Psychology

What theories of embodiment, mind, and matter must be adopted to adequately grasp experiences of time, space, color, emotion, and attention? How can people conceptualize forms of experience without purging them of poetic resonance? Students explore this interdisciplinary field in connection with the arts. Includes readings in cognitive science, anthropology, and poetry, plus collaborative art projects, sensory experiments, and excursions.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: ANT1500 Or PSY1530 Or MSA1050

Empirical and theoretical approaches to the basic physiological, cognitive, and social mechanisms underlying behavior. Topics include learning and conditioning; sensation and perception; memory, thinking, and language; psychological development; social processes; and personality and psychopathology.

Credits: 4

An overview of the exciting field of behavioral neuroscience. The four content areas are basic neural processing and neuroanatomy; imaging the brain; the thinking, feeling, remembering, and learning brain; and the ethical brain. In addition, the ways in which brain-behavior relationships are portrayed in the popular media are discussed.

Credits: 4

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to a topic of broad interest or concern; examples include violence and terror, the global AIDS crisis, poverty, and racism. It is team taught by faculty members in at least two distinct disciplines. Lectures are supplemented by visual presentations and guest lectures.

Credits: 4

Students study classic experiments and contemporary research in the areas of conformity, obedience, helping behavior, attributions, aggression, persuasion, close relationships and attraction, attitudes and social influence, ethics, and prejudice. This material is applied to both current and historical examples in social research.

Credits: 4

Students explore racial biases, including historical mistrust of medicine by underrepresented (UR) groups, health threats to UR groups in the U.S., health policy, language barriers, and representation of UR groups in the science. Students have the opportunity to conduct research by examining health disparities.

Credits: 4

An examination of the biological processes by which the sensory systems pick up information from the environment and the psychological processes by which that information is coded, transformed, and integrated to form perceptions. Emphasis is on the visual systems and visual perception. Aspects of perception in the visual arts and music are also discussed.

Credits: 4

An introduction to data analysis, with coverage of both descriptive and inferential statistics, and an introduction to probability. Class discussions focus on the use of sample, sampling, and population distributions as they are employed in hypothesis testing. Inferential tests include t-tests, ANOVAs, chi square, regression, and nonparametric tests. Note: This course may be used to satisfy the statistics requirement for economics and environmental studies majors, and it counts as a basic science support course for biology majors.

Credits: 4

Examines the effects of a wide range of psychotropic drugs on behavior, including drugs used clinically to treat mental disorders and drugs of abuse (including alcohol). The biological basis of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, and other issues related to drug addiction, are also covered. Knowledge of basic biology or psychology is helpful, but not required.

Credits: 4

Behavioral and cognitive approaches to the study of human and animal learning are discussed. Topics include classical conditioning, motivation, cognitive models of memory, and applications outside the laboratory.

Credits: 4

The interplay of cyberpsychology, gender, age, culture, and subculture are examined. Theoretical, empirical, and practical research issues are considered. Emphasis is placed on the impact of social media on mental health and psychological well-being. Individual, social, and community-level factors are discussed.

Credits: 3

A broad survey of human development from late childhood through early adulthood. Topics include physiological, social, and cognitive development; peers, the family, and the school; issues of autonomy, identity, and sexual relations; depression; substance abuse; and suicide.

Credits: 3

An examination of both interpersonal relationships and the relationship between the individual and society. Topics include social development, situational and cultural influences on individual functioning, social support networks, interpersonal attraction, and intergroup relations.

Credits: 3

A broad survey of human development from conception through childhood. Topics include prenatal development and birth, cognition, language, parent-child interaction, peer relations, moral development, and sex role development.

Credits: 4

Students examine the psychological research and theory relevant to the understanding of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Topics include the cognitive bases of stereotypes and prejudice, the role of socialization and the media, the nature of in-group-out-group biases, the changing face of prejudice and discrimination, ways to reduce prejudice, and the consequences of prejudice for members of stigmatized groups.

Credits: 3

In this course, the intra- and extra-personal causes of stress are identified, and a variety of assessment instruments are demonstrated and used. The consequences of stress are examined from several physiological and cognitive perspectives. A catalog of effective, direct, and palliative coping strategies is offered so that students can develop personalized stress-management programs.

Credits: 3

A critical examination of social, psychological, and biological factors governing female behavior and experience. Within the context of a life-span model (infancy to old age), topics include gender development, puberty, school performance, sexuality, the body, depression, relationships, and communication styles.

Credits: 3

Explores the diagnosis, phenomenology, and scientific and clinical understandings of a wide range of mental disorders. Current research is reviewed to explore the underlying mechanisms of the disorders under discussion. Diagnosis is approached from the perspective of the most recent DSM. At various points, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and neuroscientific viewpoints of psychopathology are represented.

