Undergraduate Program
Major Requirements
The psychology major leads to a BA degree and satisfies a social science divisional requirement.
Below is information on:
Pre-Major Requirements
PSY 101 or the equivalent must be completed before the student is accepted into the major.
Major Requirements
One Statistics Course
One of the following:
- STT 211: Statistical Literacy & Applied Methodology
- STT 212: Applied Statistics I
- STT 213: Elements of Probability & Mathematical Statistics
- STT 203: Introduction to Mathematical Statistics
- PSY 211: Introduction to Statistical Methods in Psychology (valid through Spring 2016)
Note: This course should be taken by the end of the sophomore year.
Two Natural Science Core Courses
Both of the following:
- BCS/PSY 110: Neural Foundations of Behavior
- BCS/PSY 111: Foundations of Cognitive Science
Two Social Science Core Courses
Two of the following:
- PSY 161: Social Psychology and Individual Differences
- PSY 171: Social and Emotional Development
- PSY 181: Theories of Personality and Psychotherapy
Five Elective Courses
Five elective courses in PSY, each course must be a 4 credit course. No more than two can be independent study courses (numbered 39X).
Transfer Courses
Students can transfer up to two psychology courses in addition to an Introduction to Psychology course and an acceptable statistics course. Transfer courses need to meet the College’s rules for acceptability.
Receiving college credit for a course does not automatically grant credit toward the major. In most cases, courses should be reviewed and approved by the instructors of the comparable courses. A course description will sometimes suffice, but often a syllabus or a copy of the table of contents of the text is needed to provide sufficient information for a judgment. The College has a Course Approval Form, and courses in your psychology program can be approved on this form in consultation with your psychology advisor.
To earn transfer credit, an introductory course must be taught at a college by regular college faculty. Courses taught in high school will not be granted transfer credit.
Note regarding credit for Introduction to Psychology: A score of 4 or 5 on the AP psychology test will result in 4.0 semester hours of credit and waiving the requirement for Introduction to Psychology. An AP score of 3 will carry no credit but will result in waiving the requirement for Introduction to Psychology.
Upper-Level Writing Requirements
Students are required to take two of the psychology courses designated as upper-level writing courses, and at least one of these courses is to be at or above the 200 level. Eligible courses are the .5 tagalong or the 2 credit WRT course (two courses are still required if you take the 2 credit writing course.)
Writing courses stress formal writing, and may include literature review papers, research reports, and critical reviews of articles. The form of the document will vary among courses, but all writing should conform generally to the appropriate guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
The criteria for significant writing are the following minimum set of assignments and activities:
- At least three formal writing assignments. (These could be linked components of a larger document. If so, the separate parts must be clearly identified.)
- Each assignment is to be at least five pages in length.
- Revision of at least one assignment with the benefit of instructor comments.
- Meet quality standards of clarity, conciseness, and completeness.
Independent study, laboratory courses, seminars, and small lecture courses in psychology may often be negotiated with the instructor to be “W” courses and carry writing credit, although there will be exceptions. Many lecture courses have small tagalong writing sections that carry 0.5 credits and are designated as “W” sections.
Psychology majors can seek admission to tagalong writing sections in the first two weeks of the semester and enrollments will be allotted on need and first-come, first-served bases. Students are encouraged to consult with the individual faculty member regarding writing courses registration.