Angela Duckworth

• Linnea Gandhi, Benjamin Manning, Angela Duckworth, Effect Size Magnification: No Variable is as Important as the One You’re Thinking About—While You’re Thinking About It. Abstract

  The goal of psychological science is to discover truths about human nature, and the typical form of empirical insights is a simple statement of the form x relates to y. We suggest that such “one-liners” imply much larger x–y relationships than those we typically study. Given the multitude of factors that compete and interact to influence any human outcome, small effect sizes should not surprise us. And yet they do—as evidenced by the persistent and systematic underpowering of research studies in psychological science. We suggest an explanation. Effect size magnification is the tendency to exaggerate the importance of the variable under investigation because of the momentary neglect of others. Although problematic, this attentional focus serves a purpose akin to that of the eye’s fovea. We see a particular x-y relationship with greater acuity when it is the center of our attention. Debiasing remedies are not straightforward, but we recommend (a) recalibrating expectations about the effect sizes we study, (b) proactively exploring moderators and boundary conditions, and (c) periodically toggling our focus from the x variable we happen to study to the non-x variables we do not.

• Katherine L. Milkman, Sean F. Ellis, Dena Gromet, Alex S. Luscher, Rayyan S. Mobarak, Madeline K. Paxson, Ramon A. Silvera Zumaran, Robert Kuan, Ron Berman, Neil A. Lewis Jr. John A. List, Mitesh S. Patel, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp, Maryann V. Beauvais, Jonathan K. Bellows, Cheryl A. Marandola, Angela Duckworth (2024), Megastudy Shows That Reminders Boost Vaccination But Adding Free Rides Does Not, Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07591-x Abstract

  Encouraging routine COVID-19 vaccinations is likely to be a crucial policy challenge for decades to come. To avert hundreds of thousands of unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths, adoption will need to be higher than it was in the autumn of 2022 or 2023, when less than one-fifth of Americans received booster vaccines. One approach to encouraging vaccination is to eliminate the friction of transportation hurdles. Previous research has shown that friction can hinder follow-through and that individuals who live farther from COVID-19 vaccination sites are less likely to get vaccinated. However, the value of providing free round-trip transportation to vaccination sites is unknown. Here we show that offering people free round-trip Lyft rides to pharmacies has no benefit over and above sending them behaviourally informed text messages reminding them to get vaccinated. We determined this by running a megastudy with millions of CVS Pharmacy patients in the United States testing the effects of (1) free round-trip Lyft rides to CVS Pharmacies for vaccination appointments and (2) seven different sets of behaviourally informed vaccine reminder messages. Our results suggest that offering previously vaccinated individuals free rides to vaccination sites is not a good investment in the United States, contrary to the high expectations of both expert and lay forecasters. Instead, people in the United States should be sent behaviourally informed COVID-19 vaccination reminders, which increased the 30-day COVID-19 booster uptake by 21% (1.05 percentage points) and spilled over to increase 30-day influenza vaccinations by 8% (0.34 percentage points) in our megastudy. More rigorous testing of interventions to promote vaccination is needed to ensure that evidence-based solutions are deployed widely and that ineffective but intuitively appealing tools are discontinued.

• Anastasia Buyalskaya, Hung Ho, Katherine L. Milkman, Xiaomen Li, Angela Duckworth, Colin Camerer (2023), What Can Machine Learning Teach Us about Habit Formation? Evidence from Exercise and Hygiene, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216115120 Abstract

  We apply a machine learning technique to characterize habit formation in two large panel data sets with objective measures of 1) gym attendance (over 12 million observations) and 2) hospital handwashing (over 40 million observations). Our Predicting Context Sensitivity (PCS) approach identifies context variables that best predict behavior for each individual. This approach also creates a time series of overall predictability for each individual. These time series predictability values are used to trace a habit formation curve for each individual, operationalizing the time of habit formation as the asymptotic limit of when behavior becomes highly predictable. Contrary to the popular belief in a “magic number” of days to develop a habit, we find that it typically takes months to form the habit of going to the gym but weeks to develop the habit of handwashing in the hospital. Furthermore, we find that gymgoers who are more predictable are less responsive to an intervention designed to promote more gym attendance, consistent with past experiments showing that habit formation generates insensitivity to reward devaluation.

