Thesis Advising
If you're thinking of writing a thesis as part of your Psychology concentration, the first thing you'll want to do is check out the Undergraduate Office's thesis manual. You can find it on the Honors Thesis section of this website!
Then, you should contact Psychology's Thesis Tutorial Instructor.
Garth Coombs, Ph.D., Preceptor in Psychology
Honors Thesis Program & Undergraduate Research Experience Advisor
Garth teaches the thesis tutorial courses for Psychology concentrators, PSY 985 and PSY 991. Harvard Undergraduate students at any stage can meet with Garth if they are considering writing a thesis and would like more information about the thesis process, if a thesis fits with their goals, which faculty are eligible to supervise a thesis, or when and how to get started. It's never too early to start the conversation!
Email
garthcoombs@fas.harvard.edu to schedule an appointment!!
Statistics Consulting
Statistics and coding may seem overwhelming at first, especially if the thesis project will be your first time working with your own data. For guidance, senior thesis students should reach out to the Department's Statistics Consultant. The Consultant holds individual meetings with students to provide input on statistical methods, writing analysis, and experimental results for thesis projects.
Kirsten Morehouse, Data and Statistics Consultant (2023-2024)
Kirsten is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Psychology Department and is advised by Professor Mahzarin Banaji. Broadly speaking, Kirsten is interested in when and why humans develop implicit associations that conflict with egalitarian values or ground truth data (e.g., all human groups are equally human). Recently, Kirsten has also started tackling issues related to big data (e.g., how can we ensure the privacy of open datasets) and generative AI (e.g., to what extent are large language models perpetuating gender disparities). Outside of the lab, Kirsten loves finding new music, learning German (she spent some of the summer in Berlin!), and exploring new places.
As the Psychology Department’s Data and Statistics Consultant, Kirsten can help thesis students select proper analyses, troubleshoot code, discuss theory/methodology, and gain the skills to confidently present their research. Through her role as a teaching fellow for the department’s graduate introductory statistics class and her own experience developing content to help students learn R, Kirsten has gained ample experience teaching statistics and advising undergraduates, and she looks forward to hearing from you!
How to Meet with the Data and Statistics Consultant: Please email Kirsten directly (kirsten_morehouse@g.harvard.edu) with the following info:
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3 specific dates and blocks of time that work for you
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A summary of the questions you'd like to discuss
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A copy of your most recent thesis proposal/prospectus (including background and proposed analyses)
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A copy of your data (or mock dataset that shows your expected data structure)
