B PsychEd

We are a group of Psychology undergraduates who wanted to create a community, so we formed our own club—and we welcome everyone to join, whether you're a psychology major or not. Our goal is to provide a platform to help undergraduates navigate the Psychology major. Our team includes a diverse range of students, from pre-med and pre-law tracks to double majors, all of whom are ready to offer mentorship and guidance to any student who might be feeling lost.

We warmly invite you to join our club—just fill out a simple interest form here and join our Slack here. There's no commitment required; you'll be added to our community, keeping you updated on upcoming workshops, speaker events, and research opportunities. Our general meetings are held every other Tuesday, and while attendance isn't mandatory, we'd love to see you there. To learn more, explore our sidebar for different ways to contact us!

Curious to learn more in person? Sign up for our info session!

General Member vs. Committee Member

Want to get more involved? Our club is organized into six main committees that align with the major: Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Biological Psychology, Social Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and Educational Psychology. Each committee will take on a semester-long project, whether it’s conducting research, writing a paper, or volunteering at a local elementary school. These committees also play a key role in organizing speaker events and workshops for our general meetings. Committee meetings will be held on the Tuesdays when we don’t have general meetings.

For our committee members, we have a brief application process to ensure a higher level of commitment. Please note that committee members are expected to attend meetings more consistently and may have additional meetings beyond the general meetings.

Committee Projects' Description

Biological Psych: This year, the biological psychology committee will be conducting a literature review with a focus on understanding Alzheimer's disease. We will be working with fMRI data to preprocess and analyze brain scans with the aim of investigating correlations between clinical, neuropsychological symptoms patients experience and activated brain regions. Committee members will improve skills in interpreting scientific literature, critical thinking and fMRI image analysis, and synthesizing findings together to make relevant conclusions in a professional setting. To supplement the learning process, we will also be doing biweekly journal clubs to keep updated on current biological psychology topics and a couple potential volunteering opportunities for senior living! Apply to our committee if you're interested in a semester of fun, learning, and growth!

Social Psych: This semester's project explores the psychology behind "us vs. them" narratives and polarization through a weekly research-based journal club. Members will analyze studies on political, social, and cultural biases, connecting their insights directly to real-world current events. To show off what we learn through the semester, we will synthesize our discussions into blog posts on the B PsychEd website to help educate more people on the roots of social division!

Industrial Organizational Psych: The I/O Committee is conducting a study on how UC Berkeley's competitive club culture and recruitment processes affect students' self-esteem and overall campus experience. We are particularly interested in how applications, interviews, and rejection may create pressure, especially for students who are underrepresented within the organizations they apply to. Through anonymous interviews, the project will use an Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology approach to identify common themes while highlighting students' individual experiences. With this study, we hope to better understand the impact of Berkeley's club culture and explore ways recruitment practices can become more inclusive and supportive for students.

Clinical Psych: The Clinical Psychology Committee is dedicated to exploring the intersection of substance use and mental health among young adults. Rather than focusing primarily on conducting original experimental research, this committee aims to introduce members to psychological and public health research through systematic reviews, critical literature analysis on scientific papers, and discussion-based learning. Through a yearlong commitment, we hope to create a space where students interested in clinical psychology or public health can engage meaningfully with important issues while also giving back to the community through service initiatives and advocacy, while also obtaining their Naloxone (Narcan) Certification which will allow members to gain practical skills in harm reduction and overdose response.

Developmental Psych: The focus of the fall semester's committee project will be on child psychological development in relation to pediatric chronic illness. The committee will collaborate to create a literature review of published scientific articles on this topic. Additionally, committee members will be tasked to design, conduct, and analyze an open survey to gather general findings of how the events of chronic illness among youth may affect their psychopathological development into adulthood.

Educational Psych: A branch of psychology applying various psychology principles to make a better learning experience, we hope to build off of "educational" psychology to share graphics and synopses on a webpage that advocates for mental health awareness and makes psychological research more accessible to students. Our project this year is to teach effective strategies for learning comprehension (based on foundational educational psych concepts) in local high schools and at Berkeley Splash. We hope to teach our applicants valuable skills about working together toward building a cohesive curriculum, gaining skills with hands-on instruction, and practicing analyzing research papers.

We are a student group acting independently of the University of California. We take full responsibility for our organization and this web site.