As a highlight of studying psychology at Kenyon, students enjoy research partnerships with faculty members, all of whom are active researchers. Beginning in their sophomore year, students participate in a variety of ongoing projects and may even co-publish papers in professional journals, a notable achievement as an undergraduate and highly desirable for those interested in graduate school.
Kenyon College Institutional Review Board (IRB)
The role of the Kenyon College Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to foster ethical treatment of human research participants and to oversee all research (broadly defined) involving human subjects conducted under the auspices of Kenyon College by its faculty, students, and staff. All research projects involving human subjects -- regardless of the source of funding -- require the review and approval from the Kenyon College IRB prior to gathering any data or information from the subjects.
Institutional Review Board IRB
CITI Human Subjects Research Educational Program
Facilities
All students have full access to the best facilities and equipment available. In Samuel Mather Hall, the department is able to house and care for animals and to conduct animal surgery, psycho-sociological research, and memory and survey research. Equipment in the biology and chemistry departments is also available to psychology students.
SONA Research
Kenyon students can go to this site to register and sign up for studies being conducted by the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Instructions for using the site will be distributed by your professors, in addition to what is provided here.
Sona Research Instructions
If your psychology course has a research requirement (most of them do), you will need to register as a potential research participant on our experiment management system, SONA. The log in information is below, and it is pretty easy to follow - you will be creating your own account - you just need to put in the small amount of information it will ask for - for USERID use your Kenyon USERID.
When an experiment is available for you to consider participating in, you will receive an email from the SONA system. If you have any questions you can contact Professor Payne.
Self-Directed Research
Students who want to get more involved in research can pursue advanced research or independent study in psychology under the guidance of a faculty member. If you are interested in working in a lab or pursuing independent study, please see the professor who you would like to work with.
Advanced students who meet the appropriate criteria might want to propose to do research under the framework of the psychology department's honors program. Please see the description of our honors program for more information about this option.
Summer Science
Summer Science Scholarships are designed to allow students to work closely with a faculty mentor on a research project during the summer. Students write a proposal that is submitted for review by the Science Division during the spring semester. If funded, the student receives a stipend and funds for research materials and supplies. Students present the results of their work at a public poster session in the fall semester that follows their summer research experience.
Many summer science projects lead to presentations at national or regional meetings and/or publication of the findings in professional journals. Many have also been foundational projects upon which senior independent study and honors projects are built.