Psychological Science

Undergraduate Courses

ENV 2500. Psychology for Sustainability

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course applies psychological theory and research to understand the causes of human behavior that degrades natural systems and to identify and promote more sustainable actions and policies. Topics will include: social dilemmas and cognitive limitations as root causes of environmental problems; psychological methods for studying sustainability; the potential for and limitations of changing individual environmental cognition and behavior; environmental knowledge, attitudes, and values; motivations for sustainable behavior; and the relationship between environmental quality and human health and mental health. Students will gain experience applying social and cognitive behavior change strategies to reduce their own environmental impact.
Students may not receive credit for both ENV 2400 and ENV 2500/PSY 2500.
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

GOV 3000. Psychology and Law

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
How does the courtroom work and where does psychology come into play? Is it really innocent until proven guilty? Do people confess to crimes they never committed? How accurate are eyewitnesses? In this course, we will discuss and examine questions like these and many more. This course examines empirical research in the interface of psychology and law. We will learn about standard practices in the criminal justice system and empirical psychological research devoted to understanding these practices. As a discussion-based course, we will tackle topics such as: courtroom procedures, confessions, death penalty, deception, decision making, deliberations, eyewitnesses, expert testimony, jury selection, memory, police, and pretrial publicity. We will also explore how and when psychologists can impact legal guidelines and policies.
This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

MU 2501. Music and Mind

Cat I (offered at least 1x per Year).
How are we able to distinguish instruments, timbres and rhythms from the intertwined sonic stream presented by the world? How do we organize these elements in time to create rhythms, melodies, phrases and pieces? How do perception and memory interact to allow us navigate a musical work? We will explore these questions by considering the cognitive and perceptual processes that shape our musical experience. Topics will include event distinction, temporal perception, hierarchical organization, perceptual grouping, expertise, memory and categorization. We will illustrate these ideas in musical contexts by listening to a variety of musical works. We will consider how psychological principles are applied to music technologies, such as compression algorithms, mixing methodologies and the field of music information retrieval. We will consider experiments that focus on some of these topics to further our understanding about how we experience music. Note: Students that received credit for MU 202X may not receive credit for MU 2501. Students also may not receive credit for both MU 2501 and PSY 2501. This course can count for either the HUA or the SSPS requirement, but it cannot double count for both the HUA and SSPS graduation requirements.

PSY 1400. Introduction to Psychological Science

Cat I (offered at least 1x per Year).
Psychological science is the experimental study of human thought and behavior. Its goal is to contribute to human welfare by developing an understanding of why people do what they do. Experimental psychologists study the entire range of human experience, from infancy until death, from the most abnormal behavior to the most mundane, from the behavior of neurons to the actions of nations. This course offers a broad introduction to important theories, empirical findings, and applications of research in psychological science. Topics will include: use of the scientific method in psychology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral genetics, the anatomy and function of the brain and nervous system, learning, sensation and perception, memory, consciousness, language, intelligence and thinking, life-span development, social cognition and behavior, motivation and emotion, and the nature and treatment of psychological disorders.

PSY 1401. Cognitive Psychology

Cat I (offered at least 1x per Year).
This course is concerned with understanding and explaining the mental processes and strategies underlying human behavior. The ways in which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, and recovered will be examined in order to develop a picture of the human mind as an active processor of information. Topics will include perception, memory, problem-solving, judgment and decision making, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. Special attention will be paid to defining the limitations of the human cognitive system. Students will undertake a project which employs one of the experimental techniques of cognitive psychology to collect and analyze data on a topic of their own choosing.

PSY 1402. Social Psychology

Cat I (offered at least 1x per Year).
Social psychology is concerned with how people think about, feel for, and act toward other people. Social psychologists study how people interact by focusing on the individual (not society as a whole) as the unit of analysis, by emphasizing the effect on the individual of the situation or circumstances in which behavior occurs, and by acquiring knowledge through empirical scientific investigation. This course will examine the cause of human behavior in a variety of domains of social life. Topics will include, but not be limited to, person perception, attitude formation and change, interpersonal attraction, stereotyping and prejudice, and small group behavior. Special attention will be given to applied topics: How can the research methods of social psychology be used to help solve social problems? Students will work together in small groups to explore in depth topics in social psychology of their own choosing.

PSY 1404. Developmental Psychology

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course surveys human development from conception to death, with an emphasis on the scientific analysis of developmental patterns. The course will cover the biological, cognitive, emotional, social, personality, linguistic, and moral development of the individual at all stages. Students may not receive credit for PSY140X and PSY 1404. Students may not receive credit for both PSY 140X and PSY 1404. Some sections of this course may be offered as Writing Intensive (WI).

