Research Engagement

COURSE ENGAGEMENT

Students will engage in research activities to advance their understanding of the Psychology research process. The student will find a research supervisor and meet with them at least bi-weekly. Workload will be equal to or greater than that of a regular course, with each credit corresponding to 3 hours of work in the lab; research activities will be determined by the supervisor. Students cannot receive course credit if they are being paid in any way (e.g., scholarship, workstudy). For example, if a student is being paid monetarily (as a research assistant) for the research project, the student will not receive academic credit for that specific research project.

This course can be taken for variable credit (1-3 units). The number of hours and credits will be determined by the student and the instructor. Typically, this will depend on the project, and how much work is available.

The aim is to provide students with diverse aspects of research experience and to recognize students' contributions to the field of Psychology. 

Students will learn specific research skills and reflect on all aspects of Psychological research.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grading will be based on a Pass/Fail system.

Students will be required to write an end of term 5-8 page report. The reflection paper may include: describing their own experiences and research contributions, what they learned (with citations as appropriate), how their research experience has changed their perspectives on research and contributed to their development and career goals. 

The paper should be submitted to the supervising instructor (please also cc the Undergraduate Advisors to your email at psycadvs@sfu.ca).

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Examples of research activities include the following: 

• participating in the conceptualization of research hypotheses and design of experiments or studies
• providing literature reviews and discussing research process and participating in decisions regarding research protocols
• participating in the ethics approval process
• scheduling, testing, and debriefing research participants
• recruiting and retaining research participants
• observational coding
• data entry and data management
• preliminary data analysis 

Application Procedure (Spring Term Deadline - January 6th)

The minimum entry requirements include the following: Completion of PSYC 201, at least 60 accumulated credits, an upper division GPA of at least 2.5, and either the TCPS Research Ethics (CORE) online course or SFU's Animal Care Services Training and Orientation Program

To submit your application, please send the following to the Psychology Undergraduate Advisor (psycadvs@sfu.ca) before the first week of classes:

1) The student must complete the Research Engagement Application Form. Please include your last name in the filename.

2) Advising Transcript

3) TCPS Research Ethics (CORE) online course or SFU's Animal Care Services Training and Orientation Program

The Psychology Undergraduate Advisor will register the student in the course when both the instructor and the Chair of the UGSC have approved the application. The student can use the same supervising instructor for Directed Studies and Research engagement. Students can also complete multiple Research Engagement courses with the same instructor (see below for credit limits).

CREDIT LIMITS - PSYC 393 (1-3)

There is a maximum number of Research Engagement and/or Directed Studies courses students can use for their program: 

• PSYC Minors/PSYC Joint Majors/Major with ABA - a maximum of 3 units can be used from Research Engagement or Directed Studies courses. 
• PSYC Majors - a maximum of 6 units can be used from Research Engagement and/or Directed Studies courses. 
• PSYC Honours - a maximum of 9 units can be used from Research Engagement and/or Directed Studies courses. 

Appeals

If the student's application is denied, they have the option to request an appeal. To do so, the student must submit a statement explaining their case and include a letter of support from their instructor. These documents must be submitted to the Psychology Undergraduate Advisor (psycadvs@sfu.ca). The appeal request will then be forwarded to the UGSC for review.