Goal 1: Knowledge Base ACAT results

Students in our Senior Seminar course took the Psychology Area Concentration Achievement Test. Students scored above our 50 th percentile benchmark in the following topic areas of psychology: abnormal, clinical/counseling, developmental, experimental design, human learning/cognition, physiological, social, and statistics. Students scored below our 50 th percentile benchmark in history and systems (a course our students currently are not required to take) and in personality (also not a required course, plus our course places less emphasis on names of researchers and theorists than does the test). Based on these results, we have changed major requirements such that all students will take a history and systems course.

Goal 2: Research Methods, Outcome 3
Design Basic Studies to Address Psychological Questions results

Our students performed best in the areas of writing a research question or purpose and writing a hypothesis that is appropriate to the research method used. In an effort to improve students’ ability to write an appropriate literature review and to write a hypothesis that is appropriate to that literature review, we have modified an assignment so they now have to think and write about the relationship between the background literature and their hypotheses early enough in the semester to get feedback from the instructor before they write their research reports. These results are based on the survey research reports written by students in our Methods of Experimental Psychology classes.

Career Planning and Development results

Students taking our Becoming a Psychology Major course reported that from beginning to end of the semester, they improved their ability to gather information about psychology careers, increased their knowledge of what those careers entail, and increased their interest in earning a minor. Self-assessment assignments reveal students are aware that procrastination will keep them from achieving their goals, but they are NOT aware of how to improve. In the short-term, we plan to focus a class period on time management, with the possibility of a workshop on time management and procrastination avoidance in a future semester.

Senior Exit Survey results

The majority of students taking this survey reported that the psychology program was very or extremely helpful in helping them learn the content of psychology, including research methods, and in helping them develop their critical thinking. Students reported that the psychology program’s greatest strength is the high quality of the faculty.

Full Assessment Report for 2005-2006