Psychology Department

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Objectives

The objectives of the Department of Psychology are threefold:

1) to give our majors who intend to pursue a professional career in psychology a thorough background in the discipline and to prepare them for admittance to graduate school; 2) to give all of our majors a grounding in the science and practice of psychology, and the tools to pursue a variety of career choices; and 3) to give non-majors an appreciation of psychology as a basic and applied science.

Requirements for the Major

Students majoring in Psychology must take a minimum of 36 s.h. of psychology courses, and 21 s.h. of related coursework. There are four groups of requirements.

1. The Core Requirements include six courses that every major must take: PSYC 100 - Introductory Psychology  3 s.h. , PSYC 221 - Research Methods in Psychology I  3 s.h. , PSYC 222 - Research Methods in Psychology II  3 s.h. , PSYC 240 - Principles and Processes of Child Development  3 s.h. , PSYC 260 - Introduction to Social Psychology  3 s.h. , and PSYC 270 - Personality Theory  3 s.h. .
2. The Area Requirement includes seven courses covering traditional research areas in psychology; the major must take one of these courses.
3. The 300-Level Requirement includes 12 advanced courses; the major must take two of these.
4. The Related Coursework Requirement includes approximately 25 courses, divided into 3 categories; the major must take one course in each category. (Note: These courses also fulfill General Education Requirements.) In addition, there are several elective courses available. The Department strongly suggests that courses be planned in consultation with the student’s advisor.

Special Programs or Facilities

The Psychology Department has a strong commitment to research involving faculty working together with students, and maintains laboratories equipped for research in areas such as mood disorders, perception and cognition, animal behavior, stereotyping and prejudice, child and adolescent development, learning and memory, gender issues, human sexuality, community health, psychological testing, and evolutionary psychology. Many of our majors present their work at student and professional conferences, and share authorship of research articles published in professional journals.

To help students develop a wide range of research and interpersonal skills, the Department offers a variety of independent study, teaching assistantship, and field experience (internship) opportunities. The faculty encourage and support participation in these activities.

Programs

• Psychology, B.A.

• Psychology, B.S.

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