44 courses with the subject PSYC, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
PSYC 109Contemporary Issues in Psychological Science1.00
A course in specific topics offered by various staff members. Students should contact the department regarding the topics offered during any given term. This course does not fulfill the prerequisite for PSYC 200. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Introduces students to the scientific study of human behavior. Topics include biological foundations of behavior, learning, cognition, sensation and perception, development over the life span, emotion and motivation, personality, social thinking and behavior, and the causes and treatment of psychological disorders. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: Only First-year, Sophomore Recommended: Psychological Science majors should complete this course by the end of the sophomore year. Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
PSYC 200Research Methods in Psychological Science1.00
An introduction to research methods in psychological science. Provides experience in developing the following skills: critically reviewing scientific literature, formulating testable research hypotheses, designing experiments, measuring behavior, interpreting research results, and writing and presenting research reports. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Recommended: Psychological Science majors should take this course during the sophomore year Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
Cognitive psychology is a scientific approach to understanding the functioning of the human mind and its relationship to behavior. This course explores recent empirical work in both the theoretical and practical aspects of a variety of issues related to cognition. Topics covered include pattern recognition, attention, mental representation, memory, problem solving, and development of expertise, reasoning, and intelligence. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Explores approaches to understanding the emotional, social, and behavioral functioning of the individual person. This course traces the study of personality from classic theories based on clinical observations to contemporary theories based on empirical research. Students learn about the field's major debates and research findings, and analyze individual cases as a means of illustrating and applying each theory. The ultimate goal of the course is to have students integrate the knowledge they have gained to form a coherent understanding of the person. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Our understanding of mental health issues and disorders is continually expanding. This course aims to broaden students' understanding of psychopathology and current mental health disorders, to strengthen students' abilities to recognize problematic behaviors and to determine what to do in the face of them, and to encourage critical interpretation of current theories and findings in psychopathology. Students will consider multicultural issues and current empirical research on mental health disorders. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
How do humans grow and change from the prenatal period through adolescence? What factors influence development, and how do the contexts in which youth spend their time help to determine development? These are the major questions considered in this survey of the various domains of development--including physical, cognitive, social, and emotional--and the settings in which development occurs--with family, with peers, in schools and neighborhoods, for example. Students learn about theory and empirical research on human development, and they also consider how this research can be applied when working with children and adolescents. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Focuses on issues concerning cellular and behavioral/cognitive neuroscience and is designed for students majoring in psychological science. The first part covers neuroanatomy, neuronal structure and function, brain evolution and development, movement, and cellular models of memory. The second and third parts take students through cognitive neuroscience, sensory systems, sleep and dreaming, language, emotion, ingestive behaviors, psychopathology, and cognitive aspects of learning and memory. Also teaches basic methodology so that students learn the many ways to ask and answer questions about brain and behavior in humans and non-humans alike. Normally does not count towards the neuroscience major. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Restrictions: Not open to students who have completed NEUR 170 Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None PSYC 300CO - Topics in Cognition An intermediate-level course in specific psychological science topics offered by various staff members. Students should contact the department regarding the topics offered during any given term. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None PSYC 300NE - Topics in Neuroscience An intermediate-level course in specific neuroscience topics offered by various staff members. Students should contact the department regarding the topics offered during any given term. Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted: NEUR 300NE Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None PSYC 300SO - Topics in Social, Developmental, Personality, or Clinical
PSYC 309Quantitative Methods in Behavioral Research1.00
An introduction to statistical procedures and quantitative concepts used in psychological science, this course emphasizes principles of research design and analysis in the behavioral sciences. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Recommended: Psychological Science majors should complete this course by the end of the junior year. Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
PSYC 309LQuantitative Methods in Behavioral Research Lab
Required corequisite to PSYC 309. Credits: 0.00 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
