Undergraduate: Psychology Societies

Undergraduate Psychology Society (UPS)

The Undergraduate Psychology Society (UPS) is an organization for all University of Pennsylvania students interested in exploring the field of psychology. They sponsor numerous events aimed at assisting undergraduates in becoming part of the psychology community both here at Penn and in the field at large.  Regular events include intimate lunches with psychology faculty, coffee hours before course registration, roundtables to discuss current issues in psychology, career and graduate school panels, GRE and LSAT sessions, a graduation ceremony for psychology majors, and much more.  They also publish Perspectives in Psychology, a journal of undergraduate psychological research. It is not necessary to be a psychology major to join - every undergraduate at Penn with an interest in psychology is welcome.

For more information about UPS, please visit their website.

Psi Chi

Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology, founded in 1929 for the purposes of encouraging, stimulating, and maintaining excellence in scholarship, and advancing the science of psychology. Membership is open to graduate and undergraduate men and women who are making the study of psychology one of their major interests, and who meet the minimum qualifications. Psi Chi is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies and is an affiliate of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS).

Psi Chi serves two major goals--one immediate and visibly rewarding to the individual member, the other slower and more difficult to accomplish, but offering greater rewards in the long run. The first of these is the Society's obligation to provide academic recognition to its inductees by the mere fact of membership. The second goal is the obligation of each of the Society's local chapters to nurture the spark of that accomplishment by offering a climate congenial to its creative development. For example, the chapters make active attempts to nourish and stimulate professional growth through programs designed to augment and enhance the regular curriculum and to provide practical experience and fellowship through affiliation with the chapter. In addition, the national organization provides programs to help achieve these goals, including national and regional conventions held annually in conjunction with the psychological associations, research award competitions, and certificate recognition programs.

For more information about Psi Chi at Penn, please visit our chapter website or the National Psi Chi website.

Undergraduate Psychology Journal