Honours Programs

The Psychology Department offers honours study leading to a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree, a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree, and a Certificate of Honours Standing (Honours Equivalency)—academic regulation 27.

The honours program is intended for students of above average ability who wish to proceed to graduate work in psychology or related fields or who intend to pursue careers in psychology. For admission to honours in psychology, students at the time of application must have:

a minimum CGPA of 3.00;
completed at least eighteen (18) credit hours in PSYC courses;
a minimum GPA of 3.70 in PSYC courses;
a minimum grade of B in each of PSYC 2010 (formerly 2340) and PSYC 2020 (formerly 2350)

These requirements are minimum standards only.

Applications will not be processed until January 2027

Deadline: April 30th, 2027.

Note: Extensions may be granted on a case-by-case basis. Speak to an advisor, or the undergraduate program coordinator, for more information.

Because the Department has limited resources for offering the honours program, some students who meet the minimum standards may have to be denied admission.

To begin the application process, applicants should submit the following form in electronic format to Dr. Jason Ivanoff, Psychology Undergraduate Program Coordinator at honours.psychology@smu.ca:

Please complete BOTH forms to submit for the thesis:

Honours Application Form

Honours Thesis Psychology Application Form 2027-2028

Supervisor	Area of Study	Planned honour supervisions (27-28)
Dr. David Bourgeois	Social Psychology Political Psychology Cross-Cultural Psychology Youth Engagement	5
Dr. Margherita Cameranesi	Resilience research Mental health in marginalized, equity-deserving populations Violence and trauma Participatory qualitative and mixed methods research approaches and methodologies Program development and evaluation	3
Dr. James Cameron	Social identity and intergroup relations Social psychology of collective action Stereotyping and discrimination Psychology of globalization	3
Dr. Patrick Carolan	Attention, mind wandering, emotion, and other topics in cognitive neuroscience Psychopathic personality traits Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event-related Potentials (ERP)	1-2
Dr. Steven Carroll	Psychophysics Cognitive Psychology Computer models of psychological processes	2
Dr. Leanna Closson	Developmental Psychology topics relevant to adolescence and emerging adulthood, including: Social competence Peer relationships Risk and resilience Psychosocial adjustment	3
Dr. Nicole Conrad	Cognitive/Developmental Psychology topic related to learning to read including: how memory encodes, stores, and uses information about words when reading and spelling reciprocal relations between reading and spelling statistical learning and orthographic processing literacy learning and mental health outcomes	0
Dr. Ryan Cook	Psychometrics and testing Space psychology + other Isolated and Confined Environments (ICEs) “Legal” forms of bias in hiring (e.g., tattoos, height, working in stigmatized industries) Workplace psychopathy Social media use in hiring	2
Dr. Arla Day	I/O Psychology & Occupational Health Psychology topics: Psychologically healthy workplaces Work-life balance Job stress Worker health and well-being Emotional intelligence Leadership & health	1-2
Dr. Maryanne Fisher	Diverse topics in evolutionary perspectives of psychology including: aggression, competition, and rivalry sex similarities and differences mate preferences personality applications to pop culture, social media, and literature	0
Dr. Mark Fleming	Industrial/Organizational Psychology	0
Dr. Debra Gilin	Organizational conflict, mediation, and negotiation Individual differences in the workplace Organizational culture and intervention Workplace stress and burnout	0
Isaiah Hipel	Leadership efficacy Leadership in the workplace Well being in the workplace Personality (big 5 or dark tetrad) and leadership	1
Dr. Camilla Holmvall	Workplace mistreatment broadly defined (including incivility, aggression, bullying) Fairness issues in organizations Workplace stress Organizational citizenship behaviours Leader well-being	0
Harley Harwood	The use of AI in employee selection tools (e.g., interviews, situational judgement tests, personality tests) The use of impression management (faking) in various selection tools Other topics on selection and recruitment	1
Dr. Jason Ivanoff	Inhibition, Attention, Action Dynamics, Multi-tasking, Executive Control, and Behavioural Economics Mental Chronometry, Human Psychophysics (esp. Speed-Accuracy-Tradeoffs), Human Kinematics, Computational Models, Psychopharmacology, and Psychophysiology	4
Dr. Kevin Kelloway	Diverse topics in I/O psychology including: The role of personality (Big 5 and Dark Tetrad) in predicting organizational behaviour Occupational health and safety Leadership processes and development in the workplace Dignity in the workplace Workplace violence Occupational stress Mental health at work Union-member relationships	0
Dr. Lucie Kocum	Students who worked with me have gone on to study/work in: clinical psychology counselling I-O psychology public service psychometrics occupational therapy social work Topics I supervise: Centring First Voice constituents in research and practice (i.e., epistemic justice) Developing psychological measures and tracking change in organizations, people, and systems Research-driven advocacy and civic engagement Topics in knowledge mobilization and implementation science Workplace inclusion: feeling and being safe, respected, valued, supported to succeed, and influential as a worker, elite athlete, performer, or other performance role	3
Dr. Eden-Raye Lukacik	Selection (e.g., interviews, video interviews, interview anxiety) Recruitment (e.g., job search, organizational reputation) Impression management Deception and faking Personality	0
Dr. Marc Patry	Psychology and law Police interrogations and confessions Eyewitness memory Correctional psychology Law and public policy	0
Dr. Nicolas Roulin	Personnel recruitment and selection New technologies in selection (e.g., social media, video interviews, AI) Impression management, faking, and deception Employment discrimination and biases Workplace psychopathy	2
Dr. Steven Smith	Social, Health, and Forensic Psychology. Specific projects include: Factors affecting student success The effectiveness of health promotion campaigns Race and personnel selection Diversity & Inclusion Eyewitness identification False confession	4
Dr. Veronica Stinson	Role of crime victims in courts Victim impact statements Public views on courts Clare’s Law Forensic Psychology	2-3
Dr. Skye Stephens	Sexual offending -Sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism -Paraphilias -Sexual violence prevention -Mandatory reporting and clinician decision making **Please Note: Although I am a clinical psychologist, my research is focused on clinical forensic psychology. I am unable to provide honours thesis supervision to students interested in non-forensic clinical psychology topics (e.g., depression, anxiety, adolescent mental health).	1-2
Dr. Meg Ternes	Lie detection Eyewitness memory Correctional psychology Violent offenders Substance Abuse and Addiction Investigative interviewing Role of victims	5
Dr. Moira Law	Youth wellbeing, socio-emotional learning, human dignity, human rights education, mattering, teacher burnout, attitudes/risk perception of infectious disease, risk-need-responsivity model in mental health services	2

