Mission
The principal educational purpose of the psychology department is to provide an excellent basic education for undergraduates in the theory, methodology, and core content areas of contemporary psychology. A second purpose is to develop our students' critical thinking abilities and their capacities to express their thinking clearly when they speak or write. A third purpose is to help our students apply psychological knowledge in ways that will improve the quality of people’s lives, promote the common good, and honor diverse perspectives. There is a strong emphasis on scholarship in the department, including faculty with active research programs and frequent opportunities for students to collaborate with faculty in research. Small class sizes, close student-faculty interactions, and a climate of quality scholarship are distinctive features of the psychology program.
Goals & Objectives for Student Learning
Goal 1: Knowledge Base
Objective 1: Describe it. Psychology majors will clearly describe key concepts, principles, and overarching themes across the main subfields of psychology.
Objective 2: Recognize how it applies. Psychology majors will demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge base by correctly identifying the concepts, principles and themes in applied scenarios.
Goal 2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking
Objective 1: Evaluate Information in Popular Press. Psychology majors will critically evaluate information relevant to human behavior from popular sources they are likely to encounter in daily life.
Objective 2: Evaluate Information in Professional Sources SCU Psychology majors will critically evaluate information published in professional sources, such as peer-reviewed journals.
Objective 3a: Apply the Scientific Method - Derive Hypothesis SCU Psychology majors will formulate testable hypotheses derived from theories, demonstrating this skill for different types of designs (e.g., descriptive, correlational, experimental).
Objective 3b: Apply the Scientific Method - Design Studies SCU Psychology majors will propose valid research methods designed to test different kinds of hypotheses and create materials to implement specific research protocols derived from their designs.
Objective 3c: Apply the Scientific Method - Create Visualizations for Quantitative Data Psychology majors will create visualizations of data, using common statistical software packages, that are appropriate for different types of designs and measures.
Objective 3d: Apply the Scientific Method - Analyze Data Psychology majors will determine an appropriate analytic approach, given a research design, and implement that approach using current statistical software or other tools relevant to the design.
Objective 3e: Apply the Scientific Method - Interpret Data Psychology majors will accurately describe patterns of observations, to include charts, graphs, tables.
Goal 3: Understand and Apply Ethical Principles
Objective 1: Identify Core Ethical Principles in Psychology Describe the procedures that research psychologists follow to ensure participants’ rights are respected.
Objective 2: Apply Ethical Principles in Research Procedures Demonstrate understanding of how research procedures reflect adherence to the core ethics principles of the APA.
Goal 4: Understand Diverse Perspectives
Objective 1: Describe the Value of Diversity Describe the value of including diverse perspectives, broadly defined, in psychological research.
Objective 2: Recognize Diversity in Research Practices Identify limitations or strengths to the external validity of empirical studies, with respect to diversity.
Goal 5: Communicate Effectively
Objective 1: Demonstrate effective writing for different purposes Psychology majors will summarize and integrate information from scientific sources, expressing their findings in writing, to both professional and general audiences.
Objective 2: Exhibit effective presentation skills for different purposes Psychology majors will summarize and integrate information from scientific sources, expressing their findings in an oral presentation, to both professional and general audiences.
Objective 3: Interact effectively with others Psychology majors will work cooperatively with others, seeking involvement and feedback from all team members, and responding to others respectfully and in a timely manner.
Goal 6: Explore Career Pathways for Psychology Majors
Objective 1: Demonstrate Preparation for Post-Baccalaureate Careers or Schooling SCU Psychology Majors will demonstrate awareness of the variety of careers open to psychology majors and demonstrate skills needed for exploring meaningful vocational pathways.
Goals & Objectives for Faculty
Goal 6: Faculty Scholarship: Permanent, full-time members of the Psychology faculty will maintain active programs of research.
Objective 1: Regular faculty members of the Psychology program will be engaged in various stages of research from proposal writing to data collection to dissemination of research findings in outlets common to the discipline (e.g., publish articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, publish books, present papers at professional conferences, and give invited addresses). Faculty will accomplish this objective through activities most appropriate for their individual specialization, research program, and career phase.
Goal 7: Including Students in Research: Psychology faculty will encourage students to participate in the research process and often may include student collaborators in their research.
Objective 1: Faculty research, at various stages of the research process (e.g., data collection, data analysis, and dissemination of scholarly activity) will often involve student collaborators.