An exploration of concepts of psychological criminology. The primary aim is to understand the factors that make a person a criminal. A number of factors are examined, including evolutionary, biological, personality, developmental, environmental, cognitive, and behavioral perspectives. Interactions between individual differences and environmental influences are also examined. Related topics, such as psychopathology and substance use, are discussed. The course includes the analysis of individual cases, and special consideration is given to prevention and treatment initiatives. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None
Relationships can be a source of great joy when they go well and great sorrow when they go wrong. Although scholars and everyday people have always been interested in understanding relationships, only in the past 30 years or so have behavioral researchers turned their attention to understanding the processes that regulate behavior in meaningful relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners. This course will explore leading theories and empirical studies in the literature on adult relationships. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? Do we really need to get 8 hours of sleep a night to perform our best? How is sleep affected by our neighborhood, job, family, or culture? In this discussion-based course students critically analyze diverse theoretical perspectives and recent empirical research that seeks to answer these questions. Students examine sleep at multiple levels of analysis, including its biological underpinnings, methods of assessment, and developmental changes across the lifespan, as well as common sleep disorders and connections between sleep and learning, dreaming, and health. The second half of the course addresses environmental influences on sleep and explores ways to improve sleep in diverse populations via intervention and policy. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
Can anyone become addicted to anything? Are cell phones more addictive than cocaine? Why would a person self-identify as an "alcoholic?" Can addiction be cured? Students explore theories and foundational and cutting-edge empirical research in the field of addiction from the perspective of clinical psychological science. Material crosses substances and cultures. Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Attention and memory are at the core of how humans come to know and act on the world as well as forming the basis of who they are as individuals. This course is not a survey as it focuses on a few areas within attention and memory and studies these areas in depth, exploring seminal and current theories and empirical findings in human attention and memory from a cognitive perspective. Examples of problems which may be addressed include bottom-up vs. top-down attention allocation, dual-task performance, inhibition and attention control, attention and working memory, memory for skills, auto-biographical and emotional memories, memory impairments, and memory in everyday life (e.g., memory loss with age, Alzheimer's dementia, alcoholic dementia). Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Studies the origins of human thought from a variety of perspectives, including developmental, cross-cultural, and comparative. Each of these perspectives provides unique evidence concerning "origins." Developmental psychology examines the origins of thought within the lifespan of the individual within a particular culture; cross-cultural psychology examines the degree to which ways of thinking originate culturally; comparative psychology studies the evolutionary origins of thinking by making comparisons among species. These different approaches to studying "origins" are applied to a few focused topics in human cognition, such as origins of speech, concepts and categories, perception of objects, and perception of music. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Our everyday visual experiences typically yield a sense of certainty in that we believe we are operating directly from information in the world around us. Despite such a belief, many of our decisions and actions depend on perceptual inferences derived from our internalized representations of external information. Put another way, many of our decisions and subsequent actions are the direct result of our brains making guesses based on fabricated information. The purpose of this course is to explore how perceptual and cognitive processes act to formulate low- and high-level visual representations of the physical world, and
Language is a distinctive human ability that distances humans from the rest of the animal kingdom - including chimpanzees, with whom people share 98 percent of the same genetic inheritance. Although language is considered as primarily serving communication in its advanced form, it is also an important vehicle for thought, with the potential to extend, refine, and direct thinking. The interaction of language with other cognitive abilities is the central focus of the course. Students compare the communication systems of other species with human language, examine efforts to teach human language to apes, learn how psycholinguists conceptualize and investigate language-mind relationships, and inquire into the cognitive abilities of various types of language users, such as bilinguals and deaf and hearing signers. Attention also is given to evolutionary changes in the neural structures implicated in human language and to neural processes constraining the developmental course of language acquisition. Crosslisted: NEUR 355 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 360Neurodiversity and Community Inclusion1.00
Aims to engage students in considering ways to break down the barriers that people with neurodevelopmental disabilities face as they seek social and recreational opportunities within their communities. Students read research literature at the intersection of social psychology and disability studies that explores the psychological and social experience of neurodivergence. They then collaborate with a local organization and neurodivergent community members on a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project. Projects advance the missions of host organizations, while advancing the goals of neurodiversity and community inclusion. Students keep a journal throughout the semester, write reflection papers connecting the literature with their community experiences, and coordinate, document and present their CBPR projects.
