Subject Description
Psychology

PSYC 498 | Internship

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork.

PSYC 497 | Practicum in Psychology

Students work with a faculty instructor in the Psychology Department in conjunction with a site experience related to clinical, counseling, and other applied careers in the discipline. The course includes 8-10 hours per week of on-site work and 3 hours of class time where practicum experiences and course-relevant readings are discussed. Students also complete written assignments focused on their fieldwork experience. Open to juniors and seniors with at least a 2.5 GPA. This course is specifically aimed for advanced psychology students and counts as an upper division psychology elective.

PSYC 401 | Psychology Senior Capstone Seminar

The Psychology Senior Capstone Seminar provides an opportunity for psychology majors to read and critically analyze primary source materials and review articles drawn from varied subfields in psychology. Through weekly presentations, writing exercises, and ongoing discussion, students address key issues in the discipline concerning, for example, the ethical application of findings, the major paradigmatic shifts in the field, and the pros/cons of various methodological approaches.

PSYC 379 | Applied Multi-Method Assessment

Applied Multi-Method Assessment is an experiential learning seminar introducing students to methods of assessment used by psychologists and other professionals to understand the impact of programs and interventions on individuals and communities. The course focuses on qualitative research methods including interviews and focus groups that engage diverse constituencies, use a social justice lens, and are informed by quantitative approaches.

PSYC 377 | Animal Cognition

Cognition is the many ways organisms take in information from their sensory systems, process it, and act upon it. There are many forms of cognition, and those forms look different from species to species based on the organism's evolutionary history. Through readings, discussions, and independent data collection, this seminar explores the history of the field of animal cognition, its scientific and philosophical controversies, common methods, as well as topics like consciousness, communication, tool use, and intelligence in nonhuman animals.

PSYC 374 | Psychology of Romantic Relationships

This seminar focuses on several facets of romantic relationships, from the initial stages of attraction and partner selection, to relationship building, maintenance, and dissolution. Other key topics include marriage and divorce, communication, and the qualities of relationships that predict relationship satisfaction and stability. Several theoretical perspectives on intimate relationships are presented in the course, and we also examine the advantages and limitations of different approaches and research methodologies.

PSYC 372 | Illusions

This class addresses the various ways in which people's perceptions, memories, and reasoning about the world may diverge dramatically from reality. The course will delineate a variety of such illusions and try to understand their underlying cognitive and neuropsychological causes. Class goals will be to understand their applications (for instance, to eyewitness accuracy) and to use them to help understand normal perception and cognition.