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:

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

Honors thesis information for students and faculty

Why do an honors project?

There are many benefits to completing an honors thesis, and this could be one of the most rewarding experiences of your undergraduate degree.

  • learn research design skills
  • learn data-analysis skills
  • improve your writing and communciation abilities
  • become an expert on a topic in the psychological literature
  • prepare yourself for graduate studies in psychology

Planning for your thesis

Students must find a faculty member willing to supervise their honors thesis. For this reason, it is a good idea to make advance plans if you intend to pursue an honors thesis project.

Faculty members may require potential 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 their first PSYC 500X course as part of the two-sequence honors project.

Interim written report

At the end of the first semester students submit an interim report. The format of the interim report may depend on the nature of the research project. For example, the interim report could be an APA-style research report that would become one of the empirical chapters in the final thesis, or it could be a substantial literature review serving as the introduction to the thesis. Students submitting an interim report are expected to meet the minimum standards for submitting written work in a 5000 level course.

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 minimum requirements for a thesis are:

  • 20 double-spaced pages for the main body of the text
  • the page count does not apply to title page, abstract, references and so on, only to the main body of the text

Theses can be submitted in different formats, here are two common acceptable formats.

Thesis formatting options

Students work with their faculty advisor 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 inch margins, double-spaced text, 12 pt font
  • Title Page
  • Dedication Page
  • Acknowledgments Page
  • Table of Contents
  • List of Figures
  • List of Tables
  • Abstract Page
  • Major Sections/Chapters
    • Introduction
    • Chapter 1 (e.g., an empirical chapter)
    • Chapter 2 (e.g., another empirical chapter)
    • General Discussion
  • Appendices
  • References

APA style research paper format

A thesis written in APA format should contain at minimum, the following four sections:

  • Title Page (1 page),
  • Abstract (1 page),
  • Body : Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (20 pages minimum)
  • References (minimum of 20 references)