Characteristics of Programs That Maximize Psychology Major Success

Abstract

We conducted a national survey of psychology department chairs, and, based on their responses, we concluded that psychology programs differ in the number of students enrolled in various types of classes; the degree of focus on each of the goals recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines for an Undergraduate Psychology Education; the frequency of student participation in research, study abroad, and field placement; and the frequency of student-faculty interactions. We describe the percentage of psychology majors who have these program-relevant experiences. We also demonstrate that there are relationships between key high-impact activities and graduate school attendance, assessment test scores, and program completion rate. Based on the findings, we suggest how psychology programs may be able to help students to maximize their success.Keywords undergraduate psychology curriculum, faculty engagement, student engagement, student learning, student success What experiences and activities, in addition to the psychology curriculum itself, help psychology students to achieve the highest level of success? Certainly the curriculum is critical (Brewer et al., 1993;Buxton et al., 1952;McKeachie & Millholland, 1961), but it is similar across many programs (Stoloff et al., 2010). Thus, differences in student success among programs are not likely to be solely attributable to the curriculum. Our previous study demonstrated that programs vary in a variety of ways beyond course requirements, and these factors correlate with some measures of student success (Stoloff, Curtis, Rodgers, Brewster, & McCarthy, 2012). In that study, we did not find any relationship between the frequency with which students completed particular courses and the percentage of students attending graduate school. In contrast, we found that more students attended graduate school from programs that (1) focused greater faculty attention on undergraduates, (2) had more experiential learning opportunities, including opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate on research projects, (3) had more academic advising, and (4) had more frequent informal student-faculty interactions. This study had two purposes, that is, to develop national benchmarks for the percentage of psychology majors who have various experiences within or outside of courses and to demonstrate that there are significant relationships between the intensity of these experiences and several indicators of student success.There is a wealth of literature regarding activities that faculty members believe should be promoted within the psychology curriculum. We chose to focus on several skill domains that have been addressed in the literature. The perceived importance of activities that promote skill development is clear in the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines (2007), which suggested that psychology students should develop specific skills in scientific and critical reasoning, oral and written communication, information literacy, technology, and career p...

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