Community and Applied Social Psychology Minor

Students learn the theory and practice of group membership skills, including group development, roles, norms and leadership responsibilities. Students also learn situational leadership styles and roles, interpersonal communication styles, conflict management, problem solving, feedback skills, and group activity planning, presentation and processing. Overlap: COMM 351 Communication in Work Groups and COMM 351T Communication in Work Groups Theory Seminar.

Full course description for Group Dynamics and Facilitation

Can we manage the conflict in our personal life, our society and our world so it results in development and justice rather than oppression and destruction? We consider four paths towards peace: strength, negotiation, justice through nonviolent and political action, and personal transformation. Students are asked to develop their own stance towards achieving peace, to act on the basis of that stance and to report what they discover.

Full course description for Peace Studies and the Psychology of Peace

This course focuses on principles and techniques of personnel and industrial psychology and applications of scientific psychology to business and industrial settings. Topics include: psychology as a science and professional practice issues; employee selection, psychological testing, performance appraisal, and training and development; leadership in organizations; motivation, job satisfaction and job involvement; organizational structure; work conditions, engineering psychology, employee safety and health, and work stress; and consumer psychology. This course is appropriate for general management, business administration and psychology students in addition to human resource management professionals. Overlap: HRM 330 Personnel and Industrial Psychology.

Full course description for Industrial-Organizational Psychology

This course will provide an introduction to the field of health psychology, which is concerned with the roles of behavioral/lifestyle, psychological, and social/cultural factors on health/wellness, illness and chronic disease. The course will address four general subject areas: 1) attitudes, behavior, and lifestyle factors affecting disease prevention and development; 2) stress and the related psychological and social processes associated with disease development and progression; 3) social and psychological factors involved in the illness experience; and 4) long-term social and psychological implications of chronic illness (e.g., heart disease, cancer).

Full course description for Health Psychology

Historically, as a discipline, psychology focuses on decreasing maladaptive emotions and behaviors. As a complement to this focus, Positive Psychology seeks to identify and enhance the human strengths and virtues that make life worth living and allow individuals and communities to thrive. This research-based course will address the differences and assumptions inherent in this approach. In particular, the course will serve as an introduction to the study of positive emotions, positive character traits, and positive institutions. A distinction among the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life is drawn. Topics may include happiness, hope, flow, gratitude, mindfulness, etc.

Full course description for Positive Psychology

This course offers a broad overview of political psychology, a field that uses methods and theoretical ideas from psychology as tools to help understand political processes, with a focus on the individual. Concepts from psychology, such as personality, cognition, the dynamics of social groups, attitudes, and the ways in which emotion affects decision making, are applied to concepts within politics, including the media and political advertising, race relations, the perceived legitimacy of government institutions, conflict and conflict resolution, and the formation of opinions and ideologies. In addition, by describing political psychology experimentation in detail, the course teaches about how the scientific method can be applied to the study of politics.

Full course description for Political Psychology

This course offers a broad overview of cross-cultural psychology, a field that uses methods and theoretical ideas from psychology as tools to help understand cultural effects on human psychology, with a focus on the individual. It will examine psychological diversity and the links between cultural norms and individual behavior. It will also examine how social and cultural forces influence cognition, intelligence, emotion, motivation, psychological disorders, behavior, and other human functioning.

Full course description for Cross-Cultural Psychology

This course explores how psychological perspectives and methods are being applied to environmental problems in the modern world. The ways humans have impacted and been impacted by natural and built environments are also examined. Topics include weather and climate, disasters and toxic hazards, territoriality and crowding, urban and rural environments, planning and design for human behavior, and building sustainable environments. The application of attitudinal, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral and political approaches to environmental problems are discussed.

Full course description for Environmental Psychology

Students in this course will learn about the theories and approaches to preventive psychology, a subfield of psychology that focuses on actions taken early to eliminate or minimize later problems. Through research and intervention, psychologists work with individuals, groups, communities and organizations to develop strategies and programs that work to prevent problems such as violence, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, child abuse, obesity, and other behaviorally based social, mental health, and health issues. Emphasis is placed on students developing knowledge and skills relevant to creating and adapting prevention programs for use in culturally diverse communities. Topics may include: stress and coping theory/research; prevention and health promotion theories, research, and strategies; and other relevant community/social change strategies. (Prereq. PSYC363 or PSYC336)

Full course description for Preventive Psychology

This course introduces students to scientific research methods in psychology, emphasizing the experimental method. Topics include developing research questions, reviewing background information, deciding on appropriate methodology, and collecting and interpreting data. This course prepares students to think critically about psychological claims and is generally required preparation for graduate study. This course includes assignments in the Psychology Laboratory.

Full course description for Research Methods