Semester Requirements

http://www.rit.edu/cla/psychology

Program overview

The bachelor of science degree in psychology provides students with a strong grounding in the discipline of psychology, integrated with a technological focus. Upon entry, students are assigned a faculty adviser to mentor their progress through the curriculum. Students also are provided with course planning strategies and career discussions through the program’s Freshman Seminar.

Curriculum

The psychology major is unique and encompasses three key elements: a choice of four interdisciplinary tracks, a solid grounding in experimental methodology and statistics, and a cooperative education requirement.

Interdisciplinary tracks

Students choose one of the following interdisciplinary tracks: biopsychology, clinical psychology, information processing, or visual perception. Technology is integrated into these tracks to produce a nontraditional and career-oriented psychology major. The tracks are also active fields of research in psychology, and students receive training that provides a strong foundation for graduate school and employment in related fields.

The biopsychology track studies brain function as the basis of behavior. It focuses on topics such as lateralization, cortical specialization, brain injury, and psychopharmacology. Psychophysiological measures (including EEG, EMG, and skin conductance) are covered in depth along with the relationship between brain chemistry and behavior. Students perform laboratory work on the brain and its relationship to attention, memory, language, perception, and psychological disorders.

The clinical psychology track emphasizes the scientific and empirical foundations of clinical and applied work. Empirically based methods are introduced to understand and modify human psychological problems. This track prepares students for graduate programs in mental health.

The information processing track uses an interdisciplinary approach to study cognitive processes such as judgment and decision making, memory, learning, language, problem solving, attention, and perception. The track explores the interaction of human factors, psychology, and technology.

The visual perception track focuses on human perceptual systems. Vision is presented as the integration of anatomy, physiology, and behavior. Students learn psychophysical methods. The track covers cutting-edge topics such as color perception, the retinal mosaic, and neural plasticity. It stresses current research showing that visual perception is a living and growing field.

Technical/professional concentration

The major seeks students with an aptitude for technical and quantitative reasoning as well as an interest in psychology. There is sufficient curricular flexibility to permit completion of a technical concentration.

Cooperative education

The major requires students to complete one semester of cooperative education between the sophomore and senior years. The co-op experience is in a psychology-related field and does not carry academic credit.

Psychology, BS degree, typical course sequence (semesters), effective fall 2013

Please see New General Education Curriculum–Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) for more information.

(WI) Refers to a writing intensive course within the major.

* Please see Wellness Education Requirement for more information.

† Student may choose PSYC-402 (WI), PSYC-501, or PYSC-510 (WI).

Additional information

Career opportunities

The unique requirements of this major ensure that each student is well-prepared for advanced study in psychology or a related field, employment in industry or in human service agencies, or other career opportunities.