Credits: 4

Before children are old enough to tie their shoes, they already hold rich prejudices based on race, gender, weight, disability, and more. How do these prejudices first form? Students learn how “nature” (cognitive faculties) and “nurture” (inputs from media and caregivers) jointly drive prejudice development in early childhood, and discuss how psychological science can help disrupt prejudice at its origins.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

This is a fully on-line research/project-based course. This hands-on experiential lecture/lab course provides students with an opportunity to experience how professional scientists do research from conception of a research project to publication. Student work closely with a faculty mentor to develop a research project, collect and analyze data, and present results at a symposium. Students also engage in interactive professional development and skills-building webinars focused on developing their quantitative, analytic, and science communication skills. At the end of the course, student present their work at a final summer research symposium.

Credits: 5

Students explore classic and contemporary theory and research on the social psychology of stigma, primarily from the perspective of the stigmatized. Topics include functions and nature of stigma, stigma and the self-concept, stereotype threat, attributional ambiguity, stigma and social interaction, and implications of stigma concealability and controllability.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Students hone critical thinking and evaluative skills in examining data, evidence, and assumptions underlying the judicial process and the application of psychological principles. The research and clinical practice of forensic psychology in both civil and criminal law-enforcement settings are studied. The training, roles, and responsibilities of forensic psychologists along with methods of interrogation, criminal profiling, and investigation are also examined.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An examination of the processes by which people develop and maintain a self-concept; how the self-concept influences emotion, motivation, and behavior; and whether or not the beliefs people hold about themselves are accurate or useful. Readings include recent theoretical and empirical writings from psychology journals and edited texts.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Focusing on the longest phase of the life cycle, adulthood, this course examines the developmental processes from the transition to adulthood through old age. Students explore current theories regarding development and examine current research on adults’ capabilities and changes over time, adaptive responses to continuous changes in life, and reciprocal influences of the environment and development.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Students explore the psychology of men from evolutionary, social, developmental, and cognitive perspectives. Topics include the development of sex and gender, individual differences in sex and gender, evolutionary approaches to sex differences, relationships, aggression, risk-taking, testosterone, work, fatherhood, and mental health. Students engage in seminar-style discussions of assigned short readings, as well as a group-based book review project.

Credits: 4

In this study of psychology in relation to religion, students explore the definition of religion, its personal meaning to people, and its social and political meaning in the community. The importance of ritual is discussed, and conversion is examined to understand its meaning. The middle of the course focuses on such theorists as Freud, Jung, and Maslow and the role religion played in their theories. Finally, the role religion and culture play in psychotherapy and the difference between religions and cults are examined.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Students examine scientific research on the factors that contribute to a sense of belonging to groups, communities, places, and organizations. Topics emphasize the role of identity and situational factors, and how leaders or mentors can impact a sense of belonging and how to study these issues scientifically. Students in this course engage in mentorship to apply course concepts.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Students study the historical roots of developmental, cognitive, and social psychology through the writings of major European and American psychologists, primarily from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The aim of the course is to expose students to the history of major ideas in psychology through an examination of primary sources.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

A consideration of human behavior within an ecocultural perspective, beginning with historical and methodological issues. Perceptual, cognitive, and developmental processes, personality, and psychopathology are also studied. Distinct cultures serve as case studies.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

The interventions suggested by the biopsychosocial model and mind-body paradigm are examined. Topics include health behavior, social learning theory, attribution theory, and attitude formation as they apply to problems like health promotion, disease prevention, reactions to illness, management of chronic and terminal illnesses, and adherence to treatment regimens. Methods of evaluation of clinical services are addressed.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Based on changes occurring throughout life-span developmental psychology, this course evaluates what is myth, stereotype, potential, and reality about old age. Students examine the theoretical and empirical developments in such areas as psychosocial functioning, including identity and personality development; cultural norms and expectations, including role and status changes; physical and intellectual change; death and dying; and health nutrition.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Do people who speak different languages think about and perceive the world differently? Are some thoughts unthinkable without language? How does language affect decision-making or memory? This course examines the interrelationships between language and other cognitive processes. It brings together theories and empirical findings from cognitive, developmental, and cultural psychology, as well as linguistics, anthropology, ethology, and neuroscience.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

This course explores the cultural, social, and psychological factors that shape Latinx individuals and communities in the United States using contemporary research and theories. Topics include immigration, acculturation, biculturalism, family dynamics, and mental health. Students engage in experiential learning through community-based projects, interviews, and analysis of real-world issues to develop a nuanced understanding of Latinx identity and psychology.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An in-depth exploration of social and personality development from infancy through adolescence. Topics include predispositions for sociability, formation of affectional ties with family members and peers, the development of knowledge of self and others, and the acquisition of interactional knowledge and skills.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An in-depth exploration of cognitive development from infancy through adolescence. Students study major theories and research findings on the development of problem solving, reasoning, memory, perception, and academic skills.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

