History

Organization

The idea for Psi Chi began in the fall of 1927 when two psychology students, Fred Lewis and Edwin Newman were having a late night conversation at the University of Kansas. They were working on their individual research project in a large basement of the psychology department. During their time studying together, they thought about the absence of a student organization in Psychology and they took on the challenge to make one.

Psi Chi was founded September 4, 1929, during the 9th International Congress of Psychology. Representatives from 11 colleges and universities signed the charter, and three others signed by proxy. It has since expanded to over 1,300 organizations in the US and 13 different countries (refer to the map at the bottom of the page). Further information and an extensive timeline of Psi Chi history can be found here.

Distinguished members of Psi Chi include some of the following:

- Albert Bandura
  - - Former president of APA and is ranked the most frequently cited living psychologist.
    - Best known for his Bobo Doll experiment on patterns of behavior associated with aggression.
    - Fun fact: SLU Psi Chi hosted Bandura in 1990
- B.F. Skinner
  - - Considered the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.
    - Best known for inventing the operant conditioning chamber, developing radical behaviorism, and analyzing human behavior in his Verbal Behavior.
- Phillip G. Zimbardo
  - - Former president of APA and the Heroic Imagination Project.
    - Best known for his controversial Stanford prison study on the psychological effects of being a prisoner or prison guard.

Symbol

Psi Chi’s Symbol was created in the early 1930s, only a few years after the Society’s founding in 1929. Based on the Greek letters psi and chi (Ψ and X), the Symbol expresses the Greek words psyche and cheires to signify the mind (for scholarship and academic enrichment) and hands (for fellowship and cooperation in research). Our Symbol places these two Greek letters at the center of a circle to show that scholarship and fellowship are at the center of Psi Chi’s mission.

The Greek letters (Ψ and X) in our Symbol should always intertwine. This is because traditional honor societies are symbolically represented with overlapping Greek letters, known as keys, which open doors to higher education and career and professional development. An honor society traditional key is what differentiates an academic organization from a social organization like a sorority or fraternity.