PSYC - Psychology

This course is intended to provide students with an overview of current psychological approaches to helping. Topics will include theories of counseling, cultural issues, professional concerns and ethical standards of the field. The course will also address issues related to the historical and theoretical bases of crisis intervention.

Adolescent Development is an introduction to the physical, cognitive, and social changes which occur between puberty and young adulthood. Contemporary issues of gender, sexuality, morality, and education are discussed. Psychological theories and developmental stages of life will be explored by the student and applied to adolescent behavior.

Industrial/Organizational Psychology is an advanced course which applies the principles of psychology to the workplace. The focus of the course is on such topics as scientific management, human relations, motivation, group dynamics, and personnel selection. Students will learn about performance appraisal, leadership skills, labor-management relations, and organizational communication. Other topics for discussion include employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and the abuse of drugs.

This course allows students who have successfully completed a previous course in psychology to continue study in that subject. A student may contract for one to four credit hours. However, directed study may be contracted by a student only with the approval of the directing instructor and the department chairperson.

The major emphasis of this course is the understanding of the symptoms, etiology, diagnostic classification, and theories pertaining to psychopathology. Special attention is paid to the medical model, the psychological model, and the behaviorist model as they apply to the causes and treatment of the behavioral disorders. Newer developments in therapy which treat mental disorders as problems of living rather than specific diseases are analyzed.

This course is designed to assist the student in developing the helping skills necessary to conduct a productive, helping session. Helping models, ethical considerations, and interview methods will be examined, particularly as they apply to the human services field. Students will video and participate in mock counseling sessions.

This course covers the problems of human adjustment using the psychoanalytic, social-learning, and humanistic perspectives. The course also focuses on stress, its effects and its management. The third area of study concerns interpersonal and social aspects of adjustment.

This introductory course is designed to help students understand the basic concepts and principles of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development at each major stage of life - from conception until old age. Major theories are explained and fully integrated throughout the human life span.

The major emphasis of this course is on normal human behavior. Both the biological structure of the human organism and the effect of the environment upon behavior are studied. The major areas of psychological study, including research methods, sensation and perception, learning theories, and cognitive processes are surveyed.