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As we celebrate Psi Chi's 90th Anniversary year of excellence in psychology, we want to share with you 26 unique things, from A to Z, that make Psi Chi special.
Psi Chi’s 90th anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate the organization’s beginnings, recognize the leaders who guided Psi Chi to its current success, applaud all that Psi Chi currently offers to members, and ensure that Psi Chi’s legacy continues in the future. By donating to Psi Chi’s annual giving campaign, members help Psi Chi expand the awards, grants, scholarships, leadership opportunities, and resources that encourage and support psychology’s future leaders. Furthermore, increasing Psi Chi’s financial resources helps the organization establish new programs that transcend the academic and career environments and help members develop important life skills that will serve them well regardless of the career they pursue.
Psi Chi partners with Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation.
Our partnership with Born This Way Foundation will challenge you to spread kindness. The #BeKind21 Challenge runs September 1–21. Please read item C below to discover how Psi Chi is encouraging chapter involvement this fall.
The Psi Chi Chapter Challenge is a way student members can fundraise on behalf of Psi Chi via their chapter fundraising team. We encourage you to take part in the #BeKind21 Challenge and then use that momentum to spur your fundraising efforts to support ALL Psi Chi member programs. The Chapter Challenge will officially run November 1–December 3, but you can get started today!
Giving Back to Psi Chi means gifts of service and financial donations!
Psi Chi Past President (2018–19)
Utah State University
Challenge yourself out of your comfort zone! Psychological research shows that contact with people that are different from you can reduce prejudice. The best way to nip implicit biases in the bud is to be proactive! Put yourself in new situations, be open to learning from others, and make meaningful positive contact. These exchanges are good for all of us. Sometimes being an “outsider” allows for seeing and naming things that are otherwise taken for granted.
The former and current Psi Chi Executive Directors, respectively Drs. Virginia Andreoli Mathie and Martha S. Zlokovich, would like to applaud all of our chapter, regional, national, and international leaders for the time and effort they devote to enhancing the educational experience of our members. Psi Chi leadership also offers rewards such as the satisfaction of initiating projects the leader values and bringing them to fruition, the gratification of mentoring others, and the opportunity to augment their marketable skills. We encourage you to pursue a leadership role as a chapter officer or advisor, a regional vice-president or committee member, or an international committee member.
Distinguished Research Professor
Psi Chi Past President (1978–80)
Psi Chi Distinguished Member
Psi Chi looks beyond having a certain type of member and warmly invites students of all identities and backgrounds to apply. By committing to diversity, you can enrich your discussions, meetings, and chapter as a whole. An organization is more powerful when comprised of individuals from different backgrounds and celebrates these different points of view. Reach out to your classmates and invite all eligible students to apply for membership.
Psi Chi President (2019–20)
Oregon State University
Dr. Regan A.R. Gurung wishes Psi Chi a Happy 90th Birthday. View his Presidential video message here to learn how you can help support 90 more years.
You too can Give Back to Psi Chi safely and securely at donate.psichi.org. Your gift will ensure 90 more years of both recognizing and promoting excellence in psychology.
In September, Psi Chi partnered with Born This Way Foundation, as founded by Lady Gaga and Cynthia Germanotta. We promoted the #BeKind21 Challenge which ran from September 1–21 to our membership.
According to the Born This Way Foundation: “#BeKind21 is an opportunity for individuals and communities to build and practice habits of kindness—towards themselves and to each other while fostering the mental and emotional wellness that is critical to a healthy, thriving life.”
The Science of Kindness
Studies have found that being in the habit of kindness can:
Boost happiness (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton 2008) and increase feelings of self-worth and calmness while decreasing feelings of depression (UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science Center).
As part of Psi Chi’s promotion of service, we feel that even though the #BeKindChallenge ended on September 21, the need to spread kindness never ends. Therefore, we challenge you to take or retake the #BeKind21 Challenge! View our calendar and challenge yourself to spread kindness! Let’s all get in the habit of being kind. Post your acts of kindness on your social media pages and include #BeKind21!