A study of human development from infancy through childhood, with particular emphasis on social interaction, cognition, language, play, and representational activity.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Explores the cognitive processes that underlie musical behaviors. Topics include auditory parsing, pitch perception, acculturation, memory, absolute pitch, amusia (tone deafness), music as a communicative device, emotional responses and mood regulation, cognitive similarities with language, music therapy, the relationship between musical training and intelligence, and evolutionary theories.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Covers theoretical and practical aspects of program evaluation and its role in informing policymakers. The readings, which include a textbook and journal articles, cover theory and basic methodology. In addition, students collect, organize, and write about the evaluations they conduct. The applications component focuses on programs in education, childcare, and criminal justice.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530 Or SOC1500

Provides a foundation in programming, with emphasis on developing software for psychological experiments. Students gain hands-on experience through weekly coding assignments. Topics include creating, counterbalancing, and presenting stimuli; collecting real-time responses; and visualizing and processing data. For the final project, students code a complete experiment related to their own research

Credits: 5.5

PREREQ: PSY1530

Controversial social issues and policies are examined and discussed within a context of theory and research in developmental psychology. The goal is to examine how current developmental research has, and has not, been successfully applied to practical social issues regarding children and adolescents. Topics include day care, sex education, adolescent pregnancy and parenting, changing family structure, infants and children with AIDS, television viewing, and child abuse and neglect.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An examination of theoretically driven research with a focus on empirical findings and the research methods used to obtain them. Students explore social psychological theories, such as attachment theory, attribution theory, the belongingness hypothesis, cognitive dissonance, construal level theory, dual-process attitude theories, self-perception and social comparison theories, self-verification theory, social exchange theory, social identity theory, and social penetration theory.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

The course emphasizes both the practice and science of clinical psychology. Topics include the theoretical foundations of clinical practice and research, clinical assessment (mental status, clinical interviewing, psychological testing), psychotherapy modalities (cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic) and techniques, and clinical research methods. A series of in-depth case studies are used to illustrate clinical theory, assessment, and treatment.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY2870 Or PSY3725

Starts with an examination of various criteria for and precursors of language. Students read and analyze studies of children’s first words, early syntactical development, speech play, metaphor, storytelling, and bilingualism.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An increasingly important focus in social psychology, social cognition is the study of how people think in social situations. Topics include social categories, scripts and schemas, attribution, inference, memory, and attitudes. Important applications are also considered, including stereotyping and prejudice.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

A study of the application of the scientific method to the study of human and animal behavior. Topics include experimental design, respondent and operant conditioning, psychophysics, perception, and cognitive processes. Students conduct experiments as a group and prepare scientific reports on their results. Students design and carry out an original research project. The lab is required.

Credits: 5

PREREQ: PSY1530 And PSY2320 And (PSY2140 Or PSY2170 Or PSY2210 Or PSY2250 Or PSY2350 Or PSY2450 Or PSY2455 Or PSY2500 Or PSY2520 Or PSY2650 Or PSY2745 Or PSY2755 Or PSY2860 Or PSY2870 Or PSY3010 Or PSY3090 Or PSY3110 Or PSY3120 Or PSY3125 Or PSY3135 Or PSY3140 Or PSY3165 Or PSY3185 Or PSY3300 Or PSY3301 Or PSY3315 Or PSY3320 Or PSY3330 Or PSY3345 Or PSY3350 Or PSY3405 Or PSY3410 Or PSY3420 Or PSY3440 Or PSY3445 Or PSY3460 Or PSY3490 Or PSY3510 Or PSY3580 Or PSY3610 Or PSY3660 Or PSY3690 Or PSY3705 Or PSY3715 Or PSY3720 Or PSY3725 Or PSY3730 Or PSY3735 Or PSY3745 Or PSY3760 Or PSY3770 Or PSY3845 Or PSY3850 Or PSY4180 )

Students receive intensive hands-on experience in the research process, developing the following skills: generating testable hypotheses; designing research studies; understanding large data sets; formatting and managing data; conducting descriptive and inferential statistical tests; and interpreting and reporting results.

Credits: 5

PREREQ: PSY1530 And (PSY2170 Or PSY2210 Or PSY2250 Or PSY2320 Or PSY2455 Or PSY2520 Or PSY2650 Or PSY2745 Or PSY2755 Or PSY2860 Or PSY2870 )

Students develop an untested hypothesis, design and conduct a study to test the hypothesis, and write an empirical paper following American Psychological Association guidelines. Students then conduct a critical review of existing theory and research in a different area of psychology.

