Psychology
Faculty: Professor Tietz and Associate Professor Gilchrist (coordinator)
Psychology is the scientific inquiry into the nature of thought, feeling, and action. Because psychology developed from such disciplines as biology, physics and philosophy, students will find that the study of psychology enhances one’s understanding of a variety of subjects. Courses in psychology are designed to serve a number of purposes: to satisfy intellectual curiosity; to offer insights into human behavior, personal and social; to offer another dimension to the studies of those involved in education and nursing in particular, and all disciplines in general. Students with the baccalaureate degree in psychology have a firm foundation for entry-level careers in social service agencies, consumer advocacy, business (such as personnel work and organization development) and community improvement groups. In addition, the psychology degree constitutes strong preparation for enrollment in graduate education in such disciplines as psychology, education, social work, law, medicine, and business.
Degrees and Certificates
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Bachelor of Arts in Psychology -
Bachelor of Science in Psychology -
Psychology Minor
Courses
PSY/SOC 232: Social Psychology
Credits 3Social psychology examines how external forces shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Topics include social cognition; prejudice; human aggression; conformity; liking, loving, and interpersonal sensitivity; and mass communication, propaganda, and persuasion.
PSY/SOC 355: Psychology of Intergroup Relations
Credits 3Psychology of intergroup relations examines challenges and benefits related to diversity. Topics include the roles of personality, social cognition, social identity, biology, status, power, and institutions in bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Topics also will include social change efforts that may improve intergroup relations.
PSY/WGS 321: Human Sexuality
Credits 3This course examines psychological theories and research on sexuality. Topics include physiology, gender, sex education, sexual development, communication, sexual expression, reproduction, sexual function, sexual health, sexual assault, and sex work. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as they pertain to sexuality. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
PSY/WGS 331: Psychology of Women and Gender
Credits 3This course examines psychological theories and research on gender. Topics include power and privilege, the gender binary, gender socialization, sexuality, relationships, reproduction, and gender-based violence. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as
they pertain to gender. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
PSY/WGS 450: Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity
Credits 3This course examines current psychological approaches and highlights the social identity approach to sport and exercise behavior. Topics include leadership, communication, teamwork, motivation, cognitive/emotional influences on performance, mental health, career transition, and fan behavior. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as they pertain to sport. Fulfills writingintensive requirement.
PSY 101: General Psychology
Credits 3Introduces scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Overview of areas of neuropsychology, growth and development, perceptual processes, learning and thinking, motivation and emotion, intelligence and personality, social psychology and mental disorders.
PSY 235: Biopsychology
Credits 3Survey of topics from the perspective of biopsychology, neuroanatomy, neural communication, sensation/perception, learning and memory, emotion, psychological disorders, and aging and neurodegenerative disorders.
PSY 240: Cognitive Psychology
Credits 3An introduction to the concepts in cognitive psychology including theories and applications of memory systems, pattern recognition, attention, decision-making, problem solving, language and text comprehension, reasoning.
PSY 245: Personality Psychology
Credits 3Personality psychology examines how internal forces shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Topics include traits, self and identity, genetics, neuroscience, intrapsychic foundations, regulation and motivation, cognition, and resilience.
PSY 248: Sensation and Perception
Credits 3This course focuses on how humans sense and perceive stimuli in the external environment through use of the senses. Through lecture and hands-on demonstration, students will learn about topics such as: color and depth perception, how 3-D movies work, perception of pain, balance, and the link between scent and memory.
PSY 250: Positive Psychology
Credits 2This course takes an empirical and experiential approach to helping individuals understand and use course content to enhance their lives. Topics covered include happiness and well-being, positive emotions and thinking, character strengths and virtues, motivation and self-control, resilience and posttraumatic
growth, and healthy relationships and institutions.
PSY 307: Psychology of Lifespan Development
Credits 4This course takes a chronological approach to development from conception through death and dying. Topics include theory and research relating to biological, psychological, and social change across the lifespan, Includes an asynchronous online lab component. May not be taken for credit if credit has
been received for PSY 308 Psychology of Child & Adolescent Development.
PSY 308: Psychology of Child and Adolescent Development
Credits 4This course takes a chronological approach to development from conception through adolescence. Topics include theory and research relating to biological, psychological, and social change across infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Includes an asynchronous online lab component. May not be taken for credit
if credit has been received for PSY 307 Psychology of Lifespan Development.
PSY 310: Research Methods in Psychology: Research Design and Ethics
Credits 3Students will learn about the characteristics of science, various research study designs in psychology (e.g., surveys, observational research, single-factor experiments), and ethics in human subjects research. Students will plan a research study, complete an appropriate review of the literature and gain scientific writing skills. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
PSY 311: Research Methods in Psychology: Psychological Statistics
Credits 3tudents will learn about the characteristics of science, psychological statistics, and methods of data collection and analysis. Students will learn how to analyze their data through use of statistical software. They will also learn to write the results of these analyses and draw conclusions and complete a final written empirical research paper based on their findings. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
PSY 315: Health Psychology
Credits 3This course will cover the different biological, psychological, and social factors that relate to human health. Students will also learn about the different techniques that can be used to develop new health habits or change health behaviors. Topics will include stress and coping, eating, exercise, drug use, sleep, and illness.
