Courses
PSYC 122s General Psychology (3)
Surveys the field of psychology. Emphasized he scientific study of behavior and mental processes and challenges students to critically analyze the major findings, theories ad applications in areas such as sensation and perception; development, learning, memory and cognition; motivation and emotion; psychopathology and social psychology.
PSYC 210s Elementary Principles of Behavior (3)
Presents the basic principles or behavior derived from the experimental analysis of behavior. Illustrations and applications of the principles are considered in detail at the individual, group and cultural levels.
PSYC 220PS Psychological Investigations (3)
Prerequisite: PSYC 122s or 210s, and sophomore standing or instructor’s permission. Introduces students to major assumptions, values, and questions addressed by psychologists, and presents basic concepts and methods of psychological inquiry. Special emphasis is given to individual and class research projects, data analysis and research report writing.
PSYC 225Ps Theories of Personality (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing and PSYC 122s, or 210s. Surveys major personality theories including their theoretical assumptions, historical development, and empirical support. Contrasts the main theoretical approaches to understanding the individual.
PSYC 231 Ps Psychopathology (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing and PSYC 122s, or 210s. Surveys psychological disorders and abnormal behaviors including symptoms, causes, and treatments. Integrated biological, psychological , and social influences. Introduces diagnostic criteria for major disorders.
PSYC 239Ps The Brain and Behavior (3)
Prerequisite: PSYC 122s, or 210s or instructor’s permission. Presents an in-depth overview of the basic concepts of neuropsychology. Areas of study include philosophical and scientific antecedents of neuropsychology, origins of contemporary neuropsychology, evolutionary psychology, perception, memory, language, the neuron (synapse and neuropharmacology), human behavioral neuropsychology, brain development and plasticity, clinical neuroscience and ethical considerations.
PSYC 240s Psychology of Women (3)
Prerequisites: PSYC 122s and sophomore standing, or instructor’s permission. Examines contemporary theories about women’s psychological development across lifespan. Explores women’s common and diverse experiences in personal, relational and societal contexts. Requires participation in service-learning to help students integrate course content with experience.
PSYC 250s Health Psychology (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing and either PSYC 122s, or 210s or instructor’s permission. Examines current data and theory about the interplay of physiological, psychological and social factors in health and illness.
PSYC 270Pcxn Culture and Psychology: Focus on Latinos and Latinas in Iowa (3)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing and either PSYC 122s or 210s or instructor’s permission. Explores current perspectives and theories about Latino/a culture at both the individual and group levels. Topics include the importance of history, communication and interactions styles, individualism, the importance of the family, gender-related roles, religion and spiritual values, death, time, as well as social issues such as immigration, education, employment, health and family concerns. Students will have significant face-face interactions with members of Iowa’s Latino/a community, both in-class and off-campus.
PSYC 283PIx Service-Learning in Psychology (1)
Prerequisite: sophomore standing and either PSYC 122s, or 210s or instructor’s permission. Students engage in course-related service activities in the community. Both written and oral reflection exercises will be used to help student integrate experience with course content. Students may earn up to 3 semester hours of combined 283PIx/284PI credit. Requires participation in diversity training and orientation seminar unless previously completed. Can be taken as PSYC 284PI without the “x” component.
PSYC 330Pns Multicultural Issues in Psychology (3)
Prerequisites: PSYC 122s and junior standing, or instructor’s permission. Examines psychological variables in a multicultural context. Presents and broad definition of multiculturalism, including ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation and ability. Relates historical and current theories to individuals and to the dominate U.S. society. Requires participation in service-learning to help students integrate course content with experience.
PSYC 334PS Social Psychology (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing or instructor’s permission and PSYC 122s, or 210s. Examines contemporary theories and data about the relationships between social and cultural factors, individual psychological processes, and behavior; topics include person perception, social cognition, attitude formation and change, persuasion, conformity, obedience, aggression, friendship and love, altruism and conflict resolution.
PSYC 335m Fundamentals of Statistics (4)
Introduces student to the statistical techniques typically used in psychology, sociology, education, communication and related areas. Topics and procedures include: Grouping, graphical representation of data, measures of central tendency and variability effect size, probability, hypothesis testing, correlation, tests of differences, several models of analysis of variance, and nonparametric alternatives, including chi square.
