Psychology Beyond the Classroom
Internships offer psychology majors a powerful way to connect classroom learning with real-world impact. Whether you are exploring career paths, building professional skills or simply curious about how psychology plays out beyond textbooks, an internship can be a transformative step.
Through our psychology internship course, you will earn academic credit while gaining hands-on experience in settings that reflect your interests—from mental health clinics to research labs and community organizations. Scroll down to our frequently asked questions to learn more about the psychology internship course.
Internships Frequently Asked Questions
PSYC 498: Internship in Psychology is a pass-fail only course involving field or research under the joint supervision of the Psychological Sciences department and agency site personnel. PSYC 498 is offered only during the academic year (fall/spring semesters) and not during summer or intersession. Course credit may not be applied in fall or spring semester for a summer or intersession work experience.
Students majoring in Psychology and have completed 60 units are eligible to enroll in PSYC 498. Course content will include an internship agreement between the student and the site supervisor, routine check-ins, time/activity logs, a supervisor performance evaluation and a student reflection/self-evaluation.
Please note that you must have an internship secured prior to enrolling in PSYCH 498.
Pre-requisite: PSYC 101.
In order to earn a passing grade in PSYC 498, you must:
- Complete a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer or paid field work or research per academic credit during the semester. The number of hours is dependent on the number of course credits you are enrolled in (40 hours=1 unit; 80 hours=2 units).
- Maintain a time log of the internship experience and submit to the department chair (via Canvas) each week by Friday at 11:59 PM. The log contains dates, start and stop times, total time and description of tasks/activities.
- Obtain a satisfactory supervisor evaluation. At the end of the semester, the agency supervisor will be asked to verify your attendance and provide an assessment of your performance by completing a brief confidential online evaluation form.
- Submit a self-evaluation/reflection of the internship experience (via Canvas) of how you have applied knowledge of psychology within your experience.
You can choose your internship site in one of two ways:
- Work at an internship site that has sponsored USD internship students in the past. Psychological Sciences maintains a field placement list that provides the names and contact information for internship sites that have recently sponsored USD student interns. You must contact and interview at the site on your own.
- Arrange your own internship experience. The proposed internship site must be psychology-related and approved by the department. Approval of an internship will be based on whether the opportunity is consistent with the learning outcomes for the psychology major:
- Describe key concepts, principles and theories in different subfields of psychology.
- Apply psychological principles in the service of improving quality of life, such as strengthening communities, fostering inclusion and equity, or addressing societal challenges.
- Demonstrate proficiency in scientific inquiry using psychological research evidence and statistics.
- Demonstrate written communication skills focused on scientific writing.
- Complete the PSYC 498 Internship Work Plan once you have identified an internship site. The plan will be reviewed by the department chair for relevance to the psychology major. If approved, the chair will then contact the supervisor at the internship site to complete the PSYC 498 Internship Agreement Form.
- Communicate the following to your internship supervisor:
- The semester applicable for the internship — start date (first day of the semester) and end date (last day of the semester)
- The number of hours during the semester to be completed for the internship.
To be enrolled in the course, the department chair must approve the internship based upon the completed PSYC 498 Internship Work Plan and your internship site must have submitted the Internship Agreement. You will be informed when the internship is approved, documentation is complete, and you are able to enroll in PSYC 498.
There are three sections of PSYC 498; you may enroll in only one section during the semester. The sections correspond to the number of units that correspond to the number of semester hours you intern.
- PSYC 498-01 = 1 unit = 40 hours minimum during semester
- PSYC 498-02 = 2 units = 80 hours minimum during semester