• Angela Duckworth and Katherine L. Milkman (2022), A Guide to Megastudies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac214 Abstract

  How can behavioral insights best be leveraged to solve pressing policy challenges? Because research studies are typically designed to test the validity of a particular idea, surprisingly little is known about the relative efficacy of different approaches to changing behavior in any given policy context. We discuss megastudies as a research approach that can surmount this and other obstacles to developing optimal behaviorally informed policy interventions. We define a megastudy as “a massive field experiment in which many different treatments are tested synchronously in one large sample using a common, objectively measured outcome.” We summarize this apples-to-apples approach to research and lay out recommendations, limitations, and promising future directions for scholars who might want to conduct or evaluate megastudies.

• Aneesh Rai, Marissa A. Sharif, Edward H. Chang, Katherine L. Milkman, Angela Duckworth (2022), A Field Experiment on Subgoal Framing to Boost Volunteering: The Trade- Off Between Goal Granularity and Flexibility, Journal of Applied Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001040 Abstract

  Research suggests that breaking overarching goals into more granular subgoals is beneficial for goal progress. However, making goals more granular often involves reducing the flexibility provided to complete them, and recent work shows that flexibility can also be beneficial for goal pursuit. We examine this trade-off between granularity and flexibility in subgoals in a preregistered, large-scale field experiment (N = 9,108) conducted over several months with volunteers at a national crisis counseling organization. A preregistered vignette pilot study (N = 900) suggests that the subgoal framing tested in the field could benefit goal seekers by bolstering their self-efficacy and goal commitment, and by discouraging procrastination. Our field experiment finds that reframing an overarching goal of 200 hr of volunteering into more granular subgoals (either 4 hr of volunteering every week or 8 hr every 2 weeks) increased hours volunteered by 8% over a 12-week period. Further, increasing subgoal flexibility by breaking an annual 200-hr volunteering goal into a subgoal of volunteering 8 hr every 2 weeks, rather than 4 hr every week, led to more durable benefits.

• Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Sean F. Ellis, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Rayyan S. Mobarak, Alison Buttenheim, Angela Duckworth, Devin Pope, Ala Stanford, Richard H Thaler, Kevin Volpp (2022), A Citywide Experiment Testing the Impact of Geographically Targeted, High-Pay-Off Vaccine Lotteries, Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01437-0 Abstract

  Lotteries have been shown to motivate behaviour change in many settings, but their value as a policy tool is relatively untested. We implemented a pre-registered, citywide experiment to test the effects of three high-pay-off, geographically targeted lotteries designed to motivate adult Philadelphians to get their COVID-19 vaccine. In each drawing, the residents of a randomly selected ‘treatment’ zip code received half the lottery prizes, boosting their chances of winning to 50×–100× those of other Philadelphians. The first treated zip code, which drew considerable media attention, may have experienced a small bump in vaccinations compared with the control zip codes: average weekly vaccinations rose by an estimated 61 per 100,000 people per week (+11%). After pooling the results from all three zip codes treated during our six-week experiment, however, we do not detect evidence of any overall benefits. Furthermore, our 95% confidence interval provides a 9% upper bound on the net benefits of treatment in our study.

• Mitesh Patel, Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Modupe Akinola, John Beshears, Jonathan E. Bogard, Alison Buttenheim, Christopher F. Chabris, Gretchen B. Chapman, James J. Choi, Hengchen Dai, Craig R. Fox, Amir Goren, Matthew D. Hilchey, Jillian Hmurovic, Leslie K. John, Dean Karlan, Melanie Kim, David Laibson, Cait Lamberton, Brigitte C. Madrian, M. Meyer, Maria Modanu, Jimin Nam, Todd Rogers, Renante Rondina, Silvia Saccardo, Maheen Shermohammed, Dilip Soman, Jehan Sparks, Caleb Warren, Megan Weber, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Seung Hyeong Lee, Christopher K. Snider, Eli Tsukayama, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin Volpp, Angela Duckworth (2022), A Randomized Trial of Behavioral Nudges Delivered through Text Messages to Increase Influenza Vaccination Among Patients with an Upcoming Primary Care Visit, American Journal of Health Promotion, 37 (3), pp. 324-332. Abstract

