Psychology

Professor Elizabeth Rellinger Zettler
Associate Professor Alex Moore
Assistant Professor Yu-Hua Yeh
Instructor Sarah Seely
Part-time Instructor Megan Vant
Part-time Instructor Jodi Colbert

The general goals held by the Department of Psychology are to provide courses that give students a broad background, varieties of concepts, self-awareness, and self-understanding for the development of skills, tools, and knowledge for the understanding of behavior, especially human behavior. Basic language, concepts, theories, and symbols associated with the various fields of psychology are emphasized.

Students must earn at least a ‘C-’ (1.67) in each course counted towards the psychology major or minor.

Majors & Programs

Courses

PS 203: Careers in Psychology

A survey of topics designed to support the pursuit of a career within the field of Psychology, broadly speaking. Major topics include succeeding in the major, job prospects for students at different levels of education across subfields, and approaches that support career development.

PS 219: Social Psychology

A study of the psychological and sociological factors of interaction between individuals in social groups and collectives. 

PS 226: Introduction to Neuroscience and Behavior

An introduction to the physiological substrate of behavior. Topics include brain structure, function and development, sensory and motor systems and the brain basis for a variety of normal and abnormal human behaviors. Laboratory experiences included.

PS 235: Psychology through Films

Normal and psychopathological individuals as depicted in commercially produced films. An orientation toward an understanding of the behaviors and psychological dynamics that differentiate the normal from the psychopathological individual.

PS 243: Introduction to Research Methods and Statistics

An introduction to the research methods and statistical tools used in the psychological and related sciences. Topics include an introduction to some of the most commonly used research methods; defining, measuring, and manipulating variables; descriptive methods and statistics; correlational methods and statistics; probability, hypothesis testing, and inferential statistics; two-group experimental designs and inferential statistics (including t-tests, Wilcoxon and Chi-Square tests.)

PS 244: Advanced Research Methods and Statistics

A continuation of the methods and statistics covered in PS 243. Topics include experimental designs with more than two groups, or more complex designs with more than one manipulated variable (factorial design); One-Way and Two-Way ANOVAs; quasi-experimental designs; introduction to multiple regression; communication of research findings.

PS 255: Introduction to Counseling

This course in an overview of the field of counseling techniques, the importance of the therapeutic relationship and how to facilitate it, several different theories, types, and settings of psychotherapy/counseling, including those that treat individuals struggling with addiction, and research foundations of counseling. This course will also introduce students to an array of careers in the helping professions and have a major focus on cultural considerations and professional ethics as they relate to counseling and other critical interventions.

PS 261: Drugs, Behavior, and Neuropharmacology

A survey of the neural, pharmacological, and psychological mechanisms of psychoactive drugs. Major topics include principles of pharmacology, basic properties of neurotransmission/ neurophysiology, and physiological and psychological aspects of addiction. Psychotherapeutic drugs (e.g., for depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD), legal drugs of abuse (e.g., alcohol and nicotine), and illegal drugs of abuse (e.g., methamphetamine, opiates, Hallucinogens, club drugs) are surveyed. Attention is also given to drug development and regulations, the problem of drugs in the workplace and treatment options.

PS 274: Child Development for Educators

This class, designed for educators, takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of development across the early stages of the lifespan. There will be an emphasis on the interactions between genetic and environmental influences. The course covers prenatal development through the elementary school years. (Not open to students who have taken PS 275 or PS 276.)

PS 275: Child Development

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of development across the early stages of the lifespan with emphasis on genetic and environmental influences; includes prenatal development through the elementary school years. A prerequisite for PS 312, Adolescent Psychology. (Not open to students who have taken PS 276.)

PS 276: Lifespan Development

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of development across all stages of the lifespan with emphasis on genetic and environmental influences; includes prenatal development through death. (Not open to students who have taken PS 275.)

PS 278: Recreation and Environment

An overview of the interrelated issues in the psychology of recreation and in environmental psychology, including outdoor recreation and environmental values, self and cultural identities, and political and public policy issues related to recreation and our environment.

PS 286: Health Psychology

An introduction to scientific research and theory on the relationship between physical health and mental processes, emotion, and behavior. Topics include current research on stress and stress management, coping and illness, pain, heart disease, cancer, AIDS and health behaviors (e.g., smoking, diet, exercise).

