Psych 1 (or Psych 1 Honors)
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Differentiate among various subfields of psychology.
- Identify the primary research methods employed in the study of psychology.
- Identify the primary objectives (goals) of psychology.
- Demonstrate knowledge of ethical principles and limitations of research in psychology.
- Critically evaluate sources of information in the field of psychology, including research articles published in major psychological journals.
Psych 2 (or Psych 2 Honors)
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Effectively use the APA style in writing research reports.
- Successfully perform a literature search using the PsycArticles database and the Internet to find articles and information about various topics in psychology that are published in major psychological journals.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the role of ethics in performing research with human participants and the ability to differentiate between ethical and unethical research practices.
- Recognize the importance of the use of statistical analyses and the reporting of statistical results in research publications.
- Evaluate the advantages and limitations of different research methods used in psychological research.
Psych 3
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of psychological theory regarding the relationship between physiology, cognition, and emotion.
- Identify the lobes of the cortex and their major functions.
- Differentiate between several measures of brain activity used in biopsychological research.
- Identify the underlying causes of neurological and mental disorders.
- Describe the action potential.
- Describe how communication takes place between neurons.
Psych 4
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the historical basis of how cognitive psychology was formed as a branch of general psychology.
- Distinguish the major theoretical objectives of cognitive psychology from that of other subdisciplines in the field of psychology.
- Identify and describe the goals of the subareas of study within cognitive psychology.
- Critically evaluate sources of information in the field of cognitive psychology.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the research processes that have culminated in past and current knowledge in the field of cognitive psychology.
Psych 5
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand and apply the different psychological theories to the study of human sexual behavior.
- Integrate the interaction of the biological bases of human sexuality with the psychological and historical influences in our society.
- Trace the development of human sexuality from childhood to old age.
- Compare the variations in sexuality found across social classes, ethnic groups, and other species.
Psych 7
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the various theories in developmental psychology.
- List and evaluate the differences between the various methods of investigation used in developmental studies.
- Describe the processes of heredity, human reproduction, and prenatal development.
- Identify and evaluate factors affecting the physical, social, emotional, psychological, and intellectual development of children and adolescents.
- Apply theories and scientific terms to real life situations or case studies involving children and adolescents.
Psych 16
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify the ways in which culture, ethnicity, race, gender and sex have been used to explain diversity among groups and populations in the U.S. and the world.
- Explain the psychological influences of culture on basic psychological processes, social and human development, social cognition, and social interaction.
- Analyze contemporary theories of psychology relative to culture.
- Critically evaluate scientific literature examining culture, ethnic, sex, and gender differences on psychological factors.
- Describe and apply skills that enhance cross-cultural communication, interactions, and relationships.
- Demonstrate an awareness of their own and others’ culture and world views.
Psych 21
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:
- Analyze the process by which psychologists conduct research and identify where gender bias may enter the research process.
- Identify the biological determinants of gender, and evaluate their relative contributions to gender identity in comparison to the role of psycho-social factors.
- Discuss recent research on mood changes over the menstrual cycle and during the postpartum period, and assess the relative roles of hormones and culture in relation to these changes.
- Identify the treatment of the genders by the media, in advertisements and in language.
- Compare and contrast the similarities among the following types of victimization: rape, battering, sexual harassment and incest; propose solutions to these problems.
- Compare and contrast theories of how gender identity develops.
Psych 25 (previously Psych 125)
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Distinguish the different types of aging, and what causes these different types of aging.
- Understand the theoretical and methodological issues that researchers face in studying older adults.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the psychological changes that some older adults in later life experience including depression and anxiety.
- Demonstrate understanding of the cognitive functioning and intelligence of older adults.
- Know the different physiological changes, and the current top causes of death.
- Apply the social issues that older adults are currently facing and how these will affect their overall well being.
- Understand the different types of stressors that older adults face, and how older adults cope with these stressors.
- Demonstrate knowledge of what happens during retirement and the living arrangement options that older adults have after retirement.
- Be proficient in understanding the different social support theories and how relationships change in later life.
Psych 30
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Define conformity and distinguish between the primary forms of conformity (i.e., compliance, acceptance, and obedience).
- Recognize the biases that influence clinical judgment.
- Describe how our everyday language suggests bias.
- Identify social facilitation and describe the misleading nature of the term.
- Define the bystander effect and identify the situational variables that promote it.
- Identify the role of social influence, the actual, imagined or implied presence of others' effects, on behavior in different situations.
Psych 33
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Analyze and explain the major theories of personality.
- Analyze and explain the major theories of human motivation.
- Apply principles of adjustment to major life transitions.
- Critique approaches to adjustment.
- Recognize and define problems associated with intimacy and human relationships.
Psych 37
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Compare and contrast biological, psychological, family, and social views of the causes and treatment of abnormal behavior.
- Identify and compare major scientific methods for gathering and analyzing information to describe abnormal behavior.
- Identify the difference between organic and functional disorders.
- List and/or recognize the characteristics of specific anxiety, somatoform, mood, eating, sleep, sexual-identity, substance abuse, personality, schizophrenic and cognitive disorders.
- Recognize unethical therapeutic practices according to the American Psychological Association Guidelines.
Psych 44
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Formulate and identify null and alternative hypotheses in research.
- Define and give examples of independent variables, dependent variables, and scales of measurement.
- Generate and interpret various types of graphical displays and tables from research data.
- Differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics.
- Analyze data using statistical software (SPSS).
Psych 140
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify common misconceptions about the field of psychology.
- Differentiate among different major programs within the field of psychology.
- Identify the goals of psychology as a science.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the skills necessary for success as a psychology major.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the requirements for admittance to different graduate programs related to psychology.
- Differentiate between popular media articles in psychology and articles published in scholarly psychological journals.
- Locate resource materials relevant to psychology using the library digital database.
- Explain the importance of different kinds of volunteer work in preparation for careers and/or graduate school in fields related to psychology.
- Identify attainable careers and common work settings for graduates holding a BA/BS in psychology and identify at least two of personal interest to self.
Additionally, Psych 1, Psych 2, and Psych 7 meet the information competency general education requirement and is an institutional student learning outcome (ISLO).