Welcome to the Research Participants Group (RPG) Web Site
Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo
The State University of New York

The Research Requirement for PSY 101: Seven (7.0) research credits
  1. Purpose. The purpose of the research requirement is to acquaint psychology students with psychological research. To get a true sense of psychological science, it is imperative that students become familiar with psychological research.

  2. Requirement. All students in Psychology 101 must earn 7.0 research credits.

  3. Evaluation. For each credit that you fail to earn, 3 points will be deducted from your final grade in PSY 101. This means that for each 1.0 credit you are shy of 7.0, you will lose 3 points off your final grade. For example, someone who had an average of 85% in the course, but only completed 2.5 research credits, would end up with a final grade of only 71.5% (85 - [4.5*3]). Note that due to the possibility of penalties this can result in a deduction of more than 21 percentage points from your final grade. So make sure you get those credits!
  4. Fulfilling the Requirement. There are two ways to fulfill the research requirement: by serving as a research participant in studies being conducted in the Psychology Department and/or writing brief summaries of actual psychological research. Only the paper option is available to individuals under 18 years of age. Regardless of which option you choose, get to work on these early in the semester!!!