For many first-year college students, the transition from high school to the more demanding environment of higher education can be difficult to navigate. Not only do professors expect more from you in terms of workload and depth of learning, but you are also expected to master aspects of a “hidden” curriculum, such as self-regulation skills and professionalism standards (Appleby, 2014). Despite their importance to success in college and your career, these hidden expectations are rarely directly communicated to you as students. The lack of explicit conversation about the importance of these skills can create obstacles to your academic success and professional development (Aljohani, 2016; Goode et al., 2021; Gubbe, 1999; Krumrei-Mancuso et al., 2013; Nemtcan et al., 2022; van Rooij et al., 2018). These issues are particularly relevant for first-year students, as prior research has found that students’ first-year performance can be a better predictor of students’ persistence in college, even more so than variables like high school performance or gender (Cannistrà et al., 2022). Becoming aware of these skills early in your academic career and making strides towards developing them can help you on your path to academic success.
For psychology undergraduates in particular, self-regulation and professionalism are both crucial aspects of the hidden curriculum. These include broader skills that are relevant to all students, such as professional communication and meeting deadlines. For psychology undergraduate students specifically, however, the skills outlined in Goal 5 (Personal and Professional Development) of the recently published APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major 3.0 (American Psychological Association [APA], 2023) contain key skills that psychology students need to be aware of as they move through their programs, such as being able to accept and apply feedback from peers and mentors, identifying and practicing self-care strategies, and recognizing and overcoming personal biases in order to work with diverse groups of people. These are all skills that are valued by graduate programs and employers who hire psychology majors, and, thankfully, all of these are skills that you can learn.
How can you develop these important skills from the hidden curriculum? You can start by regularly engaging in self-assessment. Self-assessment, especially early in your college career, provides an awareness of the field-specific expectations for students. First, you can consider your proficiency in certain skills. Take a look at the Guidelines and identify your areas of strength and areas where you need to focus on continued development and growth. Thinking about your current competence in the discipline helps you to build a roadmap to develop your skills as you progress through the psychology major. Then, reflect on how your coursework can showcase and support this growth. This reflection can help you market yourself in your resume and cover letter when applying for internships, jobs, or graduate school by giving you concrete examples that demonstrate these skills.
Ongoing self-assessment throughout your undergraduate years reinforces the importance of self-regulation, time management, and professionalism. It helps you monitor your progress and reflect on what you’ve learned in your major thus far. Reflecting on whether you’ve developed certain skills can also help you determine whether you are prepared for experiences beyond your undergraduate program. As you identify areas where you still need to improve, you should work with your academic advisor to find opportunities to refine your skills—maybe you pursue an internship or work with an academic coach on time management. Consulting with your advisor during your college career will be much more useful than realizing you haven’t developed these key skills after you already have a job!
Assessing your professionalism based on APA’s indicators during your first year of college and beyond not only helps to alleviate much of the confusion and ambiguity regarding hidden curriculum skills, thus bolstering your academic success, but also provides you with an understanding of the skills you will need to develop for future success, whether you are planning to pursue graduate study or enter immediately into the workforce. Ongoing self-reflection and reassessment of the APA professionalism indicators throughout the remaining years of your academic program will help you to monitor your improvement and gauge whether you are measuring up to the professionalism standards of our field of psychology.
References
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American Psychological Association (2023). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major version 3.0: Empowering people to make a difference in their lives and communities. https://www.apa.org/about/policy/undergraduate-psychology-major.pdfopens in new window
Appleby, D. C. (2014). A skills-based academic advising strategy for job-seeking psychology majors. In R. Miller & J. Irons (Eds.), Academic advising: A handbook for advisors and students, Volume 1: Models, students, topics, and issues (pp. 143–156). Retrieved from https://www.teachpsych.org/Resources/Documents/ebooks/advising2014Vol1.pdfopens in new window
Cannistrà, M., Masci, C., Ieva, F., Agasisti, T., & Paganoni, A. M. (2022). Early-predicting dropout of university students: An application of innovative multilevel machine learning and statistical techniques. Studies in Higher Education, 47(9), 1935–1956. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.2018415opens in new window.
Goode, J. R., Morris, K. K., Smith, B., & Tweddle, J. C. (2021). Why aren't my students reading: Faculty & student research unveiling the hidden curriculum of course material usage unveiling the hidden curriculum of course material usage. International Journal for the Scholarship of International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Teaching and Learning, 15 (1), https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2021.150102opens in new window
Gubbe, L. M. (1999). Impact of the hidden curriculum and student resistance on attrition in developmental education courses. Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, 15(2), 37–48. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/42802512opens in new window
Krumrei-Mancuso, E. J., Newton, F. B., Kim, E., & Wilcox, D. (2013). Psychosocial factors predicting first-year college student success. Journal of College Student Development, 54(3), 247–266. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2013.0034opens in new window
Nemtcan, E., Sæle, R. G., Gamst-Klaussen, T., & Svartdal, F. (2022). Academic self-efficacy, procrastination, and attrition intentions. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 768959. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.768959opens in new window
van Rooij, E. C., M., Jansen, E. P. W. A., & van de Grift, W. J. C. M. (2018). First-year university students’ academic success: The importance of academic adjustment. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 33, 749–767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-017-0347-8opens in new window
About the authors
Lara Munford is a junior student majoring in psychology at York College of Pennsylvania. During her upcoming semester, she will be working on an independent research project examining how good-quality sleep and sleep practices for children and adolescents may impact their likelihood of developing certain psychological disorders later in life. After completing her undergraduate degree, Lara aspires to attend medical school, and ultimately, pursue a career as a psychiatrist.
Samantha Deffler, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at York College of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses related to cognition, as well as research design and analysis. She recently collaborated on a redesign of the general psychology curricula to align with the new APA Guidelines, co-authored a peer-reviewed journal article on self-assessment of the “hidden” curriculum, and is currently working on an OER cognitive psychology textbook. She also chairs the York College of Pennsylvania Institutional Review Board.
Randi Shedlosky-Shoemaker, PhD, is a professor of psychology at York College of Pennsylvania. They teach classes related to cultural awareness and relationships, as well as skills-based courses on critical thinking and writing. They also coordinated the general psychology offerings at the institution and served on the committee for general education curriculum and assessment; they are currently serving as the director for the York College of Pennsylvania Center for Faculty Excellence.
Jennifer Engler, PhD, is a professor and chair of psychology at York College of Pennsylvania. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Engler teaches a range of courses in abnormal psychology, child psychopathology, developmental science, and introductory psychology, with a particular emphasis on applied, clinically relevant content. Her scholarship focuses on mental health literacy, stigma reduction, poverty-related training, and strategies for enhancing student success.
