Introduction to the field of psychology. Provides a survey of basic concepts, theories, and research methods. Topics include: thinking critically with psychological science; neuroscience and behavior; sensation and perception; learning; memory; thinking, language, and intelligence; motivation and emotion; personality; psychological disorders and therapy; and social psychology.

This course will serve as an advanced research methods course in psychology, and will build on the foundational knowledge presented in Research Methods I. Topics and tasks for this course include designing single and multi-factor experiments, interpreting correlational research, completing statistical analyses appropriate to design, completing and analyzing an IRB application, understanding observational and survey research, and presenting results in APA style. This is a required course for all psychology majors, and is restricted to students in the psychology program.

This professional development course is intended for students in the psychology major to prepare for their careers. Topics include identifying career interests and values, learning how to effectively search for co-ops and jobs, preparing a resume and CV, identifying appropriate graduate programs, preparing graduate school applications, interview skills, and professional communication. Students will use career-planning resources such as the Psychology Career Center on campus and the Psychology Career Center community site on myCourses. This course is required for students majoring in Psychology.

This course is intended for students in the psychology major to demonstrate experimental research expertise, while being guided by faculty advisors. The topic to be studied is up to the student, who must find a faculty advisor before signing up for the course. Students will be supervised by the advisor as they conduct their literature review, develop the research question or hypothesis, develop the study methodology and materials, construct all necessary IRB materials, run subjects, and analyze the results of their study. This course will culminate in an APA style paper and poster presentation reporting the results of the research. Because Senior Project is the culmination of a student’s scientific research learning experience in the psychology major, it is expected that the project will be somewhat novel, will extend the theoretical understanding of their previous work (or of the previous work of another researcher), and go well beyond any similar projects that they might have done in any of their previous courses.

This course reviews descriptive and inferential statistics. Basic and advanced conceptual material will be presented to assist students in their understanding of diverse data analytic methods, their appropriate application, and how to interpret statistical analyses. Topics include one- and two-sample inferential procedures, interval estimation, correlation, nonparametric tests, linear regression, and analysis of variance. Students will learn to integrate concepts with computer applications. Course content will be taught through lectures, discussion, and applied data analysis exercises. Student mastery of the material will be evaluated through small group discussion of data set analyses, written results of the analyses following APA style, and two exams.

This course explores various types of applied research methods as well as important methodological issues and concepts in areas of applied psychology. Methodologies studied include experimentation, quasi-experimentation, content analysis, surveys, and interviews. Methodological issues cover research ethics, reliability, threats to internal and external validity, demand characteristics, volunteer participant problems, and issues in sampling.

The Thesis courses will vary widely but will fulfill the work plan agreed by the student and the adviser. The guiding principles of the Thesis Proposal course are to initiate thesis research including selecting a thesis advisor, choosing and defining a topic, surveying relevant research literature, and planning the research. To complete the course, the student will successfully submit and defend a thesis proposal, which is a detailed and complete plan of the thesis research. The thesis proposal should include exhaustive review of relevant literature, statement of the student's thesis, formulation of hypotheses, operational definitions of independent and dependent variables, and a detailed procedure for carrying out the research. The proposal may also include a section on anticipated results with a detailed plan for analysis of data.