PSY 1412. Mental Health

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course will introduce the wide variety of psychological disorders that exist in society (personality, anxiety, mood, psychotic, etc.). For each disorder discussed, possible causes, symptoms, preventions, and treatments will be examined. The course will cover psychopathologies throughout the entire spectrum of the lifespan (infancy to adulthood). Empirical research on understanding, diagnosing, and treating the different disorders will be emphasized.

PSY 1504. Strategies for Improving Cognitive Skills

Cat I (offered at least 1x per Year).
Life experience provides us with little insight into the basic workings of our own minds. As a result, we tend to approach many of the important problems and decisions of our professional and personal lives with only a dim awareness of the limitations and capabilities of the human cognitive system and how its performance can be improved. The purpose of this course is (1) to provide students with the basic psychological knowledge needed to understand and evaluate such important cognitive skills as memory, problem solving, decision making, and reasoning and (2) to provide students the practical skills and experience necessary to improve and assess their cognitive performance. Topics will include but not be limited to memory improvement, study skills, effective problem solving techniques, creativity, numeracy, making effective choices, risky decision making, dynamic decision making, intelligent criticism of assumptions and arguments, and evaluating claims about the mind.

PSY 1800. Special Topics in Psychological Science

Cat III (offered at discretion of dept/prgm).
This course provides an opportunity for students with little to no background in psychological science to learn about a special topic within Psychological Science. This course may be repeated for different topics.

PSY 2401. The Psychology of Education

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course is concerned with the learning of persons in educational settings from pre-school through college. Material in the course will be organized into five units covering a wide range of topics: Unit 1: Understanding Student Characteristics - Cognitive, Personality, Social, and Moral Development; Unit 2: Understanding the Learning Process - Behavioral, Humanistic, and Cognitive Theories of Learning; Unit 3: Understanding Motivation to Learn; Unit 4: Understanding Student Diversity - Cultural, Economic, and Gender Effects upon Learning; Unit 5: Evaluating Student Learning - Standardized Tests, Intelligence, Grades, and other Assessment Issues. Students planning IQPs in educational settings will find this course particularly useful. Instructional methods will include: lecture, discussion, demonstration, and project work. Course will also focus on current issues in technological education and international higher education. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

PSY 2406. Cross-Cultural Psychology: Human Behavior in Global Perspective

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course is an introduction to the study of the ways in which social and cultural forces shape human behavior. Cross-Cultural psychology takes a global perspective of human behavior that acknowledges both the uniqueness and interdependence of peoples of the world. Traditional topics of psychology (learning, cognition, personality development) as well as topics central to social psychology, such as intergroup relations and the impact of changing cultural settings, will be explored. Cultural influences on technology development and transfer, as they relate to and impact upon individual behavior, will also be investigated. Students preparing to work at international project centers, International Scholars, and students interested in the global aspects of science and technology will find the material presented in this course especially useful. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter.

PSY 2407. Psychology of Gender

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
This course will provide an overview of the psychological study of gender and will utilize psychological research and theory to examine the influence of gender on the lives of men and women. This course will examine questions such as: What does it mean to be male or female in our society and other societies? How do our constructs of gender develop over our life span? How does our social world (e.g., culture, religion, media) play a role in our construction of gender? and What are the psychological and behavioral differences and similarities between men and women? This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter.

PSY 2408. Health Psychology

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
In h ealth psychology, we will review global and domestic health-related problems to discuss the links between health and psychology and discuss potential interventions. Health psychology is interdisciplinary in nature and relevant to students interested in health-related topics whether from a psychological, biological, biomedical, global, or preventative measures. Major health problems will be discussed: for example, AIDS is the number one cause of death worldwide; obesity (in children and adults) is a growing epidemic; the aging U.S. population will cause unprecedented health needs. Finally, stress infiltrates chronic health outcomes such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. We will also review what positive health means including nutrition, exercise, social support, managing stress, and habits for maintaining good health. Students will engage in research-based learning when considering psychological, cultural, and biological interventions for real world health crises.

