II. The Psychology Department

The University of Scranton Psychology Department is proud of the three major components of a quality education: faculty, students, and facilities.

Faculty

Our 10 full-time faculty all hold doctoral degrees in psychology and are actively involved in research spanning the discipline: clinical, cognitive, developmental, evolutionary, industrial-organizational, learning, physiological, perception, and social. In addition to their teaching commitments, faculty members supervise research, publish regularly, review for journals, and coordinate grants. Additional information on the faculty is provided in Section III of this Handbook.

Students

The three departmental student organizations are the Psychology Club, Psi Chi, and the Association for Psychological Science Student Caucus. The Psychology Club is open to any university student interested in psychology. Annual events include a fall picnic, a holiday dinner, community service projects, and a spring picnic.

Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology with chapters in 759 universities in all 50 states. The local chapter was founded in 1969 and is composed of psychology majors in the upper 35% of their class in general scholarship and of superior scholarship in psychology. Each year Psi Chi organizes an initiation dinner, a GRE Psychology review, and trips to a regional convention.

The local chapter of the Association for Psychological Science Student Caucus was organized in 1991 to promote critical thinking and discussion of topics related to psychology. This organization and the faculty coordinate the Annual University of Scranton Psychology Research Conference. This meeting typically draws over 200 registrants, attracts more than 40 paper presentations, and features an invited address by a prominent psychologist.

2009-2010 Club Officers

Psychology Club

Psi Chi

APSSC

President - Kylie McColligan
VP - Justine Zolton
Secretary - Sarah Afriecq
Treasurer - Brianna Doherty

President:  Jonathan Bennett
Vice President:  Maria Portelli
Treasurer:  Melissa A. Scacchitti

President -- Simone Gilpin
Vice-President -- Kelsi Johnson
Secretary -- Sofia Neves
Treasurer -- Alex Kasper
Student Government Liaison --
      Torrey Salmon

Facilities

Research - The department has over 3450 feet of research space including computer based laboratories for cognitive/perception simulations, information processing research, and social psychology.  The department research space also includes environmentally controlled animal facilities wet and dry laboratories for neuroscience research, a complex for visual-audio recording, and general research rooms.

Computers - The department is at the forefront of computer applications.  We have over 48 Pentium-based computers connected through a high speed network to the University’s main computer, laser and color printers, and other input/output devices.  This network allows ready access to word-processing, statistical packages, computer-assisted instruction, graphics, data analysis, library, research applications, the Internet and the World Wide Web.  The department’s computer facilities include a computer laboratory equipped with 10 PC stations, a cognitive/perception computer simulation laboratory, information processing research laboratory, and a social psychology research laboratory.  Also included on the psychology floor are two full mediated classrooms and one fully mediated seminar room with an additional 12 PC stations.

Affiliations - The Psychology Department is a charter member of the Council of Undergraduate Psychology Programs (CUPP). We are also a liaison institution of the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) and a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).

Facts and Figures

The effectiveness of the University of Scranton psychology program is demonstrated in part by the following achievements:

Periodic surveys of our graduating seniors show widespread satisfaction with the program. For instance, in Spring 2009, 100% of our graduating psychology seniors gave the overall program an A or B, and 97% rated the quality of teaching as an A or B.  Also, 82% of the class gave the department a grade of A or B for opportunity to do research, and 87% gave the department a grade of A or B for the opportunity for practical experience.

A notable proportion of our graduates go on to Ph.D. programs in psychology with financial assistance. Achievement is also demonstrated in a study from the Office of Institutional Research at Franklin and Marshall College, which shows that over the last decade for which data were analyzed (1986-1995), the University of Scranton ranked 24th out of 254 comparable 4-year private institutions as the baccalaureate source of Ph.D.s in Psychology. Twenty University graduates received doctorates in psychology during the 1990's.  In 2008-2009, 18 of our 40 graduating seniors have obtained acceptance to graduate school.

Our students' knowledge of psychology, as measured by standardized tests, is well above the national average. This is reflected in their performance on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Psychology Subject Test and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Major Field Achievement Test in Psychology. Compared to other institutions, the University of Scranton scored at 88th percentile on the psychology achievement test in Spring 2006.

Psychology majors continue to conduct and present research at a rate far exceeding national norms. In the 2007-2008 academic year, for example, 15 current and past psychology undergraduates co-presented a paper or co-authored an article/book chapter with psychology faculty members.

An indirect measure of instructional and faculty quality are awards bestowed by independent bodies.  Drs. John Norcross and J. Timothy Cannon were honored as the Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation.  Dr. Thomas Hogan was named the 2000 CASE Professor of the Year at the University of Scranton.  Dr. Hogan also received the 32nd Annual Gannon Memorial Award for Teaching (2000), was honored with the Teacher of the Year Award by the Class of 2000, and was recognized as Distinguished University Fellow (2003).  The University of Scranton chapter of the American Psychological Society Student Caucus was chosen as the outstanding chapter in the country in 1992 and 1995.  Dr. John Norcross received the Distinguished Career Contributions to Education & Training Award from the American Psychological Association and was recently recognized as a Distinguished University Fellow (2004).  Most recently, Dr. John O’Malley received the University’s Teacher of the Year Award in 2009.

In terms of individual honors, in 2009, six of our graduating seniors were listed in Who’s Who. In 2008, three of our graduating seniors were listed in Who's Who, and one graduated in the Honors program.  In addition, 10 of our graduating seniors in 2009 - and 19 in academic year 2008 - were members of Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology.