PSYC 100: Understanding Psychology
4 semester hours
Crane, Lauren and Kinzeler, Nicole
Prerequisites: None
An introductory-level survey course in psychology with a focus on how psychology can be applied to other fields of study and life in general; intended for students who do not plan to major or minor in psychology. Covers topics in biological foundations of behavior, learning and memory, developmental psychology, motivation and emotion, abnormal psychology and psychotherapy, personality, and social psychology. This course is not to be taken in conjunction with or in addition to Psychology courses 110-160.
PSYC 107 Statistics
4 semester hours
Brown, Cliff
Prerequisites: To register for Psychology 107, a student must have a 23 or higher Mathematics Placement Level. Contact the Math Workshop for details regarding this prerequisite. A student may not receive credit for more than one statistics course.
This is a course in applied statistics. Its emphasis is on the mechanics of summarizing and analyzing data, with examples from the behavioral sciences. The purpose of the course is to prepare students for other courses in Psychology and related disciplines and to help them conduct and interpret statistical analyses.
PSYC 140: Pro-seminar IV: Individual Differences
2 semester hours
Brookings, Jeffrey
Prerequisites: None
This course is an introduction to the scientific study of individual differences in intelligence and personality. In the first part of the course, we consider theories of intelligence, how intelligence is measured, and current controversies about the proper use of intelligence test scores. In part two of the course, we shift to the study of personality, including broad theories of personality (psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic, trait) and new directions in personality research and measurement.
PSYC 150: Pro-seminar V: Abnormal
2 semester hours
Little, Stephanie
Prerequisites: None
This course is an introduction to the realm of psychology that focuses on identifying and treating psychological disorders. Key features of a variety of common mental illnesses will be considered. Also, different theoretical views regarding the causes of and treatments for mental illness will be covered. In addition, basic emotions and motivations are introduced. Students will complete two papers that require them to apply course concepts to a movie about an individual with mental illness.
PSYC 160: Proseminar VI: Social
2 semester hours
Crane, Lauren
Prerequisites: None
This course is an introduction to social psychology, the scientific study of how others influence our beliefs, emotions, and behavior. Topics include conformity, persuasion, social cognition, attribution, attitudes, prejudice, aggression, and nonverbal communication. Students will write research papers, and tests will assess performance.
PSYC 207: Experimental Design
5 semester hours
Anes, Michael
Prerequisite: Psychology 107 or another statistics course.
This laboratory course gives you hands-on experience with the basic principles of research in psychology: the logic and methodologies of collecting data in a scientific manner, and the concepts and techniques of applying statistics to collected data in order to draw conclusions. We will cover a variety of methodologies, emphasizing how you can use each of them yourself. As part of this course, you will design and implement a number of studies that involve collecting, analyzing, and interpreting original data, as well as reporting your findings. Each study will illustrate a different type of analytic tool or procedure, but the specific questions to be addressed in these studies will be determined by you.
PSYC 212: Health Psychology
4 semester hours
Kinzeler, Nicole
Prerequisite: Psychology 110 or any Biology course.
This course introduces students to theory, research, and practice in health psychology, emphasizing the promotion and maintenance of health, the identification of causes to particular illnesses, and behavioral prevention and treatment of illness. Specific topics will include coping with stress, nutrition, exercise, and substance abuse. In addition to a textbook on Health Psychology, students will be expected to read primary literature in professional journals. Lectures will be supplemented with videos, class discussions, and group oral presentations.
PSYC 241: Psychology of Personality
4 semester hours
Brookings, Jeffrey
Prerequisite: Psychology 140
Personality psychology is the scientific study of the person. Personality psychologists - or personologists -seek to understand the ways in which every individual is "like . . . all other persons, like some other persons, and like no other person." In this course, the scientific study of persons will be considered from four distinct perspectives: Psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive-social learning, and trait.
Course requirements include a midterm and final exam, reaction papers and three research papers. Each paper involves using one of the four perspectives to interpret a human life, as portrayed via text or film. Writing Intensive.
PSYC 280: Psychology of Language
4 semester hours
Crane, Lauren
Prerequisites: Any Language course at the 112 level or any Psyc. course at the 100 level
People use language day in and day out, so effortlessly that it often may seem automatic. Yet language use is a complicated phenomenon that plays an important role in almost every aspect of high-level human functioning. In this course, language will be examined from a variety of perspectives, including acquisition, production, comprehension, human biology, cultural variation, and more. By the end of the course, students will have gained a heightened awareness of just how complex language use really is, and will have a richer appreciation of the far-reaching impact that it has on their everyday lives. Course requirements include exams, projects, written reports, and class participation.
PSYC 321: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
5 semester hours
Anes, Michael
Prerequisites: Psychology 120 and Psychology 207
This is a course in which we study major operations of the human mind; perceiving, remembering, acting, and thinking. Specific areas of coverage include attention, visual search and object recognition, visual memory, general memory mechanisms (working and long-term), language, imagery, reasoning, and judgment. We will discuss learning and memory in other species as well, and attempt to draw parallels that inform our understanding of human cognition.
Specific proposals about how the mind accomplishes particular tasks (models) have been advanced in the short, 50-year history of modern cognitive psychology. We will see how these models have been tested, in part by participating in replications of classic cognitive psychology experiments. Data, including the data we generate ourselves, will be discussed in detail. We will write APA-style papers describing the nature of these tasks, the methods used, and the results obtained in the tasks. Finally, we will plan and execute group experiments.
PSYC 361: Experimental Social Psychology
5 semester hours
Brown, Clifford
Prerequisites: Psychology 107, Psychology 160, and Psychology 207.
This writing intensive course in experimental social psychology provides students with a scientifically based understanding of human social behavior. Topics include social perception, attitudes, conformity, group processes, aggression, and prejudice. The course emphasizes the experimental method and the particular challenges of applying it to study people in a social context. Given the complexity of social behavior, social psychology relies heavily on experiments that employ factorial designs, which allow investigators to examine the independent and combined effects of several factors (variables) simultaneously. This course will include more than 30 hours of laboratory experience.
PSYC 390: Junior Seminar
No Credit
Anes, Michael
This seminar meets one hour per week and is designed to help students understand their various options as psychology majors. This includes topics such as senior research projects and internships, senior comprehensive and GRE exams, possible career paths, graduate school applications, and graduate school and job interviews. This class may include guest speakers and field trips based on students' interests. Psychology majors are required to take this no-credit seminar for one semester during their junior year.
PSYC 400: Research: Personality
4 semester hours
Brookings, Jeffrey
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
In small groups, students will complete research studies on personality as reflected by the way individuals design their "personal living spaces" (e.g., dorm rooms, offices, Facebook profiles). Students will design the studies, collect and analyze the data, write up the results, and submit their findings for presentation at a psychology conference. Preparation for the research will involve reading and discussing published studies on personality and personal living spaces, and becoming acquainted with relevant research methodologies and instruments. Course grades are based on class participation, contributions to the project(s), and an APA-style research report.
Psyc 400: Research: Eating Behavior
4 Semester Hours
Kinzeler, Nicole
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Students in this course will work with the instructor on research focused on factors that influence eating behavior. In preparation for the research experiment(s), students will read a variety of primary research articles in the field and discuss them in class. Subsequently, students will generate a hypothesis, design the experiment(s), collect and analyze the data, and write up the results in an APA-style research report. It is expected that the findings will then be presented at a psychology conference. Grades for this course will be based on participation in discussions, contribution to the project, and the final paper.
