Psychology Major

Program Requirements

Students must complete a minimum of 10 psychology courses and at least 32 semester hours. Interim courses are not accepted toward the major.

• PSYC 151 - Introductory Psychology: Perspectives on the Self
• PSYC 255 - Statistics and Research Design
• PSYC 256 - Fundamentals of Research and Practice
• PSYC 399 - Psychology and Religion
• Completion of psychology department assessment test

Total Semester Hours: At Least 32

Students must maintain a 2.0 in psychology courses in order to graduate with a major or minor in psychology. Due to overlapping content, students may NOT take both PSYC 201  and PSYC 208 . Majors should typically take PSYC 208 . PSYC 201  is intended for non-majors in the pre-health professions (e.g., medical school, nursing, PT, OT). Psychology majors who are also ministry minors are advised to take PSYC 201 /PSYC 202  OR PSYC 208 /PSYC 202 .

Students should ordinarily take PSYC 255  during their sophomore year and PSYC 256  in the semester following completion of PSYC 255 . Students may not take PSYC 255  and PSYC 256  simultaneously.

When possible, students are encouraged to postpone taking courses numbered 330 or above until after the completion of PSYC 256 . PSYC 399  is a course that may be taken when the student has completed a majority of the psychology courses required for the psychology major.

Students intending to do doctoral work in psychology are strongly encouraged to take PSYC 356  during their junior or senior year and to include courses from all three of the knowledge domains (see previous) in their program of study. When selecting courses, students are encouraged to follow the recommended four-year plan for the general Psychology major or the plan for majors with a neuroscience concentration. These plans are included in the department handbook (available in the Psychology office) and posted on the department website.

All majors must complete the Psychology department senior assessment during their last semester on campus. Information on the senior assessment is available from the Psychology department office.

Bachelor of Science Degree

Students can choose to get a Bachelor of Science degree (BS) rather than the Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) if they meet all the psychology major requirements and also meet the following additional requirements:

• The student has completed at least 58 semester hours in the sciences. This includes astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, the earth sciences, engineering, mathematics, physics, & psychology. The 32 semester hours for the psychology major counts toward this.
• At least 12 of the 58 hours must be from outside the psychology department.