PSY 2410. School Psychology

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
School psychology focuses on understanding children and adolescents mental health, behavioral health and learning needs in order to work with educators and parents to help students succeed academically and socially. This course will provide an overview of the field of school psychology, drawing from educational, developmental, and cognitive research. Students will critically examine the theoretical, methodological, and practical approaches to understanding how in and out of school interventions and contexts influence the academic, social, and emotional development of children. Topics will include school readiness and transitions, behavioral and self-regulatory skills, socio-cultural diversity and skill gaps, assessment tools and classification, teacher-child interactions, and school- based interventions that promote positive development. This course differs from PSY 2401: They Psychology of Education in that it focuses on school systems rather than education more broadly. Students planning IQPs in educational settings will find this course particularly useful.

PSY 2504. Human Sexuality

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
Do women have less sexual arousal than men? How do religion, laws, and public policies influence perceptions of sex? What effects does pornography have on sexual attitudes and behaviors? How widespread is sexual and domestic violence? In this class, we will explore questions relating to our sexuality. Human sexuality is the study of the biological, evolutionary, social, cultural, and political perspectives relating to sex and the meaning behind masculinity, femininity, and asexual or genderqueer. We will discuss topics such as: gender roles, transgender, sexual orientation, the anatomy and physiology of the act of sex, relationships, sexual aggression, pornography, contraception, pregnancy, abortion, sexuality and aging, and the role of religion, law, policies, and cultural. We will think about how our sexuality influences how we think and act in the world around us. We will examine sexuality within the United States and throughout the world. This course is designed to increase awareness and sensitivity to sexuality and issues relating to it. Discussions in class will be candid and on sensitive and controversial topics.

PSY 2800. Special Topics in Psychological Science

Cat III (offered at discretion of dept/prgm).
This course provides an opportunity for students with some background and interest in psychological science to learn about a special topic within Psychological Science. This course may be repeated for different topics.

PSY 2900. Introduction to Research in Psychological Science

This course provides an opportunity for students learn how to conduct psychological research in a research laboratory in psychological sciences. This course may be repeated for credit.

PSY 3400. Survey Design and Methodology

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
Surveys are everywhere. But good surveys based on sound social science are rare. Conducting a successful survey requires familiarity with the methods and techniques developed by psychologists and other social scientists through long experience to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and validity of survey data. This course will focus on the common mistakes of first time survey researchers and ways to avoid them. Topics covered will include alternatives to survey research, sampling, response rates, questionnaire design and implementation, question wording, pretesting, ethical issues in survey research, and communicating survey results. Special attention will be given to issues related to the use of on-line survey platforms. During the course students will be guided through the development, implementation, and analysis of a survey on a topic of their own choosing.
This course is an appropriate methodology course for psychology and other social science majors and can also be taken by students of all majors as preparation for a survey-based IQP or MQP.
Students who completed PSY 340X cannot receive credit for PSY 3400.
This course will be offered in 2022-23 and in alternate years thereafter.

PSY 3500. Experimental Design and Analysis

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
In this course, students will learn about different processes used when designing experiments. In addition, they will learn about different analyses that can be used based on different experimental designs. Students will design and run a simple experiment in the course. In addition, students will analyze the data and present their findings. Topics covered in the course include experimental design, experimental methods, ethical issues related to human participants research, use of statistical analyses and programs to analyze data, and hypothesis testing. Students may not receive credit for both SS 2400 and PSY 3500. This course will be offered in 2021-22 and in alternate years thereafter.

PSY 3800. Special Topics in Psychological Science

Cat III (offered at discretion of dept/prgm).
This course provides an opportunity for students with a solid background and interest in psychological science to learn about a special topic within Psychological Science. This course may be repeated for different topics.

PSY 3900. Research in Psychological Science

This course provides an opportunity for students to conduct psychological research in a research laboratory in psychological sciences. This course may be repeated for credit.

PSY 4110. Psychophysiology

Cat II (offered at least every other Year).
The field of Psychophysiology seeks to answer two key questions: (1) How do psychological factors like our feelings, attitudes, relationships, behaviors, and social environments get under the skin to affect our physiology? (2) How can we infer someones psychological state based on a physiological measurement? For instance, how do different stimuli affect our heart rate? And in turn, if someones heart is beating faster, might we infer that they are nervous or that they are excited? In this course, we will cover fundamental stress physiology (e.g., the nervous system, neuroendocrinology, the immunity system etc.), advanced methodologies for assessing psychophysiological constructs (e.g., electromyography, neuroimaging, biospecimens), and both foundational and emerging findings from the field. Ultimately, this course will teach students to make strong inferences about the links between the psychological experience and the bodys physiological reactivity and to understand the broader implications of these links.
Note: Students may not receive credit for both PSY2502 and PSY4110.
This course will be offered in 2021-22 and in alternate years thereafter.

