The National Honor Society in Psychology at
the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology, founded in 1929 for the purposes of encouraging, stimulating, and maintaining excellence in scholarship, and advancing the science of psychology. The aims of Psi Chi are summarized in two Greek words: psyche(cy-key), suggesting "mind" or scholarship, and symbolizing enrichment of the mind, and cheires(ki-race), meaning "hands" and symbolizing fellowship and research.
Membership is open to graduate and undergraduate men and women who are making the study of psychology one of their major interests, and who meet the minimum qualifications. Psi Chi is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies and is an affiliate of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS). Psi Chi's sister honor society is Psi Beta, the national honor society in psychology for community and junior colleges.
Psi Chi functions as a federation of
chapters located at more than 940 senior colleges and universities in
the USA. The National Office is
located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A National
Council composed of psychologists who are Psi Chi members and who are
elected by the chapters, guides theaffairs of the organization and sets policy
with the approval of the chapters.
Psi Chi serves two major goals--one immediate and visibly
rewarding to the individual member, the other slower and more difficult to
accomplish, but offering greater rewards in the long run. The first of these
is the Society's obligation to provide academic recognition to its inductees
by the mere fact of membership. The second goal is the obligation of each
of the Society's local chapters to nurture the spark of that accomplishment
by offering a climate congenial to its creative development. For example,
the chapters make active attempts to nourish and stimulate professional growth
through programs designed to augment and enhance the regular curriculum and
to provide practical experience and fellowship through affiliation with the
chapter. In addition, the national organization provides programs to help
achieve these goals, including 
The Society publishes a quarterly
magazine, Eye on Psi Chi, which helps to
unite the members as well as to inform and recognize their contributions and
accomplishments, as well as the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research ,
a national, fully reviewed, quarterly journal dedicated to the publication
of undergraduate student research.
Students become members by joining
the chapter at the school where they are enrolled. Psi Chi chapters are operated by student officers and
faculty advisors. Together they select and induct the members and carry out
the goals of the Society. All chapters register their inductees at the National
Office, where the membership records are preserved for reference purposes.
The total number of memberships preserved at the national office during the
first 70 years is over 360,000. Many of these members have gone on to distinguished
careers in psychology.