Explores the major models of psychological treatment in adults and children. Each treatment model is examined in terms of its perspective on human behavior and psychopathology, its mechanisms and techniques of therapeutic change, and its empirical evidence. Also addressed are some of the recurring controversies in the field of clinical psychology: Should clinical research and practice inform each other and, if so, how? Can the disparate treatment models and their implicit world-views be integrated? To what extent is lasting behavior change possible? Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Explores the ontogenetic (developmental) and phylogenetic (evolutionary) roots underlying human social relationships. Social bonds are traced through the lifespan, beginning with parent-infant attachments, moving next to peer relationships, and ending with pair bonds. Students examine the interplay of social cognition, social perception, emotion, and communication in human sociability. Patterns underlying human social bonds are deciphered using research from child, social, cross-cultural, evolutionary, biological, and comparative psychology. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Introduces the study of psychological problems in the context of human development. Using a broad, integrative framework, the course examines psychological problems in childhood and adolescence from a variety of perspectives (genetic, biological, temperament, socioemotional, family, and societal). Syndromes that often first appear in childhood and adolescence are discussed, including autism-spectrum disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, disruptive behavior disorder, depression and suicide, and anxiety disorders. The course also examines developmental resilience, environments that place children at risk for poor outcomes, and prevention.
Motivation is the energy behind human actions. Can people control their own desires? How do emotions energize behavior? What satisfactions contribute to a happy life? These questions are of interest to psychologists studying human motivation. This course begins by examining basic biological motives, such as hunger and aggression, and progresses toward the study of more complex motivational phenomena such as curiosity, striving for success, and falling in love. By drawing from physiological, cognitive, social, and personality psychology, this course provides a unique opportunity to examine some of the most interesting questions in psychology from a variety of perspectives. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
To what degree does culture shape and constrain the development of human ability, thought, and behavior? What features of human behavior lie beyond culture's reach? In pursuing these questions, students study how sensorimotor, perceptual, emotional, cognitive, social, and personality development proceed in diverse cultural contexts. Theories of human development and the cross-cultural methodologies used to test them are critiqued in detail. Inquiry is framed by an understanding of cultural and biological evolution and incorporates readings from developmental and cross-cultural psychological science, and from anthropology and sociology. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Recommended: PSYC 309 is recommended. Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
An exploration of the psychological forces that give root to human dominance, hierarchy, and leadership. Guided by evolutionary, developmental, and cross-cultural perspectives, questions about social power and
Perhaps more than anything else, people think about other people- the people with whom they are close, those who shape conceptions of the self, motivate behavior, and produce strong emotional reactions. The field of social psychology is devoted to understanding how people feel about, think about, and interact with others. This advanced social psychology seminar offers a contemporary, in-depth exploration of different topic areas within the field of social psychology. Students investigate primary literature on some of the most vexing, provocative, and important issues of our time. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
Provides a survey of the psychology of prejudice and racism, the scientific study of human feeling, thinking, and behavior in situations involving conflict between groups. More broadly, the course examines the psychological factors that contribute to the perpetuation of inequality and discrimination. Students consider both proximate (immediate) influences on behavior, such as the immediate social situation, as well as distal (more remote) influences on behavior, such as human evolution. Both motivational approaches to understanding prejudice (e.g., explaining prejudice as a consequence of the desire for social dominance) as well as cognitive approaches (e.g., explaining prejudice as a byproduct of automatic associations people learn) are examined. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges or Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
Health psychologists seek to understand the relationships among psychological factors, behavior, and physical health. Topics covered in this course include the effects of stress, depression, and personality characteristics on people's susceptibility to and recovery from illness; the role of psychotherapy, social support, and meditation in helping people with chronic illnesses survive longer; and the significance of psychological factors in alternative medical treatments such as acupuncture. The course also considers in detail how the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems interact to mediate the relationship between psychological processes and physical health. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Cognitive neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field - drawing from chemistry, biology, medicine, neuroscience, psychology and philosophy - that explores the relationship between the mind and the brain. The scope of this course is broad, focusing on brain mechanisms for such diverse processes as sensation and perception, attention, memory, emotion, language, and consciousness. Students read primary journal articles on case studies from the clinical literature of patients with localized brain damage and reports from the experimental and neuroimaging literature on the effects of invasive and noninvasive manipulations in normal subjects. Mind-brain relationships are considered in the context of cognitive theories, evolutionary comparisons, and human development. Crosslisted: NEUR 375 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 376Functional Neuroanatomy1.00
