Psychology

Professor Elizabeth Rellinger Zettler
Professor Jeremy Turner
Assistant Professor Alex Moore
Assistant Professor Clarissa Richardson
Visiting Assistant Professor Amanda Henton
Visiting Assistant Professor Loretta McKenzie
Part-time Instructor Angela Grobelnik Zentgraf

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 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 261: Neuropharmacology: Drugs and Behavior

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 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 282: Social Psychology

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

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 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 329: Advanced Neuroscience

Advanced Study of the brain. Topics included 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 area of interest, culminating in a laboratory research project.

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 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 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.