PSYC 336P SPSS for Psychological Research (1)
Corequisite: concurrent enrollment in PSYC 480PI. Students learn how to use the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to input data, save and retrieve data, make data transformation, conduct analyses, manipulate and understand output, and create and edit graphs. Pass/no record basis.
PSYC 340 Cognitive Psychology (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing or instructor’s permission and PSYC 122s, or 210s; PSYC 220Ps recommended. Introduces students to the theories and methods of cognitive psychology and cognitive science. Topics include attention, perception, memory, language, knowledge representation, problem solving, computer modeling and everyday cognition.
PSYC 348P Experimental Psychology (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing or instructor’s permission, PSYC 220Ps and previous or concurrent enrollment in PSYC 35m, or instructor’s permission. Covers basic principles of research design with a focus on experimentation. Surveys theory and research in carious domains of experimental psychology and human factors.
PSYC 381P Psychology of Parenting and Teaching (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing or instructor’s permission. Considers the application of psychological principles in education and child rearing practices. Emphasis is placed on examining the factors that promote and interfere with psychological health. Particular attention is given to the consequences of strategies involving reinforcement punishment, and to issues of freedom and responsibility.
PSYC 382Ps Child & Adolescent Development (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing or instructor’s permission and PSYC 122s, or 210s; cannot receive credit for this course and EDUC 270Ps or 281Ps. Covers theory and research on physical, cognitive, social, emotional development form conception through adolescence. Requires participation in service-learning to help students integrate course content with experience.
PSYC 384Ps Adult Development & Aging (3)
Prerequisites; junior standing or instructor’s permission and PSYC 122s, or 210s. Covers theory and research on Physical, cognitive, social, and identity development from early through late adulthood. Includes issues related to work, family, relationships, sexuality, death & grieving, and social policy. Requires participation in service-learning to help students integrate course content with experience.
PSYC 385 Principles of Counseling (3)
Prerequisites: junior standing and PSYC 225Ps or 231Ps or instructor’s permission. An exploration of the therapy process, with emphasis on the impact of the therapist’s values and beliefs, the importance of the therapist’s self knowledge, discussion of ethical issues and supervised role-play of basic counseling skills.
PSYC 397PI Internship: Psychology (Arr)
Prerequisites: junior standing and instructor’s permission. Students work under professional supervision in situation involving application of psychological principles. Emphasis is on learning by observing and practicing. Amount of credit is determined according to the extent of the experiences, not to exceed 6 semester hours in the 35 semester hour minimum. Students considering an internship should confer with the department to receive consultation and guidelines. Pass/no record basis.
PSYC 457P History and Systems of Psychology (4)
Prerequisites: junior standing and PSYC 122s or instructor’s permission. Traces the history of the development of basic concepts and approaches in modern psychology. Presents an overview of historical systems and theories, as well as contemporary rends in the field.
PSYC 480PI Capstone Research: Topic (3)
Prerequisites: PSYC 335m, PSYC 348P and instructor’s permission. Students design and implement individual research projects on cognitive, cultural, developmental, personality, gender, multicultural, or social psychology topics. As part of this capstone research experience, students collect and analyze data, and present research results both orally and as manuscripts written in accordance with American Psychological Association standards. This course may be repeated.
PSYC 486P Psychological Tests and Assessment (4)
Prerequisite: Senior standing, PSYC 335m or comparable background in statistics, or instructor’s permission. Studies basic psychometric principles, including reliability, validity and score interpretation. Considers tests of intelligence, creativity, interest and personality in an assessment contest.
PSYC 498PI Senior Research (Arr)
Prerequisite: Senior standing, and instructor’s permission. May be repeated for a maximum of three terms. Supervised professional level research directed by staff member. Each senior is assisted by three to five freshmen who have expressed interest in direct participation in research activities.
PSYC 1991, PSYC 2001, PSYC 3991, PSYC 4991 Independent Study (Arr)
Permission must be secured prior to registration. Designed to permit students to pursue individual interests in specialized area of psychology to supplement scheduled course offerings.