Faculty are pressured to provide high-quality advising for undergraduate psychology majors, but lack the time and resources. One efficient solution provides comprehensive advising information via a departmental handbook that helps students solve the problem of graduating with a degree in psychology, prepared for employment or graduate school. A review of objectives for advising undergraduate psychology majors outlines the goals of an advising program. Advising is described as support for extended problem solving of an ill-defined problem--planning an undergraduate course of study. The handbook's plan applies three findings about effective problem solving: (1) representing problems completely and abstractly through subgoaling and working backwards; (2) encouraging student-initiated activity; and (3) motivating students to solve their academic career advisement problem. The plan describes each strategy and its relevance for academic advising. The handbook can meet the objectives of a high-quality advising program. Also, a well-designed handbook can serve as the main element of a marketing plan for the psychology major. This handbook improves on other similar plans (e.g., Gielen, 1987) by: (1) presenting a clearer rationale; (2) explaining how a handbook will help students; and (3) applying cognitive psychology to the handbook's design and use. (Author)