PSY 4800. Special Topics in Psychological Science

Cat III (offered at discretion of dept/prgm).
This course provides an opportunity for students with a strong background and interest in psychological science to learn about a special topic within Psychological Science. This course may be repeated for different topics.

PSY 4900. Advanced Research in Psychological Science

This course provides an opportunity for students to conduct advanced psychological research in a research laboratory in psychological sciences. This course may be repeated for credit.

Graduate Courses

PSY 501. Foundations of the Learning Sciences

This course covers readings that represent the foundation of the learning sciences, including: Foundations (Constructivism, Cognitive Apprenticeship, & Situated Learning); Approaches (Project-based Learning, Model-based reasoning, Cognitive Tutors); and Scaling up educational interventions. The goal of this course is for students to develop an understanding of the foundations and approaches to the Learning Sciences so that they can both critically read current literature, as well as build on it in their own research.

PSY 502. Learning Environments in Education

In this class, students will read and review both classic and critical current journal articles about learning technologies developed in the Learning Sciences. This course is designed to educate students on current technological approaches to curricular design, implementation, and research in the Learning Sciences.

PSY 503. Research Methods for the Learning Sciences

This course covers research methods used in the Learning Sciences. Students will gain expertise and understanding of think-aloud studies, cognitive task analysis, quantitative and qualitative field observations, log file analysis, psychometric, cognitive, and machine-learning based modeling, the automated administration of measures by computer, and issues of validity, reliability, and statistical inference specific to these methods. Students will learn how and when to apply a variety of methods relevant to formative, performance, and summative assessment in both laboratory and field settings. Readings will be drawn primarily from original source materials (e.g. journal articles and academic book chapters), in combination with relevant textbook chapters.

PSY 504. Meta-Cognition, Motivation, and Affect

This course covers three key types of constructs that significantly impact learning and performance in real-world settings, including but not limited to educational settings. Students will gain understanding of the main theoretical frameworks, and major empirical results, that relate individuals meta-cognition, motivation, and affect to real-world outcomes, both in educational settings and other areas of life. Students will learn how theories and findings in these domains can be concretely used to improve instruction and performance, and complete final projects that require applying research in these areas to real-world problems. Students will do critical readings on research on this topic.

PSY 505. Advanced Methods and Analysis for the Learning and Social Sciences

This course covers advanced methods and analysis for the learning and social sciences, focusing on contemporary modeling and inference methods for the types of data generated in these forms of research. This course will enable students to choose, utilize, and make inferences from analytical metrics that are appropriate and/ or characteristic to these domains, properly accounting for the characteristic forms of structure found in data typically collected for research in the learning and social sciences. Some of the topics covered will include ROC analysis and the use of A for assessing student models, learning curve and learning factor analysis, social network and dyad analysis, and appropriate methods for tracking student learning and behavior in longitudinal data. Readings will be drawn from original source materials (e.g. journal articles and academic book chapters).

PSY 506. Learning and Creativity

This course will cover selected topics related to learning and creativity including measurement, memory, semantic networks, sleep, analogies, problem-solving, divergent thinking, and insight moments. Students will critically review journal articles and other forms of media to gain a better understanding of the processes involved in learning and creative cognition. Students will also learn about prominent theories of learning and creativity and identify ways to utilize these frameworks to improve education and student experiences in the classroom.

PSY 507. Applied Multi-Level Modeling

The purpose of this course is to examine current issues in learning sciences and education and introduce students to the analysis of nested data structures (e.g., students within classrooms). Longitudinal or repeated measures data can also be thought of as clustered data with measurement occasions nested within subjects. This course will focus on understanding the hierarchical (generalized) linear models and their assumptions, as well as practical aspects of developing models to address research questions and interpreting the findings. This course emphasizes practical, hands-on development, analysis and interpretation of hierarchical linear models. Readings will be drawn from book chapters on multilevel modeling and journal articles that utilize national longitudinal data sets to answer questions about student learning. The lab portion of this course will provide students with opportunities to learn and apply hierarchical linear modeling, mediation, and moderation to longitudinal data using two computer programs (HLM and SPSS). Students who received credit for SS 590: Applied Multi-Level Modeling in 2018 or 2015 cannot also take PSY 507 for credit.

PSY 590. Special Topics in Psychological Science

(1-3 credits) This course provides an opportunity for graduate students to learn about a special topic within Psychological Science. This course may be repeated for different topics.