Psychology Classes

All are 4 credits, unless noted.

• PSY 201: Mind and Brain: Introduction to perception, memory, learning and cognition. Has a discussion section.
• PSY 202: Mind and Society: Introduction to topics in personality, social and developmental psychology. Has a discussion section.
• PSY 302: Statistical Methods in Psychology: Probability and statistics applied in psychological research. Topics include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, and design of experiments. Prereqs: MATH 111, PSY 201 and 202. Has a lab section.
• PSY 303: Research Methods in Psychology: Use of library and bibliographical methods, handling of survey data, coding, interviews, standardized tests and experiments. Prereqs: PSY 302. Has a lab section.
• PSY 304: Biopsychology: Relationships between brain and endocrine activity and behavior. Topics include sensation, perception, sexual behavior, drug effects, eating, drinking, sleeping, dreaming and learning. Has a lab.
• PSY 330: Thinking: Psychological methods involved in problem solving, complex learning, and various forms of rational and irrational reasoning and belief systems.
• PSY 375: Development: Survey of social, intellectual and personality development.
• Psychology of Gender: Critical analysis of evidence for sex differences, gender roles, and the effect of gender on traditional issues in psychology. Topics include parenthood, violence, and sexual orientation.
• PSY 383: Psychoactive Drugs: Physiological and behavioral effects of psychoactive drugs such as alcohol, opiates, barbiturates, and excitants. The psychology of use and overuse; therapies for correcting drug problems.
• PSY 388: Human Sexuality: The nature of human sexuality; hormonal, instinctual, and learned factors in sexuality; psychosexual development; sexual orientation; frequency and significance of various types of sexual behavior; sexual inadequacy; sexual deviation.
• PSY 412: Applied Data Analysis: Intermediate-level practical data analysis and interpretation. Topics include experimental design. analysis of variance, multiple regression, exploratory date analysis. Extensive computer use. Prereq: PSY 303 or instructor's consent.
• PSY 420: Psychology and Law: Introduction to topics of concern to both psychology and the law. Includes eyewitness identification, legal decision-making, criminal defenses, profiling, polygraphs, and mental-health law. Prereq: 302, 303 or Instructor's consent.
• PSY 430: Cognitive Science with Lab: Psychological approaches to topics in mental representation, language, and other mental processes. Taught in a laboratory environment; includes experiments and simulations of human information processing. Prereqs: PSY 302, 303
• PSY 433: Learning and Memory: Processes underlying learning and memory, including evolution. Topics range from simple forms of behavior change to the acquisition, retention, forgetting and retrieval
• PSY 435: Cognition: Issues of memory; coding for storage, control processes for storage; attention and cognitive control; analysis of more complex cognitive tasks; approaches to problem solving. Prereq: PSY 302, 303
• PSY 436: Human Performance: Motor and intellectual capacities; analysis of the flow of information within the nervous system; applications of performance principles to human-machine systems. Prereq: PSY 302,303
• PSY 438: Perception: Topics covered are color, size, shape, depth, distance, and movement. Examines the relationships between stimuli and perception, stimuli and the neural response, and the neural response and perception. Prereq: PSY 302, 303
• PSY 440: Psycholinguistics: Processes and structures underlying language use. Methods of studying language processing. Relationships between psycholinguistic data and observations from linguistics and neurophysiology. Prereq: 302,303
• PSY 445: Brain Mechanisms of Behavior: Organization of the mammalian brain. Structure and function of the neuronal systems underlying vision, perception, motivation, coordinated movement, sleep-wakefulness, learning and memory, and affective disorders. Prereq: 302,303,304
• PSY 449: Human Neuropsychology: Integrative neural mechanisms of normal and abnormal processes in systems (e.g. selective attention, language, memory, object recognition, and emotion). Prereq: 302,303,304
• PSY 450: Hormones and Behavior: Relationships among the brain, endocrine systems, and behavior. Developmental effects of hormones on the brain, puberty, sexuality, aggression, stress. Prereq: PSY 302,303
• PSY 456: Social Psychology: Processes underlying social perception and social interaction. Topics include aggression, the self-concept, stereotyping and prejudice, conformity, persuasion, attraction and helping. Prereq: PSY 302, 303
• PSY 457: Group Dynamics: Topics in small-group dynamics, including decision-making, conflict, and changes over time in group structure and behavior. Prereq: 302,303, 456
• PSY 458: Decision Making: Psychological processes involved in judgment and decision making. Normative theories of ideal behavior contrasted with descriptive analysis of actual behavior. Prereq: PSY 302,303.
• PSY 459: Cultural Psychology: Examination of the interdependence between mind and culture in various substantive domains such as social inference, motivation, emotion and psychopathology. Prereq: PSY302,303.
• PSY 460: Advanced Social Psychology: Selects a specific topic of inquiry from social psychology (eg. person perception, self-concept, empathy) and examines research and debates on the topic. Prereq: PSY 302,303
• PSY 468: Motivation and Emotion: Adaptive human behavior; considers biological processes involved in emotions, how emotions interact with cognition, and social influences. Prereq: PSY 302,303
• PSY 469: Psychopathology: Major descriptive and theoretical approaches to etiological, developmental, and social factors in emotion and personality disorders. Includes assessment, diagnosis, treatment and special topics. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 470: Psychological Assessment: Application of psychological methods to the study of the individual; rationale of test construction and interpretation; problems in the prediction of human behavior; psychological assessment techniques. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 471: Personality: Theory and methods for studying human traits, including personality measures and tests; studies of age, gender and culture. Current research in personality. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 473: Marital and Family Therapies: Behavioral basis of dyadic interaction; adult intimacy and love relationships. Clinical-counseling approaches: assessment, marital therapies, and evaluation. Models of marital adjustment and assessment of interpersonal relationships. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 475: Cognitive Development: Intellectual development in children from infancy to adolescence with a focus on early childhood. Topics covered include perception, attention, memory, reasoning, conceptual structure, social cognition. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 476: Language Acquisition: How children acquire language from the earliest speech sounds to full sentences. Topics covered include babbling, first words, word combinations, the relationship between cognition and language development. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 478: Theoretical issues and empirical studies of social-emotional development. Topics may include attachment, temperament, moral development, family interaction, self-image, aggression, and sex-role development. Prereq: 302, 303
• PSY 480: Biological and environmental factors that shape normal and abnormal development. Analysis of how family functioning affects psychopathology and resilience in children and adolescents. Prereq: 302, 303