  Purpose: To evaluate if nudges delivered by text message prior to an upcoming primary care visit can increase influenza
  vaccination rates.
  Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
  Setting: Two health systems in the Northeastern US between September 2020 and March 2021.
  Subjects: 74,811 adults.
  Interventions: Patients in the 19 intervention arms received 1-2 text messages in the 3 days preceding their appointment that
  varied in their format, interactivity, and content.
  Measures: Influenza vaccination.
  Analysis: Intention-to-treat.
  Results: Participants had a mean (SD) age of 50.7 (16.2) years; 55.8% (41,771) were female, 70.6% (52,826) were
  White, and 19.0% (14,222) were Black. Among the interventions, 5 of 19 (26.3%) had a significantly greater vaccination
  rate than control. On average, the 19 interventions increased vaccination relative to control by 1.8 percentage points
  or 6.1% (P = .005). The top performing text message described the vaccine to the patient as “reserved for you” and led
  to a 3.1 percentage point increase (95% CI, 1.3 to 4.9; P < .001) in vaccination relative to control. Three of the top five
  performing messages described the vaccine as “reserved for you.” None of the interventions performed worse than
  control.
  Conclusions: Text messages encouraging vaccination and delivered prior to an upcoming appointment significantly increased
  influenza vaccination rates and could be a scalable approach to increase vaccination more broadly.

  Related
  Links
• Alison Buttenheim, Katherine L. Milkman, Angela Duckworth, Dena Gromet, Mitesh Patel, Gretchen B. Chapman (2022), Effects of Ownership Text Message Wording and Reminders on Receipt of an Influenza Vaccination: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, 5 (2). Abstract

  Importance  Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines, many people fail to get vaccinated. Messages using behavioral science principles may increase vaccination rates.

  Objective  To determine the effect on influenza vaccination rates of a text message telling patients that an influenza vaccine had been reserved for them.

  Design, Setting, and Participants  As part of a larger influenza vaccine messaging megastudy, in this randomized clinical trial, 11 188 patients in 2 large health systems were assigned to receive a text message that stated “a flu shot has been reserved for you,” a text message that stated “flu shots will be available,” or no text message. Both messages included the option to reply yes (Y) or no (N) to indicate that the patient wanted to get vaccinated. Patients 18 years or older were included if they had new or routine (nonsick) primary care appointments scheduled from September 20, 2020, through March 31, 2021.

  Interventions  The evening before the scheduled appointment, patients in the 2 message conditions were sent 3 back-to-back SMS messages containing the study wording. Patients in the usual care control group did not receive any study messages.

  Main Outcomes and Measures  Receipt of an influenza vaccine on the date of the patient’s scheduled appointment.

  Results  A total of 11 188 patients were randomized to the reserved or the available message conditions or to usual care. The 10 158 patients analyzed in the study had a mean (SD) age of 50.61 (16.28) years; 5631 (55.43%) were women; and 7025 (69.16%) were White. According to health records, 4113 (40.49%) had been vaccinated in the previous influenza season, and 5420 (53.36%) were patients at Penn Medicine. In an intent-to-treat analysis, changes in vaccination rates in response to the reserved message did not reach statistical significance (increase of 1.4 percentage points, or 4% [P = .31]) compared with the message conveying that influenza vaccines were available. Relative to the usual care control, the reserved message increased vaccination rates by 3.3 percentage points, or 11% (P = .004). Patients in the reserved message condition were more likely to text back Y (1063 of 3375 [31.50%]) compared with those in the available message condition (887 of 3351 [26.47%]; χ² = 20.64; P < .001), and those who replied Y were more likely to get vaccinated (1532 of 1950 [78.56%]) compared with those who did not (749 of 4776 [15.68%]; χ² = 2400; P < .001).

  Conclusions and Relevance  This study found that patients who received text messages regarding flu vaccination had greater vaccine uptake than those who received no message. Messages that increase the likelihood that patients will indicate their intention to be vaccinated may also increase vaccination behavior.

• Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Mitesh Patel, Heather N. Graci, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Jonathan E. Bogard, Ilana Brody, Christopher F. Chabris, Edward Chang, Gretchen B. Chapman, Jennifer E. Dannals, Noah J. Goldstein, Amir Goren, Hal E. Hershfield, Alexander Hirsch, Jillian Hmurovic, Samantha Horn, Dean Karlan, Ariella Kristal, Cait Lamberton, M. Meyer, Allison H. Oakes, Maurice Schweitzer, Maheen Shermohammed, Joachim H. Talloen, Caleb Warren, Ashley Whillans, Kuldeep N. Yadav, Julian J. Zlatev, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, Nina Mazar, Sendhil Mullainathan, Christopher K. Snider, Jann Spiess, Eli Tsukayama, Lyle Ungar, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin Volpp, Angela Duckworth (2022), A 680,000-Person Megastudy of Nudges to Encourage Vaccination in Pharmacies, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119 (6). 10.1073/pnas.211512611 Abstract

