services that might be of help:


Feedback

We welcome feedback regarding the course at any point. Please feel free to email us directly, or leave anonymous feedback for the teaching team by using this form.