Honors Thesis

Honors Thesis Guidelines in the Department of Psychology

The honors thesis is a two-semester, mentored research experience that culminates in a written thesis. A two-semester honors thesis is required for graduating with departmental honors. Students conducting a two-semester honors typically complete the following:

Identify a faculty research mentor who will agree to supervise their honors thesis.
Take two PSYC 500X (Independent honors research) or PSYC 501X (Independent honors field work) courses, typically in consecutive semesters.
Submit an interim written report in the first semester and the final honors thesis in the second semester.

Guidelines and information for the interim report and thesis are below.

Honors Thesis Information for Students and Faculty

Why Do an Honors Project?

Completing an honors thesis could be one of the most rewarding experiences of your undergraduate degree. The many benefits of doing an honors project include:

learning research design skills,
learning data-analysis skills,
improving writing and communication abilities,
attending BC Science Day and presenting your research at a conference,
becoming an expert on a topic in the psychological literature, and
preparing yourself for graduate studies in psychology.

Planning for Your Thesis

Students are required to find a faculty member willing to supervise their honors thesis. For this reason, it is a good idea to make advance plans and reach out to potential faculty advisers three to six months prior to registering if you intend to pursue an honors thesis project.

Faculty members may require prospective thesis students to first gain research experience in their lab. For example, students can take PSYC 200X (Laboratory Experience) courses to gain research experience in a particular lab. It is also possible to take an individual PSYC 500X course that is not part of the honors thesis project to gain research experience. In this event, a student wishing to complete an honors project would typically take an additional two PSYC 500X courses (e.g., PSYC 5002 and PSYC 5003).

In some circumstances, a student may register for a single PSYC 500X course, without the intention to complete a two-semester honors project. Upon completion, they may wish to continue pursuing their research in a second PSYC 500X course. Special permission from the chair is required for the student to count his or her first PSYC 500X course as part of the two-sequence honors project.

Interim Written Report (First Semester)

Interim reports are written in APA format and are expected to meet the minimum standards for submitting written work in a single 5000-level course (e.g., minimum 12 pages body). The content of the interim report may depend on the nature of the research project and is set by the faculty adviser. For example, the interim report could be like a completed research report that would become one of the empirical chapters in the final thesis, or it could be more like a theoretical report, or "other" report that would eventually form a different part of the final honors thesis.

Thesis (Second Semester)

At the end of the second semester students submit the final thesis. The thesis is a written report reflecting two semesters' worth of work, and a substantial amount of scholarly work on the part of the student.

The suggested minimum requirement for a thesis is 20 double-spaced pages, not including title page, abstract, references, etc.

Thesis Formatting Options

Students work with their faculty adviser to determine the most useful format for their thesis. The two most common formats are the undergraduate thesis format and an APA style research paper. Each are described below:

Undergraduate Honors Thesis format

We follow the CUNY guidelines for thesis format. Students can download this Microsoft Word thesis template, which conforms to the standards listed below.

1" margins, double-spaced text, 12-point font
Title Page (template for Thesis Title Page)
Dedication Page
Acknowledgments Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abstract Page
Major Sections/Chapters (20 double-spaced pages)
- Introduction
- Additional Chapters
- General Discussion
Appendices
References (minimum of 20 references)