Learning Outcomes
Upon the successful completion of the Psychology major, a student will be able to:
- Demonstrate broad expertise in their subject area and a working knowledge of appropriate terminology
- Complete a significant research project under the mentorship of an adviser
- Search, identify, analyze, critique, and evaluate existing scholarship
- Extend existing scholarship in innovative and integrative ways
- Understand the broader context, applications, and implications of their research and connect their work to other fields within Psychology and related disciplines.
- Develop cogent and testable hypotheses, and design and critique experiments
- Conduct appropriate data analysis
- Prepare and obtain approval to carry out research with human subjects and/or other vertebrate animals in ethically-appropriate ways
- Respond appropriately to feedback and critically evaluate their own work
- Write in a clear and concise scientific style, with a logical structure and a format and style appropriate to the field
- Present, discuss, and defend their work orally
- Communicate findings from existing scholarship and their own work to non-experts
The primary assessment tool for learning in the major at Reed and the level of student achievement in these areas is the senior thesis; the secondary assessment tool is the junior qualifying examination. For more information on the thesis and on the junior qual.