400

How is our understanding of psychology and human experience shaped by social and historical contexts? In this course students will learn how the human search for self-understanding and meaning is embedded in different theories, philosophies, and systems of psychology as a field of study. Students will also learn about how psychology intersects with broader notions of health, politics, law, culture, and justice. 

Examination of how therapeutic, illicit, and recreational drugs associate with human behavior. Topics may include historical and societal views of drug use, drugs in food, environmental toxins; theories of why drugs are used and reasons for prescribing psychoactive drugs; and the relationship between chemical processes occurring in the nervous system and behaviors including abuse and addiction.

Students will conduct research using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which may include interviews, focus groups, ethnography, observation, and/or survey questionnaires. Students will acquire the skills to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of research design choices of published articles before designing and writing an original mixed method research proposal which may be used for their senior thesis or capstone project. 

Students expand their understanding and application of research design, experimentation, measurement, and ethics. Students gain experience in developing, communicating and critiquing research from specialty areas within psychology. Students will learn to translate research questions into appropriate methods of investigation and will be able to evaluate evidence, synthesize findings and articulate limitations when exploring complex issues. 

Study of the nature of language, how humans use language, how humans learn language, the psychological factors in language use, and the neural basis of language. Students will study the knowledge and processes that underlie a person's ability to produce and understand language.

We negotiate every day at home, work, and play.  This course explores the psychology, art, and science of negotiations. The core of the course is a series of eleven simulations that allow students to experiment with negotiation techniques and develop as negotiators, learning through experience and feedback. Debriefings and discussions of negotiations and behavioral research complement the situations.

Judgments affect our choices ranging from what brand of cereal to whom to marry.  This course examines how we define rationality as well as cognitive, affective, and motivational processes that underlie how we encode and evaluate options. Students are expected to engage with primary sources in the course packet through written weekly responses, class discussion, and a final paper.

Explores relationships between cultural variables and human behavior. The development of cross cultural psychology and research methodologies used by cross cultural researchers in examined. Theories that reflect the cultural, social, and developmental perspectives on behavior are considered.

This course will engage psychological and sociological perspectives toward understanding sports and physical activity as both personal engagements and social phenomena. Topics will include sport-based youth development, mental health and physical activity, performance enhancement, and sport and social issues. The course will emphasize reflective, analytic, critical, and interdisciplinary perspectives based on engaging with scholarly readings and material.

This course introduces students to the field of gerontology. The course examines the aging process and its impact upon the individual, the family, and society. The course also covers various social, cultural, political, and economic issues for older adults in our society.

Introduction to group dynamics, contemporary models of group counseling, and the development of group skills.

This course is about child and youth development as embedded in social and cultural contexts. The particular emphasis will be on early childhood through the transition into adulthood, and on thinking about childhood and youth as social phenomena. The course is reading/discussion intensive and involves a community-based learning project.

This course examines theory, practice, and evaluation of interventions for children and youth across family, community, and institutional contexts. Students will critically analyze areas such as prevention, resilience, and positive youth development and develop specific skills through experiential practice laboratory sessions. Attention will be paid to effective and culturally appropriate programs and strategies for traditionally marginalized and oppressed populations.

This course provides an overview of death, dying, loss, grief, and bereavement from a personal and political perspective. We will explore grief as activism to advance healing and transformation on personal and societal levels. Historical and current examples of grief used in political action will be studied, drawing on social movements advancing racial justice, environmental justice, and queer LGBTQIA+ liberation.

Major theories which account for aggressive behavior or violence. Emphasis given to personality, social, biological, and environmental determinants of aggression and violence.

Review of major theories and techniques of psychotherapy; issues in the contemporary practice of psychotherapy.

Guided inquiry for superior students by arrangement with the psychology faculty.

Credit arranged.

Credit arranged.

Participate directly in the research process with a faculty member. Before enrolling a student must consult with a faculty member to define project.

How can knowledge, skills, and values in psychology be applied outside a classroom? This course involves learning through field experience in a social service organization, business, school, clinic, or other setting employing psychology broadly defined. Field experience is supplemented by a classroom seminar with reflective writing tasks, and is individually arranged by students in coordination with the instructor and relevant campus resources. 

This course is a senior capstone option for psychology majors in their final year of studies who have interests in applying psychological science in community-based settings. The course will integrate skills and concepts from the psychology major, and be oriented by a project related to mental health work, youth work/education, business, or other related areas of applied psychology. 

A capstone seminar for psychology majors designed to help the student integrate major contemporary psychological methods, theories, and research findings. Restricted to senior psychology majors.

Research, study, or original work under direction of a faculty mentor, leading to a scholarly thesis document with a public presentation of results. Requires approval of the thesis director (and department chair or director of the honors program when appropriate), along with a minimum 3.0 GPA in the major.