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Psych-Summer Research Program

The Psych-Summer Program enables Stanford Psychology majors to spend the summer working on a research project supervised by a Stanford Psychology faculty member.

Eligibility: 

Applicants must be Psychology majors enrolled at Stanford University. Preference is given to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who want to get started in research. Juniors and seniors who already have research experience are not given priority for Psych-Summer funding, since UAR grants are already available to support summer research by more advanced students.  (Juniors eligible for the Honors Program should speak with a faculty mentor as soon as possible about applying for a UAR Major Grant.)

Expectations:

The program will run from June 24 through August 30, 2019 with a research poster session held on August 22. Most students work full-time. Students wishing to work only part-time must arrange this with their advisor well in advance of their start date.

Stipend:

Each student will receive a $7500 summer stipend for the 10 week program. All projects are full time unless otherwise stated in their description below. This is paid as a stipend through VPUE.

Restrictions:

Students from other universities are not eligible for this program.

Housing:

For students who want to apply for on-campus summer housing, fees such as room, board, house dues, and other academic expenses are paid by the student. Students are responsible for paying their university summer bill, which will include any other academic expenses incurred. Students may review the summer room and board rates on the Housing Assignment Services website.

How to Apply:

Application due March 8, 2019. Please review the projects listed below and complete the application form attaching your unofficial transcript. Faculty will review the applications and make selections.

Apply here

Psych-Summer Research Projects 2019:

Project Title

Faculty Member
How expectations can shape health and health behavior Alia Crum
Conceptual development, social cognition, categorization Carol Dweck & Ellen Markman
How can caregivers support language development in Spanish-learning toddlers and preschoolers? Anne Fernald
Children's order-based reasoning Michael C. Frank
Using EEG to measure human visual cortical selectivity and invariance Justin Gardner & Anthony Norcia
Psychopathology, sleep, adolescence, fMRI Ian Gotlib
Childhood development of visual cortex Kalanit Grill-Spector
Investigating learning an d social cognition in young children Hyowon Gweon
Cross - Cultural Understanding of Well - being Cathy Heaney
Culture and Emotion Jeanne Tsai
Investigating how spatial representations in the human memory network evolve across learning Anthony Wagner
Moral psychology, political psychology Jamil Zaki
Social psychology applied to real-world contexts Hazel Markus & Jennifer Eberhardt
Social biases, conformity, social groups, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination Steven Roberts
People’s understandings of social biases, essentialism, group norms, race Steven Roberts
Emotion Regulation and Sleep James Gross

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I get academic credit for doing research as a Psych-Summer intern?

It is possible to receive academic credit for research conducted during the summer by enrolling in Summer Session.  However, students receiving academic credit for summer research are not considered part of the Psych-Summer program.  Stanford guidelines prohibit students from acquiring both monetary compensation and academic credit for the same job on campus.  

Will Psych-Summer support an off-campus research project?

The Psych-Summer Program supports involvement in a closely supervised project directly related to the research program of a Stanford Psychology faculty member.  If the off-campus project you develop fits this criterion (as in, fieldwork in which the faculty mentor is actively involved), then you are eligible for Psych-Summer support, even if you would not be living and working on campus.    

How do you decide who gets awarded a Psych-Summer stipend?

Because we have more applicants than stipends available, the Psych-Summer program is competitive.  Decisions will be made based on several factors, including motivation for doing research, initiative in exploring research options, academic record, and availability of a good match between a student and a research mentor.