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What is Psychology?

Psychology studies two critical relationships: one between brain function and behavior, and another between the environment and behavior. Psychology follows scientific methods, using experimentation and analyses. It is a discipline with a bright future. It is expected to be the third fastest-growing field in America through the year 2005 and to continue to grow steadily for at least another dozen years after that.

The Uniqueness of the BS Degree

The Psychology program at RIT provides a strong background in Psychology with substantial training in a technical/professional field. The unique mix prepares students with a curriculum that leads to the achievement of definite career goals. The sequential courses of Introduction to Psychology, Statistics, and Experimental Psychology foster analytic skills and encourage critical thinking. Many employers are interested in the skills that psychology majors bring to collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and their experience with statistics and experimental design. The breadth component of the curriculum covers the main content areas that typically define the psychology discipline.

Psychology majors at RIT are required to complete a Technical/Professional concentration such as Science, Imaging Science, Information Technology, Mathematics and Statistics or Individualized Technical Concentration. This technical focus is to prepare students with specific skills related to their career choice. The psychology program takes advantage of RIT's strength in technical and professional areas and combines these strengths with the study of behavior.

The uniqueness is again featured in our curriculum where there are four elective tracks of in-depth interdisciplinary studies: (1)Visual Perception (2)Information Processing, (3)Biopsychology and (4) Clinical Psychology. Each track consists of four interdisciplinary courses that integrate students' technical concentration and Psychology. No area bachelor of psychology programs have this integrated career focus that increases chances for an advantageous placement after graduation. Added to this strong career focus is the co-op/internship experience for our students.

Why the RIT BS Degree so important?

• Work Opportunities for Bachelor Graduates of RIT

Psychology majors have many qualities that are attractive to job recruiters. Employers find that psychology graduates possess strong people skills. Our graduates will acquire good research and writing skills. They will be good problem solvers and have well-developed high-level thinking ability when it comes to analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information. Job possibilities may be in biological sciences, computer programming, public affairs, visual psychophysics, image perception, man-machine interface and usability analysis. With the electronic advances there is a demand for more user-friendly technologies and training."

• Graduate Schools

The B.S. psychology program will prepare students to take some of the M.S. degree programs at RIT that provide specific skill training needed in business and industry. Many of these programs require only an additional full time equivalent of one year. Within the Psychology Department, there are graduate program that offer M.S. degree in School Psychology and Engineering Psychology.

The program will also prepare students to pursue graduate degrees in various fields of psychology offered by other colleges and universities. Our graduates have strong mathematics, science, and technical background.