BA Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, the brain, and human behavior. The Psychology department offers course work and research opportunities in the fields of clinical, cognitive, developmental, neuroscientific, and social psychology. By studying psychology, students better understand human behavior, including who we are, how we do the things we do, and how we enhance our lives and society. The Psychology major provides a foundation for careers in education and research; law; medicine and public health; politics and public policy; and in business fields such as marketing, finance, and management.

Courses in the department are organized so that they are best taken in several parallel sequences. Courses numbered from 120–190 and ending in a zero are core survey courses that introduce students to major areas of psychology and provide additional background for more advanced courses. These courses represent major content areas of psychology; students should sample broadly from them before specializing. Courses numbered from 200–209 focus on statistics. Courses numbered from 210–299 teach general methodology or data collection in various areas of psychology. Courses numbered from 300–399 are more advanced courses in a particular specialization. Senior seminars, whose enrollment is limited to twenty students, are numbered from 400–489. These seminars are best taken once a student has appropriate background. Courses numbered from 490–499 are special tutorial courses that require permission of the adviser and the director of undergraduate studies (DUS).

Standard major Majors are required to earn two course credits from courses numbered PSYC 400–499. At least one of these courses (excluding PSYC 490–495, which can only be taken P/F) must be taken during the senior year, for which a student must write a substantial final paper (a minimum of 5,000 words) and receive a letter grade. The B.A. degree is typically awarded to students who conduct a nonempirical literature review during senior year. There are no restrictions in the research format for the B.A. The B.S. degree is awarded to students who conduct empirical research through PSYC 499 during senior year. An empirical research project normally includes designing an experiment and collecting and analyzing the data.

Neuroscience track The senior requirement for the neuroscience track is the same as for the standard major, except that the two required course credits from PSYC 400–499 must have neuroscience content. Students pursuing the B.S. degree in the track must carry out a neuroscientific empirical project in PSYC 499 and must be supervised by a faculty member within the neuroscience area of the Psychology department. Students who wish to work with an affiliated faculty member studying neuroscience outside the department must obtain permission from the neuroscience track adviser.

Distinction in the Major To be considered for Distinction in the Major, students must submit a senior essay to the Psychology department at least one week before the last day of classes in the term when the course used for the senior essay is taken. Senior essays that are submitted after the deadline will be subject to grade penalties. Senior essays considered for Distinction in the Major are graded by a second reader and the essay adviser.

Yale College offers a liberal arts education that aims to cultivate a broadly informed, highly disciplined intellect without specifying in advance how that intellect will be used. Such an approach to learning regards college as a phase of exploration, a place for the exercise of curiosity, and an opportunity for the discovery of new interests and abilities.

The College does not seek primarily to train students in the particulars of a given career, although some students may elect to receive more of that preparation than others. Instead, its main goal is to instill knowledge and skills that students can bring to bear in whatever work they eventually choose.

This philosophy of education corresponds with that expressed in the Yale Report of 1828, which draws a distinction between “expanding [the mind’s] powers, and storing it with knowledge.” Acquiring facts is important, but learning how to think critically and creatively in a variety of ways takes precedence.

A detailed explanation of the academic and administrative particulars of the undergraduate curriculum can be found in the Yale College Programs of Study (YCPS).