UMass Boston :: College of Liberal Arts :: Psychology Requirements

psychology › requirements

Major Requirements for BA in Psychology

Effective Fall 2007

Students who declared a psychology major after September 1, 2000 must complete the following requirements. Please refer to course name to see where courses taken before Fall 2007 will fit in your plan of study. The courses have not changed and fill the same requirements as previously. (Please contact your advisor if you declared your major before September 1, 2000 and want to use old requirements.)

The phrase “major requirements” refers to the minimum number and distribution of psychology courses a student must complete successfully in order to graduate as a psychology major. We encourage students to take more than the minimum number of courses in psychology and allied disciplines. Only one of the 12 required classes may be taken pass/fail; the other 11 classes must be taken for a grade.

Introductory courses

1)           Introduction to Psychology (Psych 101 or 100)

2)           Introduction to Behavioral Research (Psych 201)

Intermediate courses

One intermediate level course from each of the five sub-disciplines of Psychology, chosen from among the following options. These courses provide the required core of the major and serve as prerequisites to more specialized courses. (Note that all course numbers in this category have been changed from 200- to 300-level, but the courses and requirements in this category have not changed.)

3)           Personality/Clinical: Personality (Psych 300) or Abnormal Psychology     (Psych 315)

4)           Developmental: Infancy and Childhood Development (Psych 341) or Adolescence (Psych 342)

5)           Social Psychology (Psych 330)

6)           Behavioral Neuroscience (Psych 360)

7)           Cognitive: Learning and Memory (Psych 350) or Perception (Psych 355)

Advanced courses (Capstone Requirement)

8), 9) Two advanced courses at the 400 level.

Students who declared the major on or after September 1, 2003 will need to meet the capstone requirement. Capstone criteria include a grade of C- or better in a 400-level course taken in residence after completing at least 3 of the 5 intermediate core requirements. (Note that many courses in this category have been renumbered. A course that now has a number in the 400s will count here even if it had a different number when you took it. Please see your advisor if you declared the major before September 1, 2003 and have questions about your advanced course requirement.)

Elective Courses

10) Advanced elective. Any course numbered 300 or higher, with the exception of courses listed in the intermediate core requirement category.

11), 12) Any two courses from any level.

Notes and clarifications:

Eight of the 12 courses for the major must be taken in residence at UMass Boston.

Only one of the following courses can be counted as an advanced requirement or advanced elective: Psych 486, 488, 489, 496-499. Only one of the 12 courses counted toward the major may be taken pass/fail.

Course Sequence Recommendations

The following are general guidelines for planning your course sequence in Psychology. These will get you started thinking about this important aspect of your education, but this handbook is no substitute for an advisor, who can give you individual guidance.

a) Obviously, a major should start with Introduction to Psychology (Psych 101 or 100), as this course gives an overview of all sub-disciplines and is a prerequisite for all other classes. You may then want to take one of the intermediate 300-level classes, to see whether advanced study of Psychology is really what you want to do.

b) Once you have decided on Psychology as a major, however, we recommend that you take Research Methods (Psych 201) as soon as possible, for two reasons. First, you must take this course before you can take any upper-level class. Second, exposure to the course content in Research Methods will help you to understand the research issues at the core of all other Psychology courses.

c) Although not a requirement for the B.A. degree, we recommend that you take Statistics (Psych z270) as one of your elective courses. Quantitative thinking skills, which you will develop in this class, are crucial to a thorough understanding of psychology, and will help you get the most out of your advanced classes. Furthermore, a good understanding of statistics is crucial for many of the job opportunities often pursued by Psychology majors, and most graduate schools in Psychology as well as many Masters in Social Work programs require you to have taken a statistics course. Note that Math 114 (Quantitative Reasoning) or equivalent math placement or coursework is a prerequisite for this course.

d) Think carefully (and talk to your advisor and fellow students) about the order in which you would like to plan your psychology coursework thinking about the course progression and the workload demands that each course might require. For example, many students find the content of Psychobiology and Cognitive courses to be more challenging than the content of courses in other sub-disciplines. Try to avoid putting off these classes until the last minute; try to complete them sooner rather than later. You may even find that you enjoy the challenge more than you thought you would! Likewise, many students find that advanced level courses have greater reading and writing requirements as compared to the intermediate level courses. For these reasons, it is important to think carefully before enrolling in multiple psychology courses within the same semester in order to try to balance the course demands as well as your interests. It is often valuable to be able to spread out your psychology coursework, balancing it with other University requirements.

e) Upper-level classes fill up quickly, and many are not be offered every semester. Therefore, you should create a course plan for several semesters ahead to identify upper level courses you would like to take and the prerequisites that proceed them. We recommend that you focus on one or two areas of concentration (e.g. Social or Cognitive Psychology) when choosing your advanced courses.

Major Requirements for BS in Psychology

Effective Fall 2007

The major requirements for the B. S. degree in Psychology include 12 courses in the major, distributed as listed below, and 7 courses outside the major, selected from courses for majors in natural science and mathematics. This handout reflects course number changes that went into effect in Fall, 2007. Please refer to course name to see where courses taken before Fall 2007 will fit in your plan of study. The courses have not changed and fill the same requirements as previously. (Please contact your advisor if you declared your major before September 1, 2000 and want to use old requirements.)

