Course Descriptions

An introductory course examining fundamental psychological principles with special emphasis upon behavioral, biological, cognitive, socio-cultural, and psychodynamic view points.

Taken concurrently with PSYC 1113. Students learn about psychology through interaction with practicing professionals, conducting small research projects, and writing about the results in the style of the profession.

Adult development across the lifespan presents the normal developmental issues in the context of changing cultural demands, technological impacts, innate psychological stages and aging.

Course content includes central tendency, variability, correlation, parametric and selected nonparametric inferential tests. Application of statistics in the biological, social and educational fields is stressed.

The design, conduct, analysis, and written reporting of research in the social sciences is learned by practicing each of these phases of research: extensive support in learning to use the computer in the conduct and analysis of experiments is provided.

The course is designed to illustrate a variety of work-related problems and to help develop human relations skills to solve them.

A study of the major problems and theories concerning the nature of human personality and the changing nature of man. Presentations on psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic points of view are included.

The theoretical foundation and practical application of behavior change techniques are the core content of the course. Individual and institutional strategies are covered and the emphasis is on effective techniques as supported by research.

This introductory level course covers the basic principles of counseling, compares the various theories of counseling, and surveys fundamental research into the effectiveness of counseling.

The classic theories of dream interpretation are contrasted with modern research knowledge of the biological and psychological processes of dreaming.

A survey of modern theories and research about the psychological aspects of cognition: memory, thinking, reasoning, concept formation, attention, planning and mental imagery.

This course introduces students to the study of the etiology, dynamics, diagnosis, counseling, treatment and theories of abnormal behavior.

This introduction to the scientific study of how individuals affect each other includes material on communications, attitudes and attitude change, prejudice and discrimination. Social influence, aggression and violence, attraction and love, pro-social behavior, group structure and formation, leadership, environmental psychology, and applied social psychology.

The topics of this variable content course focus on fundamental issues psychology. The course is intended for students with six or more hours in psychology, regardless of their major. May be repeated with a change in contents. Examples of topics include Health Psychology and Forensic Psychology.

Modern theories and the fundamental research of Pavlovian and operant

conditioning are considered. The one hour laboratory offers opportunities to apply the principles studied. Recommended: PSYC 2304, and/or 3414. (Spring, even)

Majors with at least 72 credits and PSYC 2304 begin this two semester, capstone course in the spring of their junior year. Each student prepares a proposal and writes a sophisticated literature review or conducts an original research study, suitable for presentation at a conference. Both PSYC 4102 and PSYC 4201 must be completed for graduation.

(See PSYC 4102)

The historical roots, the development of the discipline of psychology and the processes of psychological investigation and theory making are the core of the course.

This course provides advanced students with a knowledge of the testing process, including issues of validity and reliability and test construction.

The course focus is the computer application of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and multivariate regression to large data sets using the SPSS statistical package. Selected techniques such as meta-analysis and factor analysis may be included, depending on the students' background and needs.

Variable content seminars about important issues in psychology. One example of seminar topic—Neurobiological Psychology.

Intended for advanced juniors and seniors, this course allows students to conduct research into selected topics under the guidance of a faculty member.

Selected students qualified for advanced study and approved by the Department work in a community organization or program relevant to their course of study. This experience is initiated by the student and is both structured and evaluated by the faculty mentor. Approval of the Department chairperson is required.

Opportunities for students with sufficient curiosity and demonstrated reliability to work on a selected problem with a minimum of restriction and routine. Prerequisite: A student initiated proposal that warrants department approval. Approval of the Department chairperson required.