Psychology Department Student Research Policy
Rationale. Psychology majors who plan on continuing their education beyond BYU-Idaho will quickly
learn that competition for graduate programs is fierce. While GPA and test scores are certainly
important factors in determining graduate school admission, more and more programs of all types are
looking for students with some research experience. This is particularly true of clinical psychology and
experimental psychology graduate programs. Many institutions of higher education offer a number of
opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in research with graduate students or even
professors. These opportunities can often lead to a presentation at a research conference or even a
publication before earning the bachelor’s degree. Unfortunately, (as is the case at many bachelor’s
granting schools) such opportunities at BYU-Idaho are few and far between. Faculty teaching loads and
other responsibilities often preclude conducting the kinds of research with which students can be
involved. BYU-Idaho is primarily a TEACHING institution rather than a RESEARCH institution. For this
reason, the psychology faculty has, over the course of the past few years, been working to provide
interested students with the research experience so important to their education and so critical for
admission to many graduate programs. The solution has been to assist students in planning and
carrying out their own research projects. The purpose of this policy is to outline for the psychology
major at BYU-Idaho the ways in which this can be done.
Prerequisites. First and foremost, no psychology major at BYU-Idaho may conduct a research project
until they have taken three classes: FdMath 223 (Statistics), Psy 302 (Research Methods) and Psy 485
(Experiencing Research Capstone). The Research Methods class is designed to help you develop a
research proposal that could later on be conducted as a study. Even if you do not opt to conduct the
study that you propose, these classes are important preparation for personal research projects.
However, please be aware, that upper level students conducting research projects may be recruiting
students from the freshman and sophomore classes to assist with their projects. There is no need to
have taken the classes mentioned in order to provide this assistance. However, this assistance should
involve fairly simple activities such as assisting in data collection, participant recruitment, or data entry.
Research Mentoring. No psychology major can conduct a research study without a faculty mentor. In
addition, because of the large number of psychology majors and the small number of faculty, students
will not be allowed to conduct more than two research studies during their time at BYU-Idaho.
However, all students will be required to conduct at least one research project before they graduate.
See the two items below for further explanation:
1. All psychology majors who entered into the program Fall of 2013 will be required to take
Psychology 485 (Experiencing Research). This class is a capstone class that only Juniors and
Seniors will be allowed to register for. The purpose of this class is to provide ALL
psychology majors a means by which they can experience the research process. Many of
the students in this class will be encouraged to design and carry out a comprehensive review
of the literature and/or a meta-analysis. However, students will have the option to conduct
a primary research study involving data collection from participants. The instructor for this
class will be the mentor. The study conducted may be based on the proposal developed in
Psy 302 or may be a new proposal developed in the Psy 485 class. In any event, the first
research study conducted by all psychology majors MUST be within the context of this class.
2. If a student has taken Psy 485 early enough, they may have the time and inclination to
conduct another study. This is permitted; however, students who wish to conduct a
second study must meet two criteria. First, they must find a member of the BYUI
psychology department faculty to mentor their research. Please keep in mind that you
must discuss this with a faculty member and receive their agreement to mentor you.
FACULTY ARE NOT REQUIRED TO MENTOR STUDENTS so don’t assume that just because you
ask they will agree. Our faculty members are very busy and to mentor you will require
additional work and responsibility on their part. Second, if the faculty member agrees to
mentor you, you are required to sign up for at least 1 credit of Psy 485 under the section
pertaining to your faculty mentor. It will not be considered appropriate for faculty from
other departments or universities to provide oversight to BYUI psychology students.
Funding. There are some funds available to students to assist in conducting their study. These funds
can be used to provide compensation to participants, purchase assessments, pay for poster printing, etc.
However, there are not enough funds for every student and so students must apply for these funds if
they wish this extra assistance. An application does not automatically guarantee funding. This is a
competitive process.
Conferences. The Psychology Department will fund some students to attend the Association for
Psychological Science (APS) conference (generally in May), the Rocky Mountain Psychology Association
(RMPA) conference (generally in April) and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
(generally in April). Other conferences may be funded depending on faculty interest. Students may
ONLY be funded for one conference. Students who wish to apply for these funds must meet the
following criteria:
1. You must have a completed research project before applying for funds. (Students still working
on projects by the application deadline will not be considered eligible for funds).
2. You must be attending BYUI during the time of the conference or have recently graduated from
BYU-Idaho. Provided your graduation has been within the last two semesters, you are still
eligible for funds. Thus if you graduate Fall 2012, you would still be eligible for funding in
Winter of 2013.
3. All funding is contingent upon your research study being accepted by the conference selection
committee. The deadlines for APS and RMPA are generally in January. The deadline for the
SIOP conference is in September (with the conference being held the following April).
4. Students must be accompanied by a faculty member.
If you meet the criteria, you must email a completed research report by the established deadline to the
Psychology Department email (psychology@byui.edu). A research report will contain a brief
explanation of the following: literature review, methods, results, and discussion. Please include
somewhere on the research report your name and a reliable email address. A faculty committee will
review the reports and notify all candidates of the decision. If you are selected, you will need to submit
your research report information to the appropriate conference. Students who are attending will be
expected to pay for their membership in the organization, registration fees, and their food during the
conference as well as $100 towards their travel expenses. The Psychology Department will cover the
rest of the expenses (travel and hotel).
Miscellaneous. In some cases, two or more individuals may work on one research project. If you are
a coauthor on such a study, that study will be considered one of your permitted research projects. If
you are working on a second research project and are going to be coauthor with someone else on that
project, then you must also sign up for at least one credit of Psy 395R. In addition, both you and your
coauthor are eligible for funding for attendance at conferences. If you choose not to attend the
conference but allow your coauthor to go, you would still be eligible for funding for a different
conference provided you were presenting the results of a different research study.
All students conducting studies of any kind are eligible for funds. Conferences will accept metaanalyses. So if the study you choose to conduct is a meta-analysis or review, it could be eligible for
presentation at a conference.
All students conducting studies involving human participants MUST submit their proposals to the BYUIdaho Institutional Review Board. Students conducting meta-analyses do not need to submit their study
to the IRB.
Questions regarding this policy can be submitted to the Psychology Research Committee, namely, Bros
Clay, Delton and Gee.
I want to
wantI
conduct a
research study.
Are you a Junior
or a Senior?
Wait until your
junior year.
NO
YES
Have you taken
Psy 302 and
FdMath 223?
NO
Take Psy 302
and Fd Math
223.
YES
Have you signed
up for Psy 485?
YES
NO
I’ve had
the class
Sign up for Psy
485
Do you have
a faculty
mentor?
CONDUCT
YOUR STUDY
YES
NO
Get one!