Courses

At every level, the Department of Psychology’s faculty work to ensure that Richmond students receive the finest education they know how to provide. Professors agree that a strong psychology education includes mentorship opportunities, strong academic advising and advanced coursework, research experiences and other experiential learning opportunities.

In the classroom, professors recommend students begin with the Introduction to Psychology course. Careful planning and personal reflection should dictate how you build the rest of your academic course load. Learning doesn’t just happen in one field of study, at the expense of all others. Students grow by exploring all of the areas of specialization within psychology. At the undergraduate level, a breadth of study that gives students the tools they will need to acquire more tools is more important than conquering one discipline in its entirety. Students gain empirical experience as they take 300-level laboratory classes, and independent research with faculty members prepares them for psychology work at the graduate level.

Professors emphasize the distinction between clinical and cognitive psychology to students, both in their coursework and as they plan for careers, but remind them that there is no need to definitively choose one specialty over another as an undergraduate student. Cognitive psychology studies the underlying processes of human performance, including sensory processes, human learning, memory, information processing, problem solving and human factors. Clinical psychology includes a variety of interrelated concentrations such as child psychology or community psychology, all of which relate to the assessment and treatment of mental illnesses and disorders. At the undergraduate level, there is no reason for students to choose between the two fields; instead, they should enjoy the opportunity to take courses in both disciplines.

Psychology

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  • PSYC 100 Introduction to Psychological Science With Lab

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement (FSSA)

    Description
    Overview of the study of human behavior and mental processes, with emphasis on scientific reasoning and skills involved in the process of conducting psychological research and understanding human behavior. Two and a half lecture hours per week.
  • PSYC 101U Introductory Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Scientific principles of behavior. Survey emphasizing psychological methods and research involved in understanding human behavior.
  • PSYC 190U Child Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Introduction to biological, social, cognitive, and emotional processes of development during prenatal to preadolescent developmental periods.
  • PSYC 200 Methods and Analyses

    Units: 1

    Description
    Introduction to research methods and statistical procedures in psychological science. Emphasis on mastering fundamental scientific, reasoning, and technological skills associated with literature review, research design, experimental manipulation, data collection, data analysis, data graphics, data interpretation, data presentation, and scientific writing. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 100 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 299 Integrated Topics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Courses that provide an integrative perspective of psychological theories, issues, and research across two or more disciplinary (or subdisciplinary) contexts. This course may not be repeated for credit.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 100 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 300 Methods and Analyses Core Project

    Units: 1

    Description
    Puts the principles learned in PSYC 200: Methods and Analyses into practice in the pursuit of new scientific knowledge. Collaborative, project-based learning approach, students formulate new research questions based on critical evaluation of existing knowledge, design and conduct powerful, feasible, and ethical studies to answer new questions, analyze and interpret data thoughtfully, communicate effectively about research processes and outcomes.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 302U Psychology of Terrorism

    Units: 3

    Description
    In the past decade, terrorism has emerged as a dynamic force dramatically impacting individuals and social systems. During this course we will review the history of terrorism, seek to understand the radicalization of terrorists, investigate the immediate and long-term reactions to acts of terrorism and explore the social and psychological implications of the war on terrorism.
  • PSYC 303U Psychology of Gender

    Units: 3

    Description
    Overview of current theory and empirical research on gender, exploring origins of gender identity and impact of gender on systems, individuals, attitudes, and behavior.
  • PSYC 304U Psychology of Relationships

    Units: 3

    Description
    This course in social psychology is designed as an overview of the fundamental areas of the psychology of intimate and non-intimate relationships between people and the effects of these relationships on them. How and why are interpersonal relationships formed? What effects do they have on us? What do individuals do to relationships? Such questions will be explored in the course.
  • PSYC 305U Stress and Its Management

    Units: 3

    Description
    Physiological and psychological aspects of stressors and the stress response. Review of principles, research, and methods of stress management.
  • PSYC 306U Benign Bigotry: Psychology of Subtle Prejudice