Credits: 5

PREREQ: PSY3560 Or PSY3550

Examines the foundations of evolutionary psychology, the study of the mind as a collection of cognitive adaptations for the problems faced by our ancestors. Explores the field’s classic and contemporary studies, spanning traditional subject areas including social psychology, perception, memory, developmental psychology, and morality. Emphasis on integrating proximate and ultimate explanations for human behavior.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

This course covers the basic principles, research, and theories on the testing and measurement of psychological constructs. Topics include test reliability and validity, test development, intelligence and its measurement, personality assessment, and clinical assessment.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

An examination of the biological basis of behavior. Topics include neuronal transmission, the coding and higher-order processing of sensory stimuli, movement, regulatory processes in feeding and drinking, sexual and emotional behavior, learning and memory, and psychopharmacology. The biological bases of various psychological disorders are also covered.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Focuses on how personality measures are constructed and how scores on these measures are interpreted and used. The strengths and weaknesses of various projective tests, personality inventories, single-trait measures, IQ tests, behavioral indicators, and physiological measures are reviewed. Topics include the stability of personality, whether or not IQ tests actually measure intelligence, and the accuracy of people’s self-descriptions of their personalities.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

One or two topics in neuropsychology are examined in depth. Topics may include memory across the life span, degenerative disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and depression), and communication disorders.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

This course reviews brain-behavior interactions obtained from studies of human brain damage and from investigations of the normal brain. Topics include hemispheric specialization, the representation of language, memory, spatial ability, attention, movement disorders, developmental disorders, and generalized cognitive disorders.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Addresses early and profound deviations in infancy, childhood schizophrenia, and organic disturbances, as well as the theoretical work of Stern and Mahler on the concept of self. Other topics include depression and the consequences of loss, pathologies of initiative and early socialization, neurotic process and issues of excessive/inadequate control, mental retardation, neglect and abuse, and developmental issues around cultural/ethnic differences.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Focuses on the development of the major emotional and behavioral problems of childhood and adolescence, including autism and Asperger’s disorder, AD/HD, depression, trauma-related problems, eating disorders, and personality problems. Empirical research and clinical material are both integral elements of the course, including in-class presentations of clinical research and case studies, as well as videos on psychopathology.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

A study of the basic theories and their applications in counseling and psychotherapy. Theories studied include behavior therapy; drug therapy; interpersonal psychotherapy; psychoanalysis; and group, art, movement, and the “newer” therapies. Variations on the above as applied to different clinical populations are emphasized, as are issues of research and ethics in counseling and psychotherapeutic practice.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

This course examines how cognitive neuroscience—the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior—is used to understand brain function and mental processing. Students explore the different neuroimaging methods and experimental designs commonly used in cognitive neuroscience research. Topics may include brain structure and function, perception, attention, memory, learning, executive function, social cognition, and decision-making.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Examines the cognitive representations and processes involved in human memory. Topics include short-term and working memory; encoding and forgetting processes; implicit, semantic, and eyewitness memory; reconstructive processes and alterability of memory; and memory for text.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Personality psychologists study consistent ways people think, feel, and behave. This course focuses on classic and contemporary theoretical approaches to personality and how theory influences the research questions psychologists ask, the methods they employ, and their interpretation of results. An examination of research findings furthers understanding of commonalities as well as individual differences in people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

The study of human cognition from the perspective of the mind as a processor of information. Topics include attention, memory, conceptual structure, imagery, reasoning, problem solving, and language use.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Examines the processes involved in the development of gender during childhood, emphasizing the interaction between biology, socialization, and cognition. Students read primary source articles that examine the influence of hormones, parenting, knowledge, friendships, and media on children’s beliefs about their gender and on sex differences.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

Students work with preschool children for eight hours per week at the Purchase College Children’s Center, located on campus. The academic component of the practicum is coordinated through weekly class meetings that relate the students’ experience with children at the Center to issues in child development.
Note: This course (a) fulfills a requirement for the certificate program in early childhood development, and (b) does not count as one of the psychology electives for psychology majors.

Credits: 4

Under the guidance of a faculty member, each student conducts an in-depth critical review of research in a narrowly defined area. The aim is to develop critical-thinking skills and to teach close reading of primary sources and writing in the style of the discipline.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY3550

The topic of aging and cognition is explored by examining work in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Major theories of cognitive aging are reviewed, age-related decline in specific areas of cognition is discussed, and students are familiarized with multiple methodological approaches to understanding both healthy and pathological aging.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: PSY1530

In the first semester, students meet weekly to present and discuss their senior project proposals. In the second semester, students present the findings of their senior project research. Grading is on a pass/no credit basis.

Credits: 1

PREREQ: PSY3561

In the first semester, students meet weekly to present and discuss their senior project proposals. In the second semester, students present the findings of their senior project research. Grading is on a pass/no credit basis.

Credits: 1

PREREQ: PSY3561 And (PSY4880 Or PSY4880 )