In addition to exploring concepts of typical human neuroanatomy and neural development through a functional perspective, students also discuss these topics through the lens of atypical human neural development/developmental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, ataxia, visual impairment) and comparative biology across different animal species. Crosslisted: NEUR 376 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and BIOL 182 and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 377Psychopharmacology1.00
Discussion on the effects of drugs upon psychological processes and behavior in humans. Readings in the textbook treat the mechanisms of action (physiological and neurochemical) of various classes of drugs used in therapy or "on the street." Readings in professional journals illustrate the experimental study of drug effects in humans and in animals. Crosslisted: NEUR 377 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges or Quantitative and Algorithmic Reasoning Core Component: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 378Topics in Neuroscience
Courses in specific neuroscience topics offered by various staff members. Inquiries about the topics offered any given term should be directed to the coordinator of the Neuroscience Program. Credits: 1.0 Crosslisted: NEUR 378 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 379Fundamentals of Neurochemistry/Neuropharmacology1.00
Focuses on two diseases: relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and idiopathic Alzheimer's disease. The initial portion of the course examines the various methods neurochemists utilize to answer questions about these two diseases. The remainder of the course focuses on the epidemiological, neuroanatomical, cellular, biochemical, and molecular aspects of the two diseases. Multiple sclerosis is a more intercellular question examining the interaction of immune cells and the glia of the nervous system whereas Alzheimer's disease tends to focus more on intracellular mechanisms leading to the synthesis of beta-amyloid and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles, the two hallmarks of this disease. Crosslisted: NEUR 379 PSYC 200) Major/Minor Restrictions: None
(PSYC 275 or NEUR 170) and BIOL 182 and CHEM 263 and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or
Corequisite
PSYC 379L
PSYC 379LFundamentals of Neurochemistry/Neuropharmacology Lab
Required corequisite to PSYC 379. Credits: 0.00 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
An introduction which demonstrates that nature and nurture both play a fundamental role in the development of behavioral traits; and how genes interact with the environment to shape the development of various behavioral traits. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the studies in genetics, neuroscience, and behavior; with a comparative approach to explore human and other animal models; and cover the traditional behavioral genetic methodologies as well as modern molecular genetic techniques. Crosslisted: NEUR 381 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
(NEUR 170 or PSYC 275) and (NEUR 201 or NEUR 202 or PSYC 200)
Corequisite
None
PSYC 385Neuroethology1.00
Neuroethology is a sub-field of neuroscience focused on the study of the neural basis of natural behavior. Many types of behavior and a wide array of animals are studied, and the approach is often comparative and evolutionary. Students delve into the neuroethological literature, examining the neural basis of animal communication, navigation, movement, sensory processing, feeding, aggression, and learning. Crosslisted: BIOL 385 & NEUR 385 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Recommended: PSYC 309 or BIOL 220 Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Required corequisite to PSYC 385. Laboratory exercises teach methods of behavioral analysis and electrophysiological recording techniques. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
Psychological science majors plan and carry out one-term research projects under the guidance of faculty members in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department. For those who wish to be considered for honors or high honors, two-term thesis projects are required. Honors students may fulfill the requirement for two semesters of research by enrolling in PSYC 498 in the fall and PSYC 499 in the spring semester. On occasion, students who are not pursuing honors or high honors may complete two semesters of senior
Psychological science majors plan and carry out one-term research projects under the guidance of faculty members in the Psychological and Brain Science department. For those who wish to be considered for honors or high honors, two-term thesis projects are required. Honors students may fulfill the requirement for two semesters of research by enrolling in PSYC 498 in the fall and PSYC 499 in the spring semester. On occasion, students who are not pursuing honors or high honors may complete two semesters of senior research by taking PSYC 498 in the fall and PSYC 491 in the spring. With permission, PSYC 450, or PSYC 460, when offered, may be substituted for PSYC 498. Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Psychology, Psychological Science Majors and Minors Class Restriction: Only Senior Area of Inquiry: Natural Sciences & Mathematics Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None
