Honours Programs

The Psychology Department offers honours study leading to a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree, a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree, and a Certificate of Honours Standing (Honours Equivalency)—academic regulation 26.

The honours program is intended for students of above average ability who wish to proceed to graduate work in psychology or related fields or who intend to pursue careers in psychology. For admission to honours in psychology, students at the time of application must have:

  • a minimum CGPA of 3.00;
  • completed at least eighteen (18) credit hours in PSYC courses;
  • a minimum GPA of 3.70 in PSYC courses;
  • a minimum grade of B in each of PSYC 2010 (formerly 2340) and PSYC 2020 (formerly 2350)

These requirements are minimum standards only. 

Because the Department has limited resources for offering the honours program, some students who meet the minimum standards may have to be denied admission.

The deadline for submission is April 30, 2024.

To begin the application process, applicants should submit the following form in electronic format to Dr. David Bourgeois, Psychology Undergraduate Program Coordinator at honours.psychology@smu.ca:

Honours Application Form

Supervisor Area of Study Available
this year?
2025-2026

Dr. David Bourgeois
  • Social Psychology 
  • Political Psychology
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology
  • Youth Engagement 
No

Jocelyn Brown

 

  • Experiences of diverse workers (specific focus on disclosure, discrimination, and accommodations)
  • Psychosocial risks at work
  • Workplace Interventions (Policy, organizational, individual, etc.)
  • Perceptions that employees, managers, and other stakeholders have about work and relationships
  • Other I/O Psychology topics
Yes
Dr. James Cameron
  • Social identity and intergroup relations 
  • Social psychology of collective action 
  • Stereotyping and discrimination 
  • Psychology of globalization 
Yes
Dr. Patrick Carolan
  • Attention, mind wandering, emotion, and other topics in cognitive neuroscience 
  • Psychopathic personality traits 
  • Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event-related Potentials (ERP) 

No 

Dr. Steven Carroll
  • Psychophysics
  • Cognitive Psychology 
  • Computer models of psychological processes 
No
Dr. Leanna Closson

Developmental Psychology topics relevant to adolescence and emerging adulthood, including:

  • Social competence 
  • Peer relationships 
  • Risk and resilience 
  • Psychosocial adjustment 
Yes
Dr. Nicole Conrad
Cognitive/Developmental Psychology topic related to learning to read including:
  • how memory encodes, stores, and uses information about words when reading and spelling
  • reciprocal relations between reading and spelling
  • statistical learning and orthographic processing
  • literacy learning and mental health outcomes
I will be accepting 2-3 honours students for 2025-2026
Yes
Dr. Ryan Cook
  • Psychometrics and testing
  • Space psychology + other Isolated and Confined Environments (ICEs)
  • “Legal” forms of bias in hiring (e.g., tattoos, height, working in stigmatized industries)
  • Workplace psychopathy
  • Social media use in hiring
Yes
Dr. Arla Day

I/O Psychology & Occupational Health Psychology topics: 

  • Psychologically healthy workplaces 
  • Work-life balance 
  • Job stress 
  • Worker health and well-being 
  • Emotional intelligence 
  • Leadership & health 
Yes
Dr. Derek Fisher
  • Cognitive neuroscience
  • Brain-based investigations of psychosis
  • Neuropsychopharmacology
Yes
Dr. Maryanne Fisher
Diverse topics in evolutionary perspectives of psychology including:
  • aggression, competition, and rivalry
  • sex similarities and differences
  • mate preferences
  • personality
  • applications to pop culture, social media, and literature
No
Dr. Mark Fleming
  • Industrial/Organizational Psychology 
No
Dr. Debra Gilin
  • Organizational conflict, mediation, and negotiation 
  • Individual differences in the workplace 
  • Organizational culture and intervention 
  • Workplace stress and burnout 
Yes
Dr. Camilla Holmvall
  • Workplace mistreatment broadly defined (including incivility, aggression, bullying) 
  • Fairness issues in organizations 
  • Workplace stress 
  • Organizational citizenship behaviours 
  • Leader well-being 
No
Dr. Jason Ivanoff
  • Topics: attention, executive control, inhibition, working memory, emotion, and mental fatigue. 
  • Tools: resting-state electroencephalography (rEEG), event-related potentials (ERPs), mental chronometry, and psychophysics. 
Yes
Dr. Kevin Kelloway