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Interested in studying Psychology at Saint Mary's?

Visit the Future Students website to learn about admissions requirements, important application dates, life at SMU and more!

Learn more and apply

The Department of Psychology offers a broad range of undergraduate courses and programs designed to meet the needs of students with various backgrounds and varying degrees of interest in psychology. Because psychology is both a natural and a social science, students can complete either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts with a Major or Honours in Psychology or a Minor in Psychology.

More information about Saint Mary’s psychology programs, including lists of required courses and course descriptions, can be found in the Academic Calendar.

Bachelor of Arts or Science with Major in Psychology

Students can complete a Psychology Major as part of a BA or a BSc degree program. The requirements are the same for both degrees: students must complete a minimum of forty-two (42) credit hours in psychology courses, thirty credit hours of which must be from specified course lists. In addition, eighteen of the required forty-two (42) credit hours must be at the 4000-level.

Review the BSc psychology major program requirement table for a list of courses required for the BSc Major in Psychology, including credits in other subject areas. For more information about BA psychology major program, please refer to the Academic Calendar.

Bachelor of Arts or Science with Honours in Psychology

The Psychology Department offers honours study leading to either a BA or a BSc (Honours) degree, or a Certificate of Honours Standing (Honours Equivalency). The Honours program will interest students who intend to pursue graduate work in psychology or a related field or who wish to pursue careers in psychology.

Both the BSc and the BA Honours in Psychology programs require that students complete the requirements of a Major in Psychology, including at least thirty-six (36) credits hours at the 4000 level or above, including the following courses:

PSYC 4020 - Advanced Statistics (formerly PSYC 4401)
PSYC 4040 - History of Psychology (formerly PSYC 4421)
PSYC 4050 - Honours Seminar (formerly PSYC 4500)
PSYC 4060 – Honours Thesis (formerly PSYC 4549)

To register for an Honours Thesis, students must secure the consent of a faculty member who is willing to supervise the thesis and complete an Application for Directed Study (opens in new window).

Entrance into either the BSc or BA Honours Honours in Psychology program is not automatic. For information on admission to the psychology honours program, please review the Academic Calendar.

Minor in Psychology

Students from all faculties are eligible to complete a Minor in Psychology. To meet the minimum requirement of their individual faculty, Arts and Commerce students must complete a minimum of twenty-four (24) credit hours, while Science students must complete a minimum of thirty (30) credit hours of courses from specified course lists.

Review the full list of Minor requirements in the Academic Calendar.

Co-operative Education in Psychology

Saint Mary's co-operative education program provides eligible students the opportunity to complement their academic students with experience in relevant work environments. Students will complete a minimum of four academic terms of approved work experience, and the program generally takes one year longer to complete than the corresponding traditional degree (i.e., BA or BSc Major or Honours).

Upon successful completion of the program, graduates emerge with a BSc or BA degree in psychology (at either the Major or Honours level) with the added qualification of “Co-operative Education.”

Undergraduate Certificate in Forensic Psychology

Want to learn more about what happens in a police interview? Want to know about the factors that predict sexual offending? Want to learn how to help victims navigate the criminal justice system? Want to learn how to design prison programs to help incarcerated people avoid future criminal behaviour?

Saint Mary’s University now offers a 24-credit hour Certificate in Forensic Psychology that recognizes student focus in forensic psychology. Check it out here!

This Certificate is also available as a stand-alone credential. If you are already working in the justice system or would like to work in this field (e.g., corrections, law enforcement, parole board, victim services, or in the administration of justice), this Certificate may interest you!

For more information, contact advisor.science@smu.ca, BAadvising@smu.ca, or robyn.mcintosh@smu.ca.

Plan your B.Sc. Major in Psychology

The Faculty of Science has developed several tools to help science students understand course prerequisites and choose courses:

Lists of recommended first-year courses for psychology students
Academic course prerequisite maps for psychology Majors (opens in new window)

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