Carlson Hall
Telephone: (203) 576-6764
Program Description
The Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology prepares students for work that requires liberal arts training as well as psychological knowledge and skills. The major provides students with a detailed awareness of the field of psychology, including its historical background, paradigms, methods, research findings, and applications. The major addresses the general areas of developmental, personality, social, cognitive, and abnormal psychology. It fosters the development of verbal, quantitative, analytical, and technological skills that are useful for work in psychology and related fields.
The major requires thirteen psychology courses (39 semester hours), including PSYC 103 - Introduction to Psychology , PSYC 205 - Lifespan Developmental Psychology , PSYC 230 - Abnormal Psychology , PSYC 240 - Social Psychology , PSYC 303 - Personality Psychology , PSYC 307 - Cognitive Psychology , PSYC 321 - Research Methods , PSYC 385 - Statistical Methods in Psychology and five other elective psychology courses (fifteen semester hours total of psychology electives). A total of 120 credits are required for graduation. Students wishing to obtain a minor in Psychology must take Introduction to Psychology plus any five additional psychology courses (18 semester hours total including PSYC 103 ).
Learning Outcomes
By completing the B.S. in Psychology program, students will:
1) have learned the pre-history and the history of Psychology including the evolution of its main issues, topic areas, methods and applications;
2) know the major perspectives in Psychology including perspectives such as: Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Humanistic, Biological, and Socio-Cultural,;
3) understand the lifespan approach to human biological, cognitive and psychosocial development;
4) be able to provide examples of the major forms of psychological research including methodologies such as naturalistic observation, surveys, case studies and archival research, and the main features and techniques of psychological experimentation;
5) understand basic data organization, presentation and analysis including both inferential and descriptive statistics;
6) understand characteristics of psychological research including the limitations of correlation research, experimental biases, placebo effects and ethical issues regarding human subjects;
7) be able to critically evaluate the psychological research presented in the popular press;
8) be able to relate key psychological concepts and theories to their own personal lives;
9) understand how key psychological concepts and theories are applied in clinical, medical, educational, human services and corporate settings; and
10) understand connections between Psychology and such other disciplines as Philosophy, Biology, Sociology, Religion, and Human Services.
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