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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
Association for Psychological Science (APS). Psi
Chi's sister honor society is
Psi Beta, the
national honor society in psychology for community and
junior colleges.
Psi Chi functions as a federation of
chapters located at over 1,000 senior colleges and
universities in the USA and Canada. The
National Office is located in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. A
National Council, composed of psychologists who are
Psi Chi members and are elected by the chapters, guides
the affairs of the organization and sets policy with the
approval of the chapters.
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
members' 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.
The Society publishes a quarterly magazine,
Eye on Psi Chi, which helps to unite the
members, inform them, and recognize their contributions
and accomplishments. The quarterly
Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research
fosters and rewards the scholarly efforts of
undergraduate psychology students and provides a
valuable learning experience by introducing them to the
publishing and review process.
Students become members by joining the chapter at the
school where they are enrolled. Psi Chi
chapters are operated by student officers and
faculty advisors. Together they select and induct the
members and carry out the goals of the Society. All
chapters register their inductees at the National
Office, where membership records are preserved for
reference purposes. The total number of memberships
registered at the National Office is now over 500,000
lifetime members. Many of these members have gone on to
distinguished careers in psychology.
Taken
from
http://www.psichi.org
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