Profiles of Undergraduate Programs in Psychology

Overall response rate was 17 percent with a total of 463 schools submitting usable responses. Departments with graduate programs in psychology replied at a much higher rate (48 percent). Departments without graduate programs (15 percent) and two-year programs (7 percent) resulted in a much lower rate of return. Overall response rate for 4-year programs reached an acceptable level of 24 percent. Response rate for community colleges was low and these results may not be generalizable.

*Items were derived bycompiling requests from teachers and departments of undergraduate psychology. Items were also reviewed by members of the Society for Teaching of Psychology (Division 2).

Prior research identifying the type of terminal degree for faculty teaching psychology has predominantly addressed faculty at graduate institutions. Hence, the following table provides, for the first time, a more complete set of data about the type of degree typically held by full-time faculty teaching in undergraduate programs.

Departments were asked to report the number of faculty holding each type of degree. Information presented is reported as percentages. For example, respondents from comprehensive universities reported that 99 percent of their full-time faculty held the PhD as the terminal degree.

Percentage of full-time faculty by degree

NOTE : Institutions are classified based on degree offerings. For example, doctoral granting universities include research intensive and comprehensive doctoral granting institutions. 

Percentage of part-time faculty by degree

Departments reported the type of degree held by part time faculty at respective institutions. As an example, respondents from doctoral granting universities reported that 59 percent of the part-time psychology faculty held the PhD as the terminal degree.

Departments were asked to report the number of faculty holding degrees in traditional subareas of psychology. Respondents were asked to indicate the degree and subarea of each of the faculty. The information below reported percentages of sub-areas.

Percentage faculty subareas across type of institution

Respondents were asked to indicate courses that were offered by their department. The following data indicate course offerings in order of overall frequency. It should be noted that inconsistencies in course titles might reflect underreporting of actual course offerings. For example, courses in Research Methods and Experimental Psychology may have overlapping content. Similarly Child Psychology and Developmental Psychology or Cross Cultural Psychology and Multi-Cultural Psychology may be different titles for essentially the same course.

Course offerings reported in percentages

Institutions were asked to list the type of laboratory facilities provided by their programs. The following table indicates the percentage of programs reporting types of laboratory facilities.

Percentages reporting laboratories

Institutions were asked how many credit hours are required for their Major Program. The following table indicates the median, mean, standard deviation for the number of hours required. Only institutions offering bachelors-level psychology programs were included in this analysis.

Credit hours required for the major 

Number of hours required for the psychology minor

Institutions were asked how many credit hours are required for their Minor Program. The following table indicates the percentage of schools offering a Minor Program, and their median, mean, standard deviation for the number of hours required. Only institutions offering bachelors-level psychology programs were included in this analysis.

Credit hours required for the minor

Respondents were asked to indicate whether individual or group research opportunities were offered, and the percentage of students who participated in these activities. The following data indicate, for individual and group research experiences, the percentage of schools offering these opportunities, and the median, mean and standard deviation of the percentage of students who participate.

Research opportunities

Respondents were asked to indicate which methods are being used to assess outcomes in the major. Five choices were included Internal Instrument, (ETS Major Field Test, Psychology Area Concentration Achievement Test (PACAT), Other and None. Many “other” responses were indicated and we recoded these into the categories shown in the table below, however our percentage estimates may undercount these other methods, since our data relied on free-entry responses rather than specific prompts. Many institutions use a combination of several assessment methods.

Percentages using assessment methods

Respondents were asked to indicate how often formal program evaluations are conducted.

Percentages conducting formal program evaluations at various intervals

Departments were asked to report the number of full-time faculty and average faculty salary by rank. For number of faculty, the values are average number of faculty (mean number per department). In addition to the average size of department, we also report median and average faculty salaries by type of institution.

Number of faculty and average salary by rank

Respondents were asked to indicate the percentage of their courses are taught by part-time faculty each semester, and the average compensation per-credit hour paid to part-time faculty. Means (S. D.) are shown.

Part-time faculty

Respondents were asked to indicate the teaching load per semester in credit hours for both faculty and the Department Chair. Means are shown.

Teaching load

Respondents were asked to indicate whether teaching load credit was awarded for supervising undergraduate student research or undergraduate practica or field experiences. The percentage of schools awarding load credit is shown.

Load credit for student supervision