If you declared as a B.S. candidate after September 1, 2000, the minimum course requirements are all of the requirements for the B.A in psychology with the following qualifications:

1) Psych 270 (Statistics) must be taken and can be counted as one of the two electives.
2) One of the advnaced level courses must be an experimental methods course (Psych 475-479)

Requirements outside the Psychology Department

13) Mathematics 135, Survey of Calculus or a higher level course in calculus (this requirement can be waived with an appropriate placement score)

14, 15) Biology 111 and Biology 112

16-19) Four semester-long courses designed for majors from the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, or Physics or the course Biology 207, Anatomy and Physiology I.

Notes and clarifications:

Eight of the 12 Psychology courses must be taken in residence at UMass Boston.
Only one of the following courses can be counted as an advanced requirement or advanced elective: Psych 486, 488, 489, 496-499.
Only one of the 12 Psychology courses counted toward the major may be taken pass/fail.
Six credit internship courses (Psych 430, 479) count as one course.
The capstone requirement can be met by the required advanced Experimental Methods course, provided the C- grade criterion is met.
Courses from Science and Mathematics departments designed for nonmajors do not count toward the B.S. in Psychology major.
Laboratory sections for courses outside the Psychology Department that are listed as “optional” are not required; labs are only required if they are a requirement of the course.

Courses for non-majors will not be counted toward these requirements; examples of courses which cannot be counted include:

Biology 101, 102, 104, 105, 108, 202, 203, 209
Chemistry 101, 102, 200
Physics 107, 108, 121, 122, 123, 124, 132
Mathematics 105, 110, 120, 124, 125, 130

Capstone Experience

Students who declared the major on or after September 1, 2003 will need to meet the capstone requirement. Capstone criteria include a grade of C- or better in a 400-level course taken in residence after completing at least 3 of the 5 intermediate core requirements. (Note that many courses in this category have been renumbered. A course that now has a number in the 400s will count here even if it had a different number when you took it. Please see your advisor if you declared the major before September 1, 2003 and have questions about your advanced course requirement.)

Minor in Psychology

The minor in Psychology is designed for students who desire a systematic background in Psychology to complement their major area of study in other departments. It is available to students from the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Sciences and Mathematics or the College of Management.

The minor requirements are:

1) Introduction to Psychology (Psych 101 or 100)
2) Research Methods (Psych 201) or Statistics (Psych z270)

i) Two intermediate level courses from the following options:

(1) Learning and Memory (Psych 350)
(2) Perception (Psych 355)
(3) Behavioral Neuroscience (Psych360)
(4) Personality (Psych 300)
(5) Abnormal Psychology (Psych 3l5)
(6) Social Psychology (Psych 330)
(7) Infancy and Child Development (Psych 34l)
(8) Adolescence (Psych 342)

ii) Two advanced courses (courses at the 300-400 level, with the exception of 300-level intermediate courses listed in options 1-8 above and 488, 489, and 496-499)

The intermediate level courses provide broad knowledge of major areas in the discipline and serve as prerequisites to more specialized advanced courses. Minors are advised to select intermediate level courses that will prepare for advanced courses in an area of interest. The distribution of requirements allows minors to gain some degree of both breadth and depth in Psychology.

Note that the intermediate level courses are the same as they were previously. Only their identifying numbers have changed. There has been no substantive change in the Minor in Psychology.

Double Major

Students may elect to major in psychology and also in a second recognized academic area at the same time (e.g., Biology, Sociology, English). Election of such an option is called a double major. At the latest, application for a double major should be made early in the student's junior year. Students who elect a double major involving the Psychology Department must successfully complete all requirements for a regular psychology major (twelve courses if the major is declared after September 1, 2000).

Joint Major in Psychology and Sociology

Psychologists and sociologists have long worked together in building social psychology. The Joint Major in Social Psychology is designed to highlight social psychology as a product of both parent disciplines, through a sequence of 12 courses that emphasize the approaches and concerns that psychology and sociology have in common. These courses are drawn about equally from the two departments. In addition, the course sequence focuses on how social psychology can be applied to help understand and deal with a variety of social problems and issues. The joint major is expected to be of particular interest to students who:

− plan to enter helping professions such as social work or counseling, that call for a great deal of social-psychological expertise

− are interested in studying ethnic or minority relations

− are interested in studying medical sociology, community mental health, or other aspects of health care delivery

− are interested in studying organizational training and development

− are planning graduate study in social psychology.

