Arts and Sciences Learning Objectives

Preparing undergraduate and graduate students to ask and answer science-based questions about human and animal behavior by introducing students to the data, theories, and research methods from different fields of psychology - biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and social

Upon completing a Psychology major, students will be able to:

1. Understand core psychological concepts and processes such as evidence, hypothetical constructs, operational definitions, and inferences.
    
2. Critically examine theories and empirical findings in at least two subfields of psychology (biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and social).
    
3. Compare, contrast, and synthesize empirical and theoretical perspectives related to the study of behavior and thought using evidence-based reasoning.
    
4. Read and critically evaluate original journal articles related to psychological topics.
    
5. Apply theoretical models of behavior and thought to real life settings and skills (e.g., clinical, educational, organizational context)
    
6. Become familiar with American Psychological Association (APA) ethics guidelines.
    
7. Gain experience with submitting research proposals to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
    
8. Initiate, design, implement, control, and analyze original empirical research studies on relevant psychological issues.
    
9. Show competence in basic quantitative and analytic methods used for scientific investigation in psychology. This involves learning the assumptions and use of these basic statistical analyses: probability, tests of frequency, correlation, t-tests, ANOVA.
    
10. Gain oral and visual communication skills for reporting empirical research findings.
     
11. Develop writing, graphic, and verbal skills to communicate empirical data in an appropriate scientific format (APA format being the preferred mode).