Program Learning Outcomes: Psychology

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.