Psychology Major

The psychology major provides a broad and rigorous base of knowledge and skills in the discipline while offering students freedom in shaping a program to suit their individual needs.

Our undergraduate program prioritizes critical, scientific thinking, teaching you to analyze psychological behavior and processes. We emphasize three primary goals in your undergraduate education:

To prepare you for graduate study in psychology;
To enable you to apply psychological skills and knowledge in psychology-related careers, and;
To foster your understanding of complex human behavior as it is encountered in our personal and vocational lives.

Students officially begin the major with PSYC 1200 Foundations of Psychology, which offers an overview of the field and is a prerequisite for the majority of upper-level psychology courses. Psychology majors gain expertise in research methods by studying PSYC 2000 Statistics and then PSYC 2010 Research Methods Lab. Three content courses at the intermediate level provide majors with breadth through surveys of the knowledge about at least one basic process (e.g., learning, sensation and perception, cognition) and one complex process (e.g., abnormal, development, personality, social). Two courses at the advanced level offer students detailed and in-depth explorations of a variety of subject matters. The capstone course gives students an opportunity to integrate diverse areas of psychology or to interrelate psychology with other disciplines.

All students are required to take at least one content laboratory course beyond Research Methods Lab, which provides hands-on learning and skills in data analysis and research report writing. In addition to the variety of alternatives offered in the requirements mentioned above, the psychology major allows students to pursue individual interests and goals by including one course at any level that the student chooses as an elective. Finally, one advanced, capstone, or elective course must be a designated diversity course.

A grade of C- or better is required for each course counted toward the major requirement. In addition, a student must earn an overall psychology GPA of 2.0 or higher to fulfill the requirements of the major.

Majors must complete 10 psychology courses, which include two distributive requirements. The requirements for the major are as follows. Lists of courses fulfilling each requirement follow the requirements.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 1200	Foundations of Psychology	4
PSYC 2000	Statistics	4
PSYC 2010	Research Methods Lab	5
Select one Basic Process course		4 to 5
Select one Complex Process course		4 to 5
Select one Basic Process or Complex Process course		4 to 5
Select two Advanced courses		8 to 10
Select one additional elective course ¹		3 to 4
Select one Capstone course		4 to 5

¹: Any course with the subject code PSYC numbered 1004 or 2100-4995 may fulfill this requirement, as may any course with the PSYC attribute (see list below).

Basic Process courses

Courses in this group have the PYBP attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 2200	Learning	4
PSYC 2201	Learning Laboratory	5
PSYC 2301	Sensation and Perception Lab	5
PSYC 2401	Memory Laboratory	5
PSYC 2500	Cognition	4
PSYC 2501	Cognition Laboratory	5

Complex Process courses

Courses in this group have the PYCP attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 2600	Social Psychology	4
PSYC 2601	Lab in Social Psychology	5
PSYC 2700	Infant and Child Development	4
PSYC 2710	Adolescent and Adult Development	4
PSYC 2800	Personality	4
PSYC 2900	Psychopathology	4

Advanced courses

Courses in this group have the PYAC attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 3015	Language and Thought	4
PSYC 3100	Health Psychology	4
PSYC 3110	Cognitive Neuroscience	4
PSYC 3300	Industrial Organizational Psychology	4
PSYC 3320	Consumer Behavior	4
PSYC 3330	Family Psychology	4
PSYC 3340	Urban Psychology	4
PSYC 3360	Sports Psychology	4
PSYC 3400	Psychology of Education	4
PSYC 3410	Creativity	4
PSYC 3510	Participatory Action Research	5
PSYC 3530	Psychology of Sex Roles	4
PSYC 3550	Consciousness	4
PSYC 3600	Multicultural Psychology	4
PSYC 3610	Global Health and Psychology	4
PSYC 3640	Cross-Cultural-Psychology	4
PSYC 3700	Human Sexuality	4
PSYC 3730	Men and Masculinities	4
PSYC 3810	Trauma and Family Violence	4
PSYC 3820	Forensic Psychology	4
PSYC 3850	Psychology of Well-Being	4
PSYC 3930	Introduction to Clinical Psychology	4
PSYC 3950	Behavior Modification	4

Capstone courses

Courses in this group have the PYCA attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
CEED 4245	Ethics in Research	4
PSYC 4000	History and Systems of Psychology	4
PSYC 4200	Advanced Statistics w/Lab	4
PSYC 4245	Ethics in Research	4
PSYC 4310	Aging and Society	4
PSYC 4330	Music and Psychology	4
PSYC 4340	Law and Psychology	4
PSYC 4370	Disgust in Literature and Psychology	4
PSYC 4810	Clinical Child Psychology	4
PSYC 4820	Community Psychology	5
PSYC 4850	Community Mental Health	4
PSYC 4900	Psychology and Human Values	4
PSYC 4920	Youth, Values, and Society	4
PSYC 4930	Codes for Mental Health Services	4
PSYC 4997	Honors Thesis in Psychology I	4
SOCI 4245	Ethics in Research	4

Non-Psychology Additional Elective courses

Courses in this group have the PSYC attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
CEED 6015	HIV/Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics	3
ENGL 4370	Disgust in Literature and Psychology	4
LING 3015	Language and Thought	4
PSYC 4370	Disgust in Literature and Psychology	4

Distributive Requirements

Content Laboratory requirement

This is not an additional course. One of the courses taken for the major must be a content laboratory course.

Courses in this group have the PYCL attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 2201	Learning Laboratory	5
PSYC 2301	Sensation and Perception Lab	5
PSYC 2401	Memory Laboratory	5
PSYC 2501	Cognition Laboratory	5
PSYC 2601	Lab in Social Psychology	5

*: PSYC 2201 Learning Laboratory and PSYC 2200 Learning cannot both apply to the major.
*: PSYC 2501 Cognition Laboratory and PSYC 2500 Cognition cannot both apply to the major.
*: PSYC 2601 Lab in Social Psychology and PSYC 2600 Social Psychology cannot both apply to the major.

Diversity requirement

This is not an additional course.

All students majoring in psychology must take at least one course designated as a diversity course. Diversity courses are designated advanced, capstone, or elective courses that highlight aspects of individual and cultural diversity and the interpersonal challenges that often result from diversity and context; assist students in recognizing potential for prejudice and discrimination in oneself and others; and explore how psychology can promote civic, social, and global outcomes that benefit others.

The diversity course requirement may be fulfilled by an advanced, capstone, or elective course.

Any of the following courses may count toward the diversity requirement.

Courses in this group have the PSDV attribute.

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 3530	Psychology of Sex Roles	4
PSYC 3600	Multicultural Psychology	4
PSYC 3610	Global Health and Psychology	4
PSYC 3640	Cross-Cultural-Psychology	4
PSYC 3700	Human Sexuality	4
PSYC 3730	Men and Masculinities	4
PSYC 4310	Aging and Society	4
PSYC 4820	Community Psychology	5
PSYC 4920	Youth, Values, and Society	4

Availability

The major in psychology is available at Fordham College at Rose Hill, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and Fordham's School of Professional and Continuing Studies at Rose Hill, Lincoln Center, and Westchester.

Fordham College at Rose Hill students: The requirements above are in addition to those of the Core Curriculum.

Fordham College at Lincoln Center students: The requirements above are in addition to those of the Core Curriculum.

Professional and Continuing Studies students: The requirements above are in addition to those of the PCS Core Curriculum and any additional electives that may be required to earn a minimum of 124 credits.