Honors Program Theses
Award/Availability
Open Access Honors Program Thesis
First Advisor
Adam Butler
Abstract
The psychology undergraduate degree is not linked to any specific occupation in the same sense as other degrees, such as accounting or education. The lack of a clear connection between the psychology degree and distinct employment opportunities can make it difficult for stakeholders, such as prospective students, their parents, and even faculty, to develop a clear understanding of which careers psychology students are prepared for after graduation. Until these stakeholders are given a framework to conceptualize the degree's benefits better, the psychology department may fail to optimize its recruitment of valuable young minds into its ranks; furthermore, prospective students may fail to consider the bright future that comes from graduating with the degree.
By determining which competencies or clusters of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are acquired while completing the psychology degree, this study attempts to reduce the ambiguity surrounding the skills value of the degree. This study surveyed psychology students and faculty to gauge the perceived usefulness of individual competencies during the completion of the undergraduate psychology degree. While our findings indicate that many competencies are useful in completing the undergraduate psychology degree, about a dozen appear to be useful and essential. Due to specific competencies being useful or essential to the completion of the degree, it would stand that those competencies are also the most likely to be acquired or improved upon while working toward graduation. Our findings' implications and potential uses are likely beneficial to higher education institutions, students, and employers.
Year of Submission
2023
Department
Department of Psychology
University Honors Designation
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors
Date Original
5-2023
Object Description
1 PDF file (19 pages)
Copyright
©2023 Jake Harrington
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Harrington, Jake, "Competencies Acquired in the Psychology Major" (2023). Honors Program Theses. 701.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/701