    Units: 3

    Description
    Focuses on social problems concerning diversity and prejudices in today's society. Topics range from racism to gay rights, paying special attention to hostility, bigotry, and prejudice. Explores the feminist movement, racism, and the "neutrality zone," and zeroes in on perceptions of underground prejudice and internal conflicts. Differentiates between societal beliefs and misconceptions that contribute to human behaviors. Investigation includes current research and problems and challenges in today's society.
  • PSYC 307U Psychology of Faith

    Units: 3

    Description
    Study of reflections in faith, personal behavior, and social well-being. Topics include questions that college students encounter in basic psychology class. Is there a connection with faith psychology and other issues that have been taught? This class offers information concerning recent research within the major areas of psychological science and with the values of society. Investigations will be about the ideas of human nature and individual learning. Course will investigate behavior and attitudes and will look at science and spiritually. It will also identify major insights regarding human behavior and attitudes about positive belief systems and their individual intuition concerning their approach.
  • PSYC 308U Psychology of Intuitive Development

    Units: 3

    Description
    Intuition has remained an emerging cloud of mystery for centuries. Whether you have read about intuition from the earliest philosophers or the views of psychologists, it has still remained important in everyday decision making. If it is a gut feeling, a hunch or an inner knowing that canĄt be explained, this study of the intuitive ability encompasses intelligence and is being recognized as a perception within the bodyĄs psycho-physiological system. The psychology of intuitive development demonstrates the subconscious, or ""heart intelligence"" that can be cultivated and is essential for success in decision making, sensory and analytic process.
  • PSYC 311 Child Development

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of research and theory on developmental changes and processes from prenatal through preadolescent periods. Emphasis on theoretical and empirical work on social, emotional, and cognitive development and on various developmental contexts. Includes an intensive laboratory experience focusing on conceptual, methodological, and analytical skills employed in the study of child development. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 313 Social Psychology

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical overview of current theory and research in social psychology, with emphasis on conceptual and empirical work on social inference, stereotyping, self processes, social influence, affective processes, attraction, interpersonal processes, altruism, aggression, and group dynamics. Includes an intensive laboratory component focusing on conceptual, methodological, and analytical skills associated with social psychological inquiry. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 313U Social Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Critical overview of current theory and research in social psychology, with emphasis on conceptual and empirical work on social cognition, social influence, affective processes, attraction, altruism, aggression, and group dynamics.
  • PSYC 315 Adult Development

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of changes and stability in behavior from late adolescence through advanced old age, including perception, intelligence, memory, personality, emotion, social networks, death/dying, creativity, and wisdom. Emphasis on theory, research, and applications in class with intensive laboratory component. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 319 Psychopathology

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of research and theory in psychopathology and behavior disorders including the phenomenology, etiology, assessment, and treatment of major forms of psychological disorders. Emphasis on an integrative approach incorporating clinical, developmental, biological, and sociocultural perspectives. Intensive co-requisite laboratory experience focused on conceptual, methodological, and analytical skills used in clinical psychology and investigation of psychopathology and behavior disorders. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite
    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 321 Principles of Behavior

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of research and theory in fundamental principles of behavior including operant and respondent learning and rule-governed behavior in humans and non-human animals. Intensive co-requisite laboratory experience focused on applied behavior analysis skills and single-subject research design used in behavioral and clinical psychology. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 323 Health Psychology

    Units: 1

    Description
    The interaction between biological, psychological and social aspects of health. Emphasis on theory, research, and applications in lecture with intensive laboratory component on research design, data analysis and application of health psychology. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 325 Science of Emotion

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical overview of current theory and research in affective (emotion) science. Some questions that the course will address include: What is an emotion? Where do emotions come from? What purposes do emotions serve? Emphasis on an integrative approach incorporating biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and sociocultural perspectives. Includes an intensive laboratory component focusing on methodological and analytical skills associated with affective scientific inquiry. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 327U Organizational Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Examination of industrial/organizational theories and psychological principles as applied to the workplace. Will examine job analysis, the screening, selection, training and development of employees, the performance appraisal process, motivation and job satisfaction, stress, leadership, and organizational development.
  • PSYC 329 Special Topics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of concepts in one of the following areas of psychology, including but not limited to life span development, clinical and abnormal, social cognition, health, learning and memory, cross-cultural, personality, human diversity, and other specialized topics in the developmental, clinical, and social psychological sciences. Emphasis on theory, research, and applications in lecture with intensive laboratory component. May be repeated for credit when topic differs. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 331 Behavioral Neuroscience