  Encouraging vaccination is a pressing policy problem. To assess whether text-based reminders can encourage pharmacy vaccination and what kinds of messages work best, we conducted a megastudy. We randomly assigned 689,693 Walmart pharmacy patients to receive one of 22 different text reminders using a variety of different behavioral science principles to nudge flu vaccination or to a business-as-usual control condition that received no messages. We found that the reminder texts that we tested increased pharmacy vaccination rates by an average of 2.0 percentage points, or 6.8%, over a 3-mo follow-up period. The most effective messages reminded patients that a flu shot was waiting for them and delivered reminders on multiple days. The top performing intervention included two texts delivered 3 d apart and communicated to patients that a vaccine was “waiting for you.” Neither experts nor lay people anticipated that this would be the best-performing treatment, underscoring the value of simultaneously testing many different nudges in a highly powered megastudy.

• Katherine L. Milkman, Dena Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Predrag Pandiloski, Yeji Park, Aneesh Rai, Max Bazerman, John Beshears, Lauri Bonacorsi, Colin Camerer, Edward Chang, Gretchen B. Chapman, Robert Cialdini, Hengchen Dai, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach, James J. Gross, Samantha Horn, Alexa Hubbard, Steven J. Jones, Dean Karlan, Tim Kautz, Erika Kirgios, Joowon Klusowski, Ariella Kristal, Rahul Ladhania, George Loewenstein, Jens Ludwig, Barbara Mellers, Sendhil Mullainathan, Silvia Saccardo, Jann Spiess, Gaurav Suri, Joachim H. Talloen, Jamie Taxer, Yaacov Trope, Lyle Ungar, Kevin Volpp, Ashley Whillans, Jonathan Zinman, Angela Duckworth (2021), Megastudies Improve the Impact of Applied Behavioural Science, , 600 (), pp. 478-483. Abstract

  Policy-makers are increasingly turning to behavioural science for insights about how to improve citizens’ decisions and outcomes. Typically, different scientists test different intervention ideas in different samples using different outcomes over different time intervals. The lack of comparability of such individual investigations limits their potential to inform policy. Here, to address this limitation and accelerate the pace of discovery, we introduce the megastudy—a massive field experiment in which the effects of many different interventions are compared in the same population on the same objectively measured outcome for the same duration. In a megastudy targeting physical exercise among 61,293 members of an American fitness chain, 30 scientists from 15 different US universities worked in small independent teams to design a total of 54 different four-week digital programmes (or interventions) encouraging exercise. We show that 45% of these interventions significantly increased weekly gym visits by 9% to 27%; the top-performing intervention offered microrewards for returning to the gym after a missed workout. Only 8% of interventions induced behaviour change that was significant and measurable after the four-week intervention. Conditioning on the 45% of interventions that increased exercise during the intervention, we detected carry-over effects that were proportionally similar to those measured in previous research. Forecasts by impartial judges failed to predict which interventions would be most effective, underscoring the value of testing many ideas at once and, therefore, the potential for megastudies to improve the evidentiary value of behavioural science.

• All Research from Angela Duckworth »

Current Courses

• OIDD2000 - Grit Lab: Fostering Passion And Perseverance In Ourselves And Others (snf Paideia Program Course)

  At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any other undergraduate course, you will learn things you didn't know before. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab requires you to apply what you've learned in your daily life, to reflect, and then to teach what you've learned to younger students. The ultimate aim of Grit Lab is to empower you to achieve your personal, long-term goals--so that you can help other people achieve the goals that are meaningful to them. LEARN -> EXPERIMENT -> REFLECT -> TEACH. The first half of this course is about passion. During this eight-week period, you'll identify a project that piques your interest and resonates with your values. This can be a new project or, just as likely, a sport, hobby, musical instrument, or academic field you're already pursuing. The second half of this course is about perseverance. During this eight-week period, your aim is to develop resilience, a challenge-seeking orientation, and the habits of practice that improve skill in any domain. By the end of Grit Lab, you will understand and apply, both for your benefit and the benefit of younger students, key findings in the emerging science on grit.

  OIDD2000401 ( Syllabus )

• PSYC0405 - Grit Lab: Fostering Passion And Perseverance In Ourselves And Others (snf Paideia Program Course)

  At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any other undergraduate course, you will learn things you didn't know before. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab requires you to apply what you've learned in your daily life, to reflect, and then to teach what you've learned to younger students. The ultimate aim of Grit Lab is to empower you to achieve your personal, long-term goals--so that you can help other people achieve the goals that are meaningful to them. LEARN -> EXPERIMENT -> REFLECT -> TEACH. The first half of this course is about passion. During this eight-week period, you'll identify a project that piques your interest and resonates with your values. This can be a new project or, just as likely, a sport, hobby, musical instrument, or academic field you're already pursuing. The second half of this course is about perseverance. During this eight-week period, your aim is to develop resilience, a challenge-seeking orientation, and the habits of practice that improve skill in any domain. By the end of Grit Lab, you will understand and apply, both for your benefit and the benefit of younger students, key findings in the emerging science on grit.

