What is Psi Chi?

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 American Psychological Society (APS).

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 who are elected by the chapters, guides the affairs of the organization and sets policy with the approval of the chapters.

What are the Goals of Psi Chi?

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 its 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.

How do I Become a Member?

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 the membership records are preserved for reference purposes. The total number of memberships preserved at the national office during the first 75 years is over 467,000. Many of these members have gone on to distinguished careers in psychology.

What are the Benefits of Membership?

The intrinsic value of membership is rewarding to the achiever in that recognition of excellence leads to self-fulfillment and thus to self-realization. By recognizing that what you do does make a difference, you are stimulated to higher productivity. Accomplishments are enjoyed more when shared with others. Furthermore, the contacts made through Psi Chi will be valuable throughout your educational and professional careers.

Concrete advantages of membership include:

• The documents – a membership certificate and card which give tangible evidence of membership.
• The references provided throughout one’s lifetime (this service alone is worth the investment).
• The experience gained by working with Psi Chi is excellent for building up a resume; it is difficult to attain that first managerial and creative experience.
• Psi Chi is a springboard for professional growth. Opportunities are made available to the members for promoting their research, receiving national and international recognition, meeting and interacting with leaders in their field, and meeting Psi Chi members of other chapters who also will be future leaders.
• The United States government recognizes membership in Psi Chi as meeting one of the requirements for entrance at the GS-7 level in the Federal service.

Climaxing the benefits mentioned above is knowing that many individuals, by their caring, dedication, perseverance, and hard work, have made it possible to encourage young persons interested in psychology to strive for excellence–to reach toward that attainable star.

The ultimate test of the value of any membership organization lies in the accomplishments of its members. In each year of Psi Chi’s history, more and more members have undertaken graduate studies. Psi Chi is well represented in the professional ranks of all the behavioral sciences. The membership directories of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS) are studded with the names of Psi Chi members, both active and alumni. This is only one example demonstrating that the Society’s purposes are being fulfilled.

- Excerpt from the website of the National Organization, (www.psichi.org).