Some Outcomes and Lessons from a Cross-Sectional Evaluation of Psychology Undergraduates

Abstract

A cross-sectional evaluation of psychology majors (n = 71) revealed significant gains in psychological knowledge, as measured by the Major Field Achievement Test in Psychology, from freshman to senior years, with the mean score of graduating seniors at the 70th percentile. The Social Psychology subtest scores were higher than the scores on the Experimental Psychology subtest at the end of the sophomore year, but the average Experimental subtest score was equivalent by the senior year. In addition, psychology and management freshmen had similar causal reasoning scores, as measured by the Reasoning about Everyday Events Test, but sophomore and senior psychology majors scored significantly higher than their management counterparts. We discuss four lasting lessons from our evaluation experience that may benefit other faculty.