  PSYC0405401 ( Syllabus )

• PSYC4999 - Honors Thesis Empirical Research

  The Honors Program has been developed to recognize excellence in psychology among Penn undergraduates and to enhance skills related to psychological research. The 4998 credit signifies an Honors Independent Study, completed as part of the Honors Program. The honors program involves: (a) completing a year-long empirical research project in your senior year under the supervision of a faculty member (for a letter grade). This earns 2 cu's. (b) completing a second term of statistics (for a letter grade) before graduation. (c) participating in the year-long Senior Honors seminar (for a letter grade). This seminar is designed especially for Psychology Honors majors; this receives a total of 1 cu. (d) participating in the Undergraduate Psychology Research Fair in the Spring semester, at which honors students present a poster and give a 15-minute talk about their research. (e) a total of 15 cu's in psychology is required. Students will be selected to be part of the Honors Program in the Spring of their junior year (see application process online)

  PSYC4999003

Past Courses

• MAPP6010 - Research Mthds & Eval

  A methodology course exploring the valid and reliable assessment of positive states, such as positive emotions, and positive traits, such as character strengths. This course is only open to students in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program.

• OIDD0002 - Grit Lab 101

  The aims of Grit Lab are two-fold: (1) to equip you with generalizable knowledge about the science of passion and perseverance, and (2) to help you apply these insights to your own life—such as when applying to college. At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about how to foster passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any college undergraduate course, you will have an opportunity to learn from current research. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab encourages you to apply these ideas to your own life and reflect on your experience.

• OIDD2000 - Grit Lab

  At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any other undergraduate course, you will learn things you didn't know before. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab requires you to apply what you've learned in your daily life, to reflect, and then to teach what you've learned to younger students. The ultimate aim of Grit Lab is to empower you to achieve your personal, long-term goals--so that you can help other people achieve the goals that are meaningful to them. LEARN -> EXPERIMENT -> REFLECT -> TEACH. The first half of this course is about passion. During this eight-week period, you'll identify a project that piques your interest and resonates with your values. This can be a new project or, just as likely, a sport, hobby, musical instrument, or academic field you're already pursuing. The second half of this course is about perseverance. During this eight-week period, your aim is to develop resilience, a challenge-seeking orientation, and the habits of practice that improve skill in any domain. By the end of Grit Lab, you will understand and apply, both for your benefit and the benefit of younger students, key findings in the emerging science on grit.

• OIDD3990 - Supervised Study

  This course number is currently used for several course types including independent studies, experimental courses and Management & Technology Freshman Seminar. Instructor permission required to enroll in any independent study. Wharton Undergraduate students must also receive approval from the Undergraduate Division to register for independent studies. Section 002 is the Management and Technology Freshman Seminar; instruction permission is not required for this section and is only open to M&T students. For Fall 2020, Section 004 is a new course titled AI, Business, and Society. The course provides a overview of AI and its role in business transformation. The purpose of this course is to improve understanding of AI, discuss the many ways in which AI is being used in the industry, and provide a strategic framework for how to bring AI to the center of digital transformation efforts. In terms of AI overview, we will go over a brief technical overview for students who are not actively immersed in AI (topic covered include Big Data, data warehousing, data-mining, different forms of machine learning, etc). In terms of business applications, we will consider applications of AI in media, Finance, retail, and other industries. Finally, we will consider how AI can be used as a source of competitive advantage. We will conclude with a discussion of ethical challenges and a governance framework for AI. No prior technical background is assumed but some interest in (and exposure to) technology is helpful. Every effort is made to build most of the lectures from the basics.