    Units: 1

    Description
    Focus on the neural regulation of behavior, from animal to human. Intensive lab component with techniques and approaches used in design, execution, and analysis of research in behavioral neuroscience. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 333 Cognitive Science

    Units: 1

    Description
    Examines the nature, function, and mechanism of mental structures that process and represent information, in humans as well as other intelligent agents. Cognitive science integrates methods drawn from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and anthropology. Intensive lab component applies techniques from various fields, emphasizing human experimentation and the observation, analysis, and design of simulated creatures. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 337 Human Cognition

    Units: 1

    Description
    Examines the experimental study of cognition, including perception, attention, memory, decision making, and problem solving. An intensive lab component emphasizes experimental design, data analysis, and applications in each subtopic of Cognitive Psychology. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 337U Psychological Development Across the Life Cycle

    Units: 3

    Description
    Developmental changes and psycho-biosocial processes from adolescent through adult life.
  • PSYC 338U Forensic Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Forensic Psychology is designed to give students an understanding of the interaction between our legal system and psychology. Roles and responsibilities of forensic psychologists will be examined. Topics covered will include criminal profiling with a focus on serial killers; the insanity defense; criminal competencies; child custody cases; eyewitness and expert testimonies; civil commitment for dangerous offenders; and victimization. Graduate students will write an 8-10 page research paper on a controversial topic in forensic psychology and will develop and deliver a 15-30 minute presentation to the class on the research paper.
  • PSYC 339U Abnormal Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Abnormal Psychology offers students an examination of theories and psychological principles underlying the study of abnormal psychology, the field, research methods, classification models, ethics and legal issues.
  • PSYC 340U Getting Away with Murder

    Units: 3

    Description
    "Examines deception, manipulation, and malingering within the context of violent and anti-social acts. Emphasizes psychological, social, and biological factors associated with extreme violence among clinical and non-clinical (normal) populations. Explores development of criminal behavior and moral development. Introduces techniques for detecting deception and preventing manipulation."
  • PSYC 341 Cognitive Neuroscience

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critically examines what brain injury and cognitive deficits can tell us about the relationship between brain and behavior. Covers the functional anatomy of the major cognitive systems, including action, object recognition, attention, memory, language, emotion, and executive function. Includes an intensive laboratory experience focusing on research skills employed in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 343 Psycholinguistics with Lab

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of the cognitive processes that underlie language production, comprehension, and acquisition. Covers the mental representations involved in a range of linguistic abilities including speech perception, word recognition, sentence parsing, ambiguity resolution, figurative language interpretation, and bilingualism. Includes an intensive laboratory component focusing on methodological approaches and data analytic techniques in language science. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 349 Special Topics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Critical examination of concepts in one of the following areas of psychology, including but not limited to psycholinguistics, stress, sensation and perception, animal behavior, and other specialized topics in the cognitive and brain sciences. Emphasis on theory, research, and applications in lecture with intensive laboratory component. Two and a half lecture and one and a quarter laboratory hours per week.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 353 Clinical Neuroscience

    Units: 1

    Description
    A critical examination of the neurobiological mechanisms of mental illness. Current biobehavioral perspectives of potential causes and treatments of psychiatric illnesses such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia are considered. An emphasis is also placed on the importance of emotional resilience and its protective role in the emergence of psychiatric illnesses.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 359 Special Topics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Special course offerings to explore specific direction within subdisciplinary area of psychology. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.
  • PSYC 361 Independent Research

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Individual research conducted in collaboration with faculty. Note: No more than 2 units may count toward a psychology major. Available as pass/fail only.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C- or better and permission of supervising instructor prior to registration.

