Goals for the Psychology Major
Overview of Goals: The psychology curriculum is designed to encourage students to view psychology and human behavior across multiple levels, using a variety of theoretical and empirical models. We offer our students a solid foundation in methodology, history, traditional, and non-traditional approaches, and we urge critical thinking.
Goal 1: Research training-Students will understand and apply basic research methods in psychology, including research design, data analysis, writing, and interpretation.
Goal 2: Integrating experiential and scientific knowledge-Students will be able to integrate hands-on work in communities and social service organizations with the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in psychology.
Goal 3: Diversity-Students will recognize, understand, and respect the complexity of sociocultural and international diversity.
Goal 4: Life-long learning-Students will develop an interest in life-long learning and an interest in psychological issues in all areas of their personal and professional lives.
Goal 5: Communication skills-Students will be able to effectively communicate about the complexities of psychological research.
Goal 6: Ethical considerations-Students will be able to weigh evidence, tolerate ambiguity, act ethically, and reflect other values that are underpinnings of psychology as a discipline.
Goal 7: Social responsibility-Students will recognize and understand the connection between their psychology training and social issues, and will use this knowledge in their efforts to improve the world in which we live.
Goal 8: Skepticism-Students will respect and use skeptical inquiry in interpreting, understanding, and applying psychological research.
Requirements for the Major
A major in psychology requires a minimum of 12 courses. Majors in psychology must meet the following requirements either through satisfactory completion of regular course work (normally at one of The Claremont Colleges) or through other means approved by the psychology faculty. Individual psychology major requirements (e.g., Intro, Stats, Research Methods, Developmental psychology, etc.) must be fulfilled by completing regular course work, and cannot be fulfilled via independent study; however, independent study courses can count as additional courses towards the number of courses required of the major. Furthermore, students should take all of their major requirements on a letter-grade basis.
The requirements of the psychology major are below, with each requirement underlind.
One course in each of the following content areas within psychology:
- Biological psychology.
- Cognitive psychology.
- Community or clinical psychology.
- Developmental psychology.
- Social or personality psychology.
Some things to keep in mind as you plan your major:
