2021-2022 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2021-2022 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Psychology Major


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs of Study

Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology


The Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology, formed in 1987, has a major endowment provided through the generous support of the Hiatt family. The school, which encompasses the Department of Psychology and the Department of Education, provides support for a number of psychology-related activities and functions, including opportunities for organizing and attending conferences, graduate fellowships, and travel and research activities for the school’s faculty and students.

Psychology Overview


The department provides educational experiences that both contribute to liberal-arts education and prepare students for careers after Clark University, including graduate work in psychology or related disciplines. The program emphasizes the role of psychological scholarship in understanding human behavior and experience. The program culminates in small and intensive capstone courses that offer students an opportunity to participate fully in the theoretical and research life of the department.

For more information, please visit the Psychology Department’s website.

 

Declaring a Psychology Major


A student nearing the end of his or her sequence of introductory courses should contact the Psychology Department Administrator to declare a major and be assigned a psychology adviser. This formality will normally occur by the spring of a student’s sophomore year.

Major Requirements


Students must earn a minimum course grade of C- in order to receive major credit in Psychology. Courses taken Pass/Fail will not be accepted for major credit. The Psychology Department will accept one School of Professional Studies Undergraduate (SPS UG) course for major credit, providing that the course is designated by SPS UG as an approved course for day students, and the course is pre-approved by the department prior to registration. Students wishing to submit a SPS UG course for Psychology approval should email a complete syllabus from the course (indicating which requirement they’d like to fulfill) to the Psychology Department Administrator, Kelly Boulay.

There are ten course requirements in the Psychology major. The seven introductory courses provide a foundation in the content and method of psychology and should normally be completed by the end of the sophomore year. These include the four Introduction and Methods courses and at least one course from each of the broad-topic Foundation courses: Basic Processes, Developmental/Cultural, and Social/Clinical.

Orientation Courses


Math Placement Exam

In order to register for PSYC 105, students must score 50% (a 10) or better on Part 1 of the Math Placement Exam, which can be found on the university’s Moodle site.

Students may take the exam a maximum of two times. Students who do not pass the exam after two tries may contact the Psychology Department for alternatives.

One Basic Processes Course (BP):


Courses in learning, human sexuality, health psychology, interpersonal psychology, and cognition. Choose from:

One Developmental/Cultural Course (DEV/CULT):


Courses in human development and cultural psychology. Choose from:

Two Exploration Courses


In addition to the above seven introductory courses, majors must take two mid-level courses that provide experience with the two fundamental activities of academic psychology, the analysis and interpretation of psychological literatures and the conduct of psychological investigations. Students typically complete at least one each of the following types of mid-level courses by the end of the junior year: a First Seminar and either a Lab Course, Research, or PSYC 211  .

First Seminars (PSYC 236-259)


The mid-level First Seminars focus on the attentive analysis of psychological texts, the articulation of opinions concerning psychological issues, and the use of library and reference skills in psychological writing. (Permission to take a capstone seminar as a first seminar will not ordinarily be given and must, in any case, be obtained in writing in advance from the faculty member involved.)

Labs (PSYC 200-235)


The mid-level one-semester Lab Courses focus on doing psychological research including planning, data collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation. The laboratory requirement may also be fulfilled by taking a research course in one of the faculty labs.

Research courses (PSYC 200-235)


Research Courses are opportunities to participate in faculty and/or graduate student research projects, in all stages of the research process from conceptualization to presentation. The work normally terminates in an Academic Spree Day presentation and in some cases may result in co-authorship of a scholarly paper or a conference presentation. Students desiring to join a research course should make arrangements with a faculty sponsor well in advance. In approaching faculty members to make these arrangements, students should bear in mind that research courses are taken on as an addition to a faculty member’s normal teaching load and space is limited. Many of the faculty research labs require a two-semester commitment. In such cases, if taken as a full unit of credit, the first semester fulfills the mid-level research credit. The second semester may count as either an additional general unit of credit or, upon completion of an independent project, may count in fulfillment of the capstone research requirement (PSYC 292-Capstone Research), at the discretion of the faculty.

One Capstone Course


Capstone Seminars (PSYC 260-296)


Capstone Seminars are open to undergraduates, and in many cases, to graduate students, and are taught at or near the graduate level. Eight to ten capstone seminars are taught each year on a rotating basis, with themes that are reflective of the broad thematic interests of the department around topics in developmental, social, and clinical psychology. These courses generally involve reading primary sources, class discussion, and writing research papers.

Capstone Research (PSYC 292)


These courses are by faculty permission only. Capstone research students should expect to write a substantial research report describing the theory, methods, statistical method, results and conclusions of the independent project they conducted. The second semester of conducting research in a faculty lab may also be counted for capstone research credit at the discretion of the faculty.

Psychology Honors (PSYC 297)


The Psychology Honors Program is a two-semester sequence whose focus is to guide honors students through the design and execution of an independent honors research project under the guidance of one or more faculty mentors. These collaborations typically occur in individual meetings, as well as group meetings as part of the faculty member’s research team. This research provides the basis for a thesis that, upon completion, is presented and defended by the student before an examining committee and the student’s project advisor.

In the fall of senior year, the student will develop the research project, submit a proposal to the IRB, and begin the project. In the spring semester students will complete their individual research projects and prepare written and oral presentations. Honors students are encouraged to present their projects at Academic Spree Day.

Honors work in psychology is open to students who have demonstrated high scholastic achievement and the motivation and ability to work as scholars; students considering graduate study in psychology or another related discipline are strongly encouraged to consider applying to the program. Students interested in pursuing an Honors project should try to identify a faculty supervisor as early as the end of the sophomore year, as some faculty members may require enrollment in their research lab during junior year in order to start developing the Honors thesis. Honors applications are submitted to the Department in the spring of junior year.

 

Internship (PSYC 298) and Directed Studies (PSYC 299)


Internships and Directed Studies may count as University credits, but do not count toward the Psychology major requirements. Students who wish to do an internship in Psychology for major credit may do so in fulfillment of the mid-level Research requirement by enrolling in PSYC 211  , which is offered in the spring semester.

Minor or Cluster Requirement


In addition to the ten major requirements, Psychology majors fulfill a minor or cluster requirement. This requirement reflects the conviction of the faculty that all academic areas are usefully related to psychology and that understanding the relation between psychology and another discipline requires knowing that other discipline in considerable depth. A related field is generally a recognized six-course concentration, minor, or second major. Alternatively, a student may choose to complete a cluster of related classes, which consists of any pattern of six courses, excluding psychology courses, which the psychology faculty adviser has approved as providing depth of knowledge in a discipline related to psychology. Please note that clusters do not appear on a student’s transcript or diploma.

The department will accept one pre-approved School of Professional Studies Undergraduate (SPS UG) course in the fulfillment of the cluster requirement, in addition to one departmentally pre-approved SPS UG course in Psychology toward the fulfillment of the major requirements.

Transfer and AP Courses for Psychology Major Credit


The Psychology Department accepts up to five transfer courses to count toward the major requirements. Transfer students wishing to transfer psychology courses from another institution should bring syllabi from these courses and meet with a transfer advisor in the psychology department prior to beginning their coursework at Clark.

Students who receive a 4 or a 5 score on the Psychology AP exam will be given credit for Psychology 101.

Students who would like to take a summer course to fulfill a major requirement should send an electronic copy of the syllabus for the course–prior to enrolling–to the Psychology Department Administrator, who will submit it to the department faculty for review.

All transfer courses must also be approved through Clark’s Academic Advising Office.

 

Psychology Faculty


Program Faculty


Esteban Cardemil, Ph.D. - Department Chair
Michael Addis, Ph.D.
Michael Bamberg, Ph.D.
Nancy Budwig, Ph.D.
Brett Coleman, Ph.D.
James Córdova, Ph.D.
Alena Esposito, Ph.D.
Abbie Goldberg, Ph.D.
Wendy S. Grolnick, Ph.D.
Amy Heberle, Ph.D.
Ana K. Marcelo, Ph.D.
Nicole Overstreet, Ph.D.
Kathleen Palm Reed, Ph.D.
Andrew Stewart, Ph.D.
Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Ph.D.

Clinical Faculty


Kathleen Palm Reed, Ph.D.- Director of Clinical Training
Amy Heberle, Ph.D.- Associate Director of Clinical Training
Michael Addis, Ph.D.
Esteban Cardemil, Ph.D.
James Cordova, Ph.D.
Abbie Goldberg, Ph.D.
Wendy Grolnick, Ph.D.

Developmental Faculty


Nancy Budwig, Ph.D. - Head of Developmental Program
Michael Bamberg, Ph.D.
Alena Esposito, Ph.D.
Ana K. Marcelo, Ph.D.

Social Faculty


Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Ph.D. - Head of Social Program

Brett Coleman, Ph.D.

Nicole Overstreet, Ph.D.

Andrew Stewart, Ph.D.

Visiting Faculty


Justin Laplante, Ph.D.

Research Faculty


Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Ph.D.
Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.
Rachel Joffe Falmagne, Ph.D.
Lene Arnett Jensen, Ph.D.
Elena Zaretsky, Ph.D.

Professors Emeritus


Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.
Rachel Joffe Falmagne, Ph.D.
David Stevens, Ph.D.
Nicholas Thompson, Ph.D.
Jaan Valsiner, Ph.D.
Marianne Wiser, Ph.D.

Affiliate Faculty


Ashley Hart, Ph.D
Christina Hatgis, Ph.D.
Phoebe Moore, Ph.D.
Johanna Sagarin, Ph.D.

Courses


Courses offered within the last 2 Academic Years

Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs of Study