Psychology

Associate Professors Madsen (Department Chair) and McDevitt; Assistant Professors Arnal, Chalk, Morris, and Rhodes; Senior Lecturer Mazeroff.

Areas of particular teaching interest: Professor Madsen: child and adolescent development, interpersonal relationships; Professor McDevitt: operant and classical conditioning, applied behavioral analysis, and choice behavior; Professor Arnal: cognitive psychology, prospective memory, false memory, and eyewitness testimony; Professor Chalk: abnormal psychology, counseling, and health psychology; Professor Morris: social psychology and the psychology of stigmatization and prejudice; Professor Rhodes: behavioral neuroscience, hormones and behavior, and psychopharmacology; Lecturer Mazeroff: madness and creativity, psychopathology and stress, and “music and the brain.”

Psychology is a pluralistic discipline with roots in and connections to the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. This Department reflects the diversity in the field. The program in psychology offers instruction in a variety of fields including human learning, behavior analysis and modification, cognition, language, adulthood and aging, counseling, psychological research, social psychology, child and adolescent development, psychological assessment, and industrial/organizational psychology. The Department offerings provide comprehensive courses and laboratory experiences, extensive internship possibilities and field placements, and opportunities for student-faculty research. The emphasis in all of the courses is on scholarship, research, and pre-professional activities in psychology and related fields. The Department urges all interested and qualified students to pursue Departmental Honors in Psychology. Recent graduates have entered masters or doctoral programs at universities across the country and others have pursued careers in human resources, nursing, law, research, education, and human services.

Other Educational Options in Psychology: Teacher Certification - Elementary (1-6). The Department offers a minor in psychology.

Please see the Education section under Curriculum in this catalog for teacher certification requirements in Psychology.

Departmental Honors

Requirement: A 3.50 GPA in all courses taken in the major and completion of an honors project.

An honors project is a very important consideration for graduate study in psychology. Students are encouraged to engage in any one of a variety of projects (laboratory research, field studies or surveys, case histories, theoretical analysis, etc.) Students should see any fulltime faculty member of the Psychology department for information and assistance. Projects should be initiated by the end of the student’s junior year. The final honors project is evaluated and must be approved by all members of the department.