PSY 325: Motivation & Emotion
Credits 3PSY 335: Drugs and Behavior
Credits 3This course will examine how various types of psychoactive drugs will affect the brain, psychological processes, and behavior. Students will also learn about different neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers of the brain whose effects are modified by drug use. Course topics will include: pharmokinetics and drug action, classes of psychoactive drugs, drug abuse and addiction, and therapeutic treatments for various disorders and diseases.
PSY 341: Forensic Psychology
Credits 3In Forensic Psychology, you are invited to learn about the interplay between psychological theory and research and the law, legal processes, and social policy. Topics may include: police and investigative psychology, legal psychology, criminal psychology, victimology and victim services, and correctional
psychology.
PSY 345: Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Credits 3This course is designed to examine the psychology of the workplace from the standpoint of a behavioral scientist. A majority of the course will be devoted to topics related to research methods and proper assessment of both employees and of jobs. This includes discussions related to hiring methods, performance appraisals, best practices for job training, and other similar topics. The latter portion of the course will discuss issues related to individuals and groups within the work setting. During this section of the course, students will learn about such topics as leadership, occupational safety, and employee productivity.
PSY 350: Psychological Perspectives on Mental Health
Credits 3Psychological Perspectives on Mental Health examines the characteristics of and biological, psychological, social, and cultural explanations and treatments for major psychological disorders. Disorders include anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, stress disorders, dissociative disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, substance-related disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders.
PSY 351: Cross-Cultural Psychology
Credits 3Cross-cultural psychology examines how culture shapes our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors - focusing on similarities and differences among cultures. Topics include culture’s role in intelligence, emotion, motivation and behavior, human development and socialization, personality, attractiveness, gender and sex roles, and psychological disorders.
PSY 420: Counseling/Clinical Psychology
Credits 3Counseling/clinical psychology examines how to explain and treat psychological disorders. Topics include neuroscience, microskills, the psychodynamic tradition, cognitive-behavioral counseling and therapy, the existential-humanistic tradition, feminist counseling and therapy, multicultural counseling and therapy, positive psychology and brief/solution-focused therapy, and family counseling and therapy. This course requires regular practice of and reflection on basic therapy skills.
PSY 430: Conflict Resolution
Credits 3Conflict Resolution examines how to explain, approach, and resolve interpersonal conflict, primarily through communication. Topics will include communication options, theoretical perspectives, responding to conflict, violent tendencies, conflict climates, face, conflict in the workplace, mediation, and negotiation. This course requires regular practice of and reflection on interpersonal communication skills.
PSY 440: Learning and Conditioning
Credits 3Students will discover how new behaviors are acquired, and how existing behaviors can be changed, through different principles of learning and conditioning. Lectures will include such topics as habituation, sensitization, imprinting, classical and operant conditioning, observational learning, and applied behavior analysis. Students will also complete various hands-on computer modules that illustrate different principles of learning, and will write brief reports based on what they find.
PSY 445: Emotional Intelligence
Credits 3Emotional intelligence is comprised of being able to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions in beneficial ways. Topics will include multiple conceptualizations, measurements, and applications of emotional intelligence, regarding relationships, school, work, and mental health.
PSY 455: Brain Imaging Techniques
Credits 3This course will cover different methodologies to study activity in the brain. These techniques will include EEG, fMRI, PET scans, and other methods. In addition to learning about these techniques, students will also learn about appropriate research designs and data analyses for these methods.
PSY 490: Psychology Senior Capstone
Credits 3Students will collectively engage in an exploration of how the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major can help them to better understand and to address social issues. Students also will individually create a portfolio of documents they can use to apply for jobs and/or graduate school.
SOC/PSY 232: Social Psychology
Credits 3Social psychology examines how external forces shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Topics include social cognition; prejudice; human aggression; conformity; liking, loving, and interpersonal sensitivity; and mass communication, propaganda, and persuasion.
SOC/PSY 355: Psychology of Intergroup Relations
Credits 3Psychology of intergroup relations examines challenges and benefits related to diversity. Topics include the roles of personality, social cognition, social identity, biology, status, power, and institutions in bias, prejudice, and discrimination. Topics also will include social change efforts that may improve intergroup relations.
WGS/PSY 321: Human Sexuality
Credits 3This course examines psychological theories and research on sexuality. Topics include physiology, gender, sex education, sexual development, communication, sexual expression, reproduction, sexual function, sexual health, sexual assault, and sex work. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as they pertain to sexuality. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
WGS/PSY 331: Psychology of Women and Gender
Credits 3This course examines psychological theories and research on gender. Topics include power and privilege, the gender binary, gender socialization, sexuality, relationships, reproduction, and gender-based violence. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as
they pertain to gender. Fulfills writing-intensive requirement.
WGS/PSY 450: Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity
Credits 3This course examines current psychological approaches and highlights the social identity approach to sport and exercise behavior. Topics include leadership, communication, teamwork, motivation, cognitive/emotional influences on performance, mental health, career transition, and fan behavior. Particular attention is paid to issues of power, intersectionality, minoritized populations, and justice as they pertain to sport. Fulfills writingintensive requirement.