  • PSYC 388 Internship

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Supervised independent work in field setting designed to give student applied experience after completion of appropriate coursework in psychology. Requires consultation with and approval by department chair. No more than 1.5 unit of internship in any one department and 3.5 units of internship overall may be counted toward required degree units. Available as pass/fail only.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 398U Selected Topics

    Units: 3

    Description
  • PSYC 399U Independent Study

    Units: 1-6

    Description
  • PSYC 406 Summer Undergraduate Research

    Units: 0

    Description
    Documentation of the work of students who receive summer fellowships to conduct research [or produce a creative arts project] in the summer. The work must take place over a minimum of 6 weeks, the student must engage in the project full-time (at least 40 hours per week) during this period, and the student must be the recipient of a fellowship through the university. Graded S/U.

    Approval by a faculty mentor.

  • PSYC 444 Clinical Case Studies

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive seminar that examines select clinical case studies and their contributions to our understanding of brain-behavior relationships. Special emphasis will be placed on the power and limits of the double dissociation methodology: contrasting patients with opposing patterns of deficits.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 449 Advanced Seminar

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive seminar intended for seniors and advanced juniors, based on faculty expertise and research specializations, and offered regularly in fall and spring semesters for capstone requirement.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 461 Senior Research

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive year-long research project for seniors, requiring conception, completion, and presentation of a research thesis under faculty mentorship.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 462 Senior Research

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive year-long research project for seniors, requiring conception, completion, and presentation of a research thesis under faculty mentorship.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 461 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 491 Honors

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive year-long research project for seniors who meet requirements for University and department honors programs, requiring conception, completion, and presentation of senior honors thesis under faculty mentorship.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 200 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 492 Honors

    Units: 1

    Description
    Intensive year-long research project for seniors who meet requirements for University and department honors programs, requiring conception, completion, and presentation of senior honors thesis under faculty mentorship.

    Prerequisite

    PSYC 491 with a minimum grade of C-

  • PSYC 502U Psychology of Terrorism

    Units: 3

    Description
    In the past decade, terrorism has emerged as a dynamic force dramatically impacting individuals and social systems. During this course we will review the history of terrorism, seek to understand the radicalization of terrorists, investigate the immediate and long-term reactions to acts of terrorism and explore the social and psychological implications of the war on terrorism.
  • PSYC 530U Organizational Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    The Organizational Psychology class will allow students to gain a broad understanding of many areas critical to effective human resource management. Further, the graduate level course will allow an in-depth understanding of many social sciences grounded theories and practices as applied to the real world business setting. The course will help students when faced with real world decisions including: determining selection strategies and selecting valid tools, how to drive performance and development with a performance appraisal tool, how to assess needs and train for results, how to develop and select effective leaders, how to design teams and deal with conflict, how to impact morale through satisfaction and motivation strategies, and how to manage and cope with work-related stress. The ultimate intention of the course is to equip students with the knowledge and tools they will need to positively impact their organizations.
  • PSYC 538U Forensic Psychology

    Units: 3

    Description
    Forensic Psychology is designed to give students an understanding of the interaction between our legal system and psychology. Roles and responsibilities of forensic psychologists will be examined. Topics covered will include criminal profiling with a focus on serial killers; the insanity defense; criminal competencies; child custody cases; eyewitness and expert testimonies; civil commitment for dangerous offenders; and victimization. Graduate students will write an 8-10 page research paper on a controversial topic in forensic psychology and will develop and deliver a 15-30 minute presentation to the class on the research paper.
  • PSYC 540U Getting Away with Murder

    Units: 3

    Description
    Examines deception, manipulation, and malingering within the context of violent and anti-social acts. Emphasizes psychological, social, and biological factors associated with extreme violence among clinical and non-clinical (normal) populations. Explores development of criminal behavior and moral development. Introduces techniques for detecting deception and preventing manipulation.
  • PSYC 598U Selected Topics

    Units: 1-6

    Description
  • PSYC 599U Independent Study

    Units: 1-6

    Description