Psi Chi is celebrating its 10th year as the International Honor Society in Psychology. Our first international chapter was chartered as an affiliate chapter in 2003 at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Executive Director Virginia Andreoli Mathie worked to bring on both the next two international chapters, in Ireland and Puerto Rico. Since then, ED Martha S. Zlokovich and Associate Director of Membership and Development Lisa Norman have worked to charter 24 international chapters in 17 countries/U.S. territories. Our international chapters expand the diversity of our society and bring unique and important contributions to the Psi Chi community. We encourage your chapter to reach out and partner with a Psi Chi chapter in another country to share programming, research or presentation ideas.
Psi Chi Journal Editor
Portland State University (OR)
The Journal is Psi Chi's scientific arm of the organization. In addition to many other benefits of being a member of Psi Chi, all members are able to submit and possibly publish in our Journal. We are a rigorous, scientific, international Journal that offers our authors an opportunity to go through the publishing process with support and encouragement. Would you like to gain valuable research experience or support others who are seeking to polish their research and writing skills? View our Submission Guidelines or learn about Becoming a Reviewer
Former Chair of the Psi Chi Annual Giving Campaign (2018–19)
Emory University (GA)
NIA Project
“Nia saved my life. I felt lower than an ant when I started and now I love myself.”—former patient
Domestic violence related deaths are at an all time high. —The stress of domestic violence makes women want to end their life —Death by suicide is more common than homicide —Abused and suicidal women need our help!
The Nia Project was founded by Nadine Kaslow, PhD, ABPP, Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Emory Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Chief Psychologist, Grady Health System; 2014 President, American Psychological Association; Former Chair of the Psi Chi Annual Giving Campaign and Distinguished Member of Psi Chi.
The Nia Project’s mission is to empower abused, suicidal women to access behavioral health services, find a new sense of purpose, lead more meaningful lives, and affirm their commitment to living a violence-free life. Nia provides a safe, compassionate community that supports women in healing and becoming active in society. This evidenced-based and culturally-informed program offers free individual and family therapy, 20 weekly groups, and a 24-hour crisis system; and assists women in accessing community resources and educational/vocational training (See Nia Project and news story). Since the early 1990s, this nationally recognized empowerment program has helped over 2000 women who have felt so helpless and hopeless after being abused by their partner that they attempted suicide. Most of the women are poor and have few resources, and many are homeless. An evaluation of the program demonstrates that Nia helps women feel less depressed and suicidal, empowers them to feel more capable and hopeful, and enables them to cope better with stress.
Psi Chi Distinguished Member
University of California, Irvine
My research has centered on a common theme: Human memory is malleable
Memory can be changed, or contaminated, or even created out of whole cloth. I’ve demonstrated this in hundreds of studies involving more than 30,000 research subjects. In a typical study, witnesses see a simulated accident or crime and later receive some misinformation about the event. A stop sign at the intersection when it was actually a yield sign. A thief in a brown jacket when it was actually green.
When later tested, many witnesses will claim the misinformation as their memory. This phenomenon is now known as the “misinformation effect.” Not only can people be led to misremember details of an event, they can also be led to remember entire events that never happened, like being lost in a shopping mall, or even something as scary as witnessing another person be possessed by demons.
The fact that people can be led to remember their past in different ways and can even be led to remember entire events that never happened to them, has important implications for the legal system, and beyond. We need to scrutinize a memory report and not simply accept uncritically as true. We need to recognize that false memories, like true ones, can be expressed with a lot of confidence, detail and even emotion. Such a realization might help reduce the number of innocent people who are convicted of crimes they did not do. Such a realization can also help us be more tolerant of the mistakes of memory that friends, family members, and even we ourselves, sometimes make.
Psi Chi boasts over 800,000 lifetime members. Members are what make Psi Chi a truly special honor society. Our Distinguished Members are the top in their field. Our faculty members serve as mentors and our advisors and officers keep our chapters running smoothly.
In this 90th year, student members have won scholarships, presented research, raised funds on behalf of Psi Chi as part of the Chapter Challenge, and dedicated themselves to excellence in psychology
A great new member benefit for Psi Chi members is Psi Chi’s Network for International Collaborative Exchange (NICE). NICE allows you to discover or post research projects seeking collaborators. You can also suggest potential projects that Psi Chi will then promote in order to generate large-scale collaboratively collected data.
Please view this brief video from Psi Chi President-Elect, Dr. Deborah Harris O’Brien. Dr. O’Brien reminds us of why Psi Chi is a special Society, how we can give back, and what it means to be a member in our 90th anniversary year.
Psi Chi is an IRS-designated 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Your contributions are tax deductible.