PS 301: Industrial - Organizational Psychology

An in depth look at the principles of psychology as applied to all organizational settings. Course oriented towards student discovering how psychologists have improved the satisfaction, safety, and productivity of the work environment.

PS 312: Adolescent Psychology

An interdisciplinary study of adolescents. Focus is on how various social and psychological phenomena affect individuals within this age group.

PS 313: Learning

A study of the categories of learning, applicable to both humans and animals.

PS 316: Advanced Neuroscience

Advanced study of the brain. Topics include brain development, aging, plasticity, memory, and diseases/ disorders of the brain. Course readings and topics will vary depending upon the interests of the class. Common readings and discussions are paired with individualized study in the student’s areas of interest, culminating in a laboratory research project.

PS 322: Cognitive Psychology

A survey of theory and principles that reveal the nature of thought and mental processes engaged during thinking. Major topics include perception, attention, memory, language, neural function, and consciousness.

PS 327: Sensory and Motor Systems

A survey of all major senses (vision, hearing, balance, touch, taste, smell) and how we organize and interpret sensory information in the brain to understand the external world. Additional topics include principles of psychophysics; natural history of the senses; development and aging of the sensory systems; and the role of the senses in communication.

PS 330: Behavioral Genetics

An introduction to the theory and methodology of behavior genetic psychology. Includes twin and adoptive studies, family designs, and molecular genetic approaches to psychology.

PS 337: Aging and the Life Course

The behavior of animals as revealed by the ethological approach. Orientation, learning, social behavior, migration, and agnostic behavior. One two-hour laboratory period per week. 

PS 346: Abnormal Psychology

A study of the various patterns of mental, behavioral, and personality disorders. Major emphasis is on the diagnosis and understanding of the disorder. Pertinent legal issues are also discussed.

PS 355: Crisis Intervention & Counseling

This course is an overview of crisis intervention and counseling. Major theoretical models across a variety of settings, including settings that treat individuals struggling with addiction, will be examined. Topics include triage assessment, skills for identifying individuals in crisis and how to intervene using evidence-based approaches, cultural considerations including race and equity, and application of crisis intervention to various types of crises including suicide, grief, and loss, sexual assault, domestic violence, school violence, and natural disasters.

PS 356: Intro to Addictive Disorders

This course is an introduction to addictive disorders. Topics include historical perspectives of alcohol and other drug treatment, pharmacology of drugs, signs and symptoms associated with difference classifications of drugs, substance use disorder, withdrawal, and overdose/toxicity, substance use disorder treatment approaches, cultural considerations including focus on minorities, women, families, and adolescents, and professional ethics.

PS 357: Assessment & Treatment of Addiction

This course is focused on assessment, treatment, and prevention of addictive disorders. Topics include treatment delivery models, assessment/diagnosis of alcohol and other drug problems, how to make appropriate referrals, understanding and navigating rules, regulations, and professional ethics that govern alcohol and other drug treatment and cultural considerations including focus on minorities, women, family and adolescents.

PS 371: Therapies

An orientation toward the differential application and effectiveness of biological, individual, and group therapies in the treatment of psychopathological disturbances.

PS 391: Report Project

An individual directed investigation arranged with an instructor on a topic of mutual interest. Project requires a final report that includes a presentation of the problem, review of the literature, and a description of the specific procedures to be employed.

PS 455: AOD Practicum I

Clinical experience in an alcohol and other drug (AOD) setting to build skills and competencies in assessment/diagnosis and treatment. Total number of hours of credit may be 1-4 per semester. A total of 4 credits is required for completion of the Behavior Health Major capstone and/or CADC certificate.

PS 456: AOD Practicum I

Clinical experience in an alcohol and other drug (AOD) setting to build skills and competencies in assessment/diagnosis and treatment. Total number of hours of credit may be 1-4 per semester. A total of 4 credits is required for completion of the Behavior Health Major capstone and/or CADC certificate.

PS 543: Data Analysis & Statistics

A graduate level course for nursing that is offered asynchronously online. Topics include correlational designs, analyzing data in SPSS software, including correlations, regressions, and ANOVAs, and communication of research findings.