The following listing gives the basic requirements of the joint major:

1) Introduction to Psychology (Psych 101 or 100)
2) Introduction to Sociology (Soc 101)
3) Social Psychology (Psych 330) or Society and the Individual (Soc 281)
4) Sociological Theory (Soc 341)
5) Sociology Research Methods (Soc 351)
6) Psychology Research Methods (Psych 201) or Statistics (Psych z270 or Soc 350)
7) Psychology Group A, choose one of the following:

Learning and Memory (Psych 350)

Perception (Psych 355)

Behavioral Neuroscience (Psych 360)

8) Psychology Group B, choose one of the following:

Personality (Psych 300)

Abnormal Psychology (Psych 3l5)

Infancy and Child Development (Psych 34l)

9) Two upper-level classes from the Psychology Directed List:

PSY 333 - Group Dynamics

PSY 335 - Social Attitudes and Public Opinion

PSY 337 - Communication and Society

PSY 338 - Community Psychology

PSY 339 - Psychology and the Law

PSY 415 - Psychological Trauma: Individual and Society

PSY 434 - Social Perception

PSY 430 - Internship in Psychology (6 credits)

PSY 477 - Experimental Methods: Social

PSY 441 - The Family and the Child: A Psychological View

10) Two upper-level classes from the Sociology Directed List:

SOC 300 - Communication and Opinion

SOC 310 - Socialization

SOC 316 - Family Violence in America

SOC 342 - Aging and Society

SOC 362 - Juvenile Delinquency

SOC 382 - Sociology of Gender

SOC 384 - Medical Sociology

SOC 386 - Sociology of Mental Health and Illness

SOC 460 - Internship in Urban Social Service (6 credits)

Notes and clarifications:
Capstone: A capstone is required for those who declared their major after September 1, 2003. Students must achieve a C- or better to obtain capstone credit.

Any course in the psychology directed list or the sociology directed list numbering 400 or above fulfills the requirement.

Additional Notes:

Only one course within this major may be taken pass/fail;
A maximum of 3 Sociology courses (9 credits) and 3 Psychology courses(9 credits) may be transferred from other institutions;
Either PSY 430 or SOC 460 may be included in the major, but not both. Students who choose this option will complete 3 extra credits in Psychology and Sociology since each of these courses carries 6 credits. These extra credits will be considered as elective credits, counting towards graduation but not toward the major.

Program in Biobehavioral Studies

Students interested in animal behavior who are majoring in Anthropology, Biology, or Psychology can choose a Program in Biobehavioral Studies. The purpose of the Program is to provide a broad foundation in the various approaches to the naturalistic study of the behavior of humans and other animals. A Program participant will major in one of the three departments and take an appropriate group of courses in the other two departments. These courses cannot be completed in a short time and interested students are urged to consult with one of the advisors as early as possible in their university career. The contact person in Psychology is Dr. Celia Moore (617 287 6362) Basic requirements for the Program include:

a. Satisfaction of major requirements of at least one of the three departments (each department offers courses that can contribute both to major requirements and to the Program).

b. Completion of at least five courses from the approved course list (available in the Psychology department office) including one course from the category "first courses in animal behavior," two courses from the category "associated fields", and two courses from "advanced courses in animal behavior" or "laboratory courses". At least five courses from the two departments outside the major department must be completed, including at least one course from each department.

c. A lab and/or field course is strongly recommended. Such a course will be required of Program participants when appropriate courses have been developed.

Participants must declare their intent to complete the Biobehavioral Program with the Registrar in order to have it appear on their transcript. This is accomplished in the same manner as a declaration of major.

Organizational Behavior Option

Normally, students enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts or the College of Sciences Mathematics are not able to register for courses offered by the College of Management. However, the Department of Psychology and the College of Management have agreed to make provisions for a select group of Psychology Majors to sample from a set of Management courses having to do with organizational behavior. These courses could be useful for students who wish to learn about the social psychology of organizations, or to familiarize themselves with current theories of organizational behavior and organizational development.

To be eligible for the Organizational Behavior Option, a student must meet the following qualifications:

a. Be a Psychology Major or Joint Major in Psychology and Sociology
b. Complete Social Psychology (Psych 330)
c. Complete Statistics (Psych z270)
d. Carry a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0
e. Obtain approval from the Psychology Curriculum Committee

Students who have met these qualifications will be referred to the contact person in the College of Management, who will advise students with regard to the Organizational Behavior courses and, if appropriate, make arrangements for them to enroll.

The Organizational Behavior Option consists of a maximum of four College of Management courses from the following list:

− Managing Organizations (Mgt 303)
− Managerial Ethics and Social Issues (Mgt 331)
− Introduction to Human Resource Management (Mgt 401)
− Skills in Leadership and Teamwork (Mgt 421)
− Advanced Topics in Managing Organizations (Mgt 450)
− Special Topics in Management (Mgt 478)

Mgt 303 is a pre-requisite for all the other courses. On occasion, the Management Department has allowed co-registration in Mgt 331 in sections taught by Professor Vicki Milledge, but only with her permission. Students should take Mgt 303 in their first semester junior year, or as early as possible. Mgt 421 is particularly recommended for Psychology majors. The topics for Mgt 450 and 478 change depending on the instructor, and upcoming topics are announced just before pre-registration.

Courses taken as part of the Organizational Behavior Option are in addition to the Psychology Major sequence. Interested students should currently contact the Psychology Curriculum Committee.

Cognitive Science Minor Requirements

Required Courses

Psych/CS L271 --Introduction to Cognitive Science

Psych 270 --Statistics

4 Elective Courses --choose from the attached list)