• OIDD4900 - Sci of Behavior Change

  The objective of this 14-week discussion-based seminar for advanced undergraduates is to expose students to cutting-edge research from psychology and economics on the most effective strategies for changing behavior sustainably and for the better (e.g., promoting healthier eating and exercise, encouraging better study habits, and increasing savings rates). The weekly readings cover classic and current research in this area. The target audience for this course is advanced undergraduate students interested in behavioral science research and particularly those hoping to learn about using social science to change behavior for good. Although there are no pre-requisites for this class, it is well-suited to students who have taken (and enjoyed) courses like OIDD 2900: Decision Processes, PPE 2030/PSYC 2650: Behavioral Economics and Psychology, and MKTG 2660: Marketing for Social Impact and are interested in taking a deeper dive into the academic research related to promoting behavior change for good. Instructor permission is required to enroll in this course. Please complete the application if interested in registering for this seminar: http://bit.ly/bcfg-class-2020. The application deadline is July 31, 2020. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor required.

• OIDD7050 - Leading with Grit

  The aims of Leading With Grit are two-fold: (1) to help students apply scientific insights about passion and perseverance for long-term goals to their own career, and (2) to prepare them to lead an organization that encourages grit among its employees. At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific insights on the mindsets, strategies, and contextual factors that incline individuals to pursue challenges that take years (or more) to complete. Each week, in addition to a three-hour seminar, students will complete an experiential activity, a brief written reflection, and readings. Most weeks, we will welcome a Grit Guest, an outside speaker who exemplifies grit, for a fireside chat on that week's topic.

• PPE4998 - Directed Honors Research

  Student arranges with a Penn faculty member to do research and write a thesis on a suitable topic. For more information on honors visit: https://ppe.sas.upenn.edu/study/curriculum/honors-theses

• PSYC0405 - Grit Lab

  At the heart of this course are cutting-edge scientific discoveries about passion and perseverance for long-term goals. As in any other undergraduate course, you will learn things you didn't know before. But unlike most courses, Grit Lab requires you to apply what you've learned in your daily life, to reflect, and then to teach what you've learned to younger students. The ultimate aim of Grit Lab is to empower you to achieve your personal, long-term goals--so that you can help other people achieve the goals that are meaningful to them. LEARN -> EXPERIMENT -> REFLECT -> TEACH. The first half of this course is about passion. During this eight-week period, you'll identify a project that piques your interest and resonates with your values. This can be a new project or, just as likely, a sport, hobby, musical instrument, or academic field you're already pursuing. The second half of this course is about perseverance. During this eight-week period, your aim is to develop resilience, a challenge-seeking orientation, and the habits of practice that improve skill in any domain. By the end of Grit Lab, you will understand and apply, both for your benefit and the benefit of younger students, key findings in the emerging science on grit.

• PSYC4900 - Sci of Behavior Change

  The objective of this 14-week discussion-based seminar for advanced undergraduates is to expose students to cutting-edge research from psychology and economics on the most effective strategies for changing behavior sustainably and for the better (e.g., promoting healthier eating and exercise, encouraging better study habits, and increasing savings rates). The weekly readings cover classic and current research in this area. The target audience for this course is advanced undergraduate students interested in behavioral science research and particularly those hoping to learn about using social science to change behavior for good. Although there are no pre-requisites for this class, it is well-suited to students who have taken (and enjoyed) courses like OIDD 2900: Decision Processes, PPE 2030/PSYC 2650: Behavioral Economics and Psychology, and MKTG 2660: Marketing for Social Impact and are interested in taking a deeper dive into the academic research related to promoting behavior change for good. Instructor permission is required to enroll in this course. Please complete the application if interested in registering for this seminar: http://bit.ly/bcfg-class-2020. The application deadline is July 31, 2020. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor required.

• PSYC4998 - Mentored Research

  Mentored research involving data collection. Students do independent empirical work under the supervision of a faculty member, leading to a written paper. Normally taken in the junior or senior year.

• PSYC4999 - Honors Mentored Research

  The Honors Program has been developed to recognize excellence in psychology among Penn undergraduates and to enhance skills related to psychological research. The 4998 credit signifies an Honors Independent Study, completed as part of the Honors Program. The honors program involves: (a) completing a year-long empirical research project in your senior year under the supervision of a faculty member (for a letter grade). This earns 2 cu's. (b) completing a second term of statistics (for a letter grade) before graduation. (c) participating in the year-long Senior Honors seminar (for a letter grade). This seminar is designed especially for Psychology Honors majors; this receives a total of 1 cu. (d) participating in the Undergraduate Psychology Research Fair in the Spring semester, at which honors students present a poster and give a 15-minute talk about their research. (e) a total of 15 cu's in psychology is required. Students will be selected to be part of the Honors Program in the Spring of their junior year (see application process online)

• PSYC6999 - Indiv Res for 1st Yr Grd

  Individual Research for First-Year Graduate Students

• PSYC9999 - Independent Study

  Individual Study and Research

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