Diverse topics in I/O psychology including: 

  • The role of personality (Big 5 and Dark Tetrad) in predicting organizational behaviour 
  • Occupational health and safety 
  • Leadership processes and development in the workplace 
  • Dignity in the workplace 
  • Workplace violence 
  • Occupational stress 
  • Mental health at work 
  • Union-member relationships 
No
Dr. Lucie Kocum
  • Workplace inclusion: feeling and being safe, respected, valued, supported to succeed, and influential
  • Defining, measuring, and tracking change in organizations, especially EDIA
  • Centring First Voice constituents (e.g., workers, students) in research and practice
  • Understanding the social determinants of health: from employment system to individual worker
  • Knowledge mobilization
  • Research-driven advocacy
Yes
Dr. Robert Konopasky
  • Psychology of civil litigation: Decision making, applying the civil standard of proof in cases in which there is statistical evidence. 
  • Technology in the classroom: Use of technology that enhances flipping the classroom and invites student participation. 
Yes- if student really has an interest in this work
Dr. Eden-Raye Lukacik
  • Selection (e.g., interviews, video interviews, interview anxiety)
  • Recruitment (e.g., job search, organizational reputation)
  • Impression management
  • Deception and faking
  • Personality
Yes
Prof. Megan Manels-Murphy
  • Incivility
  • Women in leadership / Leader gender / EDI in leadership
  • Dominance and the dominance penalty
  • Organizational stability
  • Job insecurity
  • Social media as a selection tool
No
Dr. Tammy Mahar
  • Peak performance
  • Work passion and optimal functioning
  • Motivation, goal-setting, and self-efficacy
  • Transformational leadership
  • Organizational culture, diversity, and inclusion 
  • Dynamic workplaces (e.g., remote, online, performing artists, athletes, etc.)
No
Dr. Marc Patry
  • Psychology and law 
  • Police interrogations and confessions 
  • Eyewitness memory 
  • Correctional psychology 
  • Law and public policy 
Yes
Dr. Nicolas Roulin
  • Personnel recruitment and selection
  • New technologies in selection (e.g., social media, video interviews, AI)
  • Impression management, faking, and deception
  • Employment discrimination and biases
  • Workplace psychopathy
Yes
Prof. Eli Rizzi
  • Personnel recruitment and selection
  • Asynchronous video interviews
  • Leadership assessment  
Yes
Dr. Steven Smith

Social, Health, and Forensic Psychology. Specific projects include:

  • Factors affecting student success
  • The effectiveness of health promotion campaigns
  • Race and personnel selection
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Eyewitness identification
  • False confession
Yes
Dr. Veronica Stinson
  • Role of crime victims in courts
  • Victim impact statements
  • Public views on courts
  • Clare’s Law
Yes
Dr. Skye Stephens
  • Paraphilias
  • Sexual offending
  • Sexual violence prevention programs and barriers to the development of these programs
  • Mandatory reporting and clinician decision making
  • *Please Note: Although I am a clinical psychologist, my research is focused on clinical forensic psychology. I am unable to provide honours thesis supervision to students interested in non-forensic clinical psychology topics (e.g., depression, anxiety, adolescent mental health).

  I will be accepting 1-2 honours students for 2025-2026 please reach out by December 15th 2024

Yes
Dr. Meg Ternes
  • Lie detection 
  • Eyewitness memory 
  • Correctional psychology 
  • Violent offenders 
  • Substance Abuse and Addiction
  • Investigative interviewing
  • Role of victims 
Yes

 

 

 

   

Contact us

Department of Psychology
902-496-8287
Mailing address:
McNally Building South Wing (MS 323)
923 Robie Street, Halifax, NS
B3H 3C3

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