Psychology
Major and Minor
Faculty and professional interests
Heather Hoffmann, chair
Human sexuality, behavioral neuroscience
Tim Kasser (on leave Fall 2012)
Values, materialism, well-being
Frank T. McAndrew
Environmental psychology, evolutionary social psychology
Daniel Peterson
Human memory and learning
Michael Prentice
Defensive beliefs, personality neuroscience, motivation
Kelly Shaw
Gender, stereotyping and prejudices, film
Cooperating faculty from other programs
Diana Beck, Educational Studies
Andrew Civettini, Political Science
Frederick Hord, Black Studies
James Mountjoy, Biology
Esther Penick, Biology
Jennifer Templeton, Biology
Judy Thorn, Biology
The Psychology Department teaches students about theories and research concerning many areas of psychology and provides students with opportunities to use and apply this knowledge. After taking an introductory course, students choose from an array of topics spanning the breadth of psychology, as well as advanced courses that allow them to pursue more specific interests. Central to the major is education about the process of doing research, which is facilitated by a variety of courses that prepare students to design, conduct, and present their own research project during the senior year. Opportunities for research are also supported by our active faculty and by excellent laboratory facilities for human and animal projects. Opportunities for applying one’s knowledge in other ways also abound, through opportunities to pursue a variety of types of internships both in the Galesburg area and around the nation.
All of these experiences as a psychology major help improve students’ abilities to think critically and systematically, to write and speak clearly, to access and evaluate information, to formulate interesting questions, and to answer those questions in a scientific manner.
Because psychology focuses on understanding the basics of brain, mind, and behavior through a scientific approach, majors are well-positioned to pursue careers in a variety of different fields. Many of our students pursue graduate school in order to sharpen their research skills or to become clinicians, counselors, and social workers. Others have found psychology to be excellent preparation for careers in law, business, and education.
The departmental curriculum contributes to the College's Key Competency Requirements as follows:
- Writing Key Competency - PSYC 268, 361, and 365 serve as writing-intensive courses for majors
- Speaking Key Competency - PSYC 271 and 282 serve as speaking-intensive courses for majors
- Information Literacy and Informed Use of Technology - The Psychology department requires courses that help ensure that all majors are computer literate by the time that they graduate. Many of the skills required are ones that students may already possess (e.g., word processing, how to use internet search engines), some are acquired through Computer Center workshops (e.g., how to use PowerPoint and Pagemaker for presenting their research findings) and others (e.g., how to evaluate web resources, how to use PsycINFO and other library resources to find and gather psychological literature, and how to analyze and graphically represent data using EXCEL and SPSS) are integrated into various courses required for the major, e.g., PSYC 100 (Introduction to Psychology), PSYC 281-282 (Research Methods and Statistics I and II), and PSYC 360-361(Research Experience in Psychology).
Departmental Learning Goals
Students completing the major in Psychology will be able to:
- Effectively and ethically apply the scientific method to studying the mind, the brain, and behavior
- Successfully search the scientific psychological literature to find existing work that can inform the specific claims they are making
- Understand the basic theoretical approaches and classic empirical findings of psychology
- Select and conduct appropriate statistical tests in order to empirically test a claim
- Effectively communicate with clear, grammatically-correct writing that conforms to APA style
- Make effective oral presentations that are clear, well-organized, and interesting
- Demonstrate an empathetic understanding of people of diverse abilities, experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives