2024-2025 Academic Catalog 
    
    Nov 21, 2024  
2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Psychology Major


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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, and 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 orientation courses should contact the Psychology Undergraduate Assistant 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 toward major. In addition, 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 Undergraduate Assistant.

There are ten course requirements in the Psychology major. The seven introductory orientation 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 a minimum of 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% or better (10 out of 20 questions correct) on Part I of the Math Placement Exam, which can be found on the university’s Canvas 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 a ClarkFEST 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.

Capstone Experience


Capstone courses provide an opportunity for Psychology students to integrate and apply their learning. While various topical areas are covered and some students enroll in seminars while others become involved in research or honors, all students are involved in some sort of open-ended project (individual or group) that is defined and carried forward by the student. One goal of the Psychology capstone is to demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge as well as skills used in the practice of psychology. In addition, the capstone in Psychology provides a chance for students to demonstrate accomplishment of Clark’s Liberal Education goals and the ability to apply this learning in a project related to psychology.

The capstone experience is required of all students and is the final requirement of the Psychology major.

 

Capstone Seminars (PSYC 260-296)


Capstone Seminars are open to undergraduates (primarily juniors and seniors) and, in many cases, to graduate students, and are taught at or near the graduate level. Six to eight 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.

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.

Students accepted into the Honors Program should consult with their faculty mentor on a timeline for completion of the project, including applications to IRB, if needed. Honors students are encouraged to present their projects at ClarkFEST, the university’s student research festival.

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. Exceptions allowing the inclusion of one psychology course in the cluster may be granted at the discretion of the faculty advisor. Please note that department-approved 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


Transfer Credits

The Psychology Department accepts up to five transfer courses to count toward the major requirements, one of which can be a 200-level course at the discretion of the faculty.

AP credits: Students who receive a 4 or a 5 score on the Psychology AP exam can use that to satisfy the department requirement Psychology 101. The department does not accept the AP Statistics course as a waiver for PSYC 105-Statistics.

Students transferring to Clark from another institution: If you have transferred to Clark from another university and have Psychology courses already approved for university credit, these courses can then be considered for fulfilling major credit by the Psychology department. Transfer students wishing to have courses from another institution reviewed for major credit should set up a meeting with the Psychology Undergraduate Assistant prior to beginning their coursework at Clark to formally declare the major and to review transfer credits as fulfilling major requirements.

Psychology Majors requests to transfer summer or study abroad courses: Declared majors who wish to obtain major credit for summer or study abroad coursework should send an electronic copy of the syllabus for faculty review to the Psychology Undergraduate Assistant prior to enrolling.

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

 

Psychology Faculty


Program Faculty


Michael Addis, Ph.D.
Michael Bamberg, Ph.D.
Nancy Budwig, Ph.D.
Esteban Cardemil, Ph.D.
James Córdova, Ph.D.
Alena Esposito, Ph.D.
Samantha Francois, Ph.D.
Jessica Glazier, Ph.D.
Abbie Goldberg, 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


Abbie Goldberg, 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.
Kathleen Palm Reed, Ph.D.

Developmental Faculty


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

Social Faculty


Andrew Stewart, Ph.D. - Head of Social Program
Jessica Glazier, Ph.D.
Nicole Overstreet, Ph.D.
Johanna Ray Vollhardt, Ph.D.

Visiting Faculty


Justin Laplante, Ph.D.

Michael Miller, 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.

Faculty Emeritus


Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.
Rachel Joffe Falmagne, Ph.D.
Wendy Grolnick, 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.
 

Courses


